York joins chorus from courses about prize-money concerns

York has added its voice to the growing number of tracks to issue a prize-money warning in the face of declining media rights income from betting shops closures.

York has been renowned for continually raising purses, with more than £8.8 million handed out in the season which ended last weekend, but admits it will find it hard to continue that process.

"Our instinct would be to increase it again and we'd like to, but we'll have to see how the next few months go," said the course's chief executive William Derby.

"We haven't gone into budgets and prize-money yet but we are determined to continue to be competitive as much as we can be. We are determined to keep the race programme that we have, but it will be hard for all racecourses.

"It's going to be hard for any racecourse to increase the overall level, most will be decreasing it, though their executive contributions might go up."

The level of prize-money at York has increased in each of the last dozen seasons, and it has risen by 50 per cent in the last five years.

Derby stressed: "The impact of the media rights payments is really significant for all racecourses – we're working hard with our non-raceday business and our commercial operations to mitigate as much as possible the significant material reduction in our media rights income."

He pointed to the beneficial effects for the sport of investment in prize-money, and said: "We are delighted we have had a record number of runners this year and I'm pretty sure we'll be the highest average field size of any Flat racecourse in Britain, which we're really proud of because runners generate off-course betting revenues."

York's 2019 season featured the first £1 million Sky Bet Ebor and the newly-upgraded Group 2 Sky Bet City of York Stakes, which could be set for further promotion after Shine So Bright's defeat of high-class filly Laurens in August.

"The Sky Bet City of York Stakes was a fabulous race this year and it has been identified as a potential candidate for consideration to go up to Group 1," Derby said.

"There is no Group 1 over seven furlongs in this country or in Europe at that time of year, so it's something that the powers that be are thinking about.

"We've invested £225,000 into the race and we were delighted with it this year."

For the freshest betting advice, based on latest going and market conditions, don't miss the Live Tipster every afternoon. Just click Raceday Live at racingpost.com or the mobile app