The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has published its fixture list for 2025, which, with 1,460 fixtures throughout the year, sees a reduction of eight meetings from those scheduled for 2024.
Premier Racedays will receive an extra 10% in prize-money for next year, which is the second of a two-year trial launched in January 2024 in a bid to to “enhance the quality and competitiveness of [British] racing, increase customer engagement and improve the financial returns to those who own, train and run their horses here in Britain” as part of the BHA's long-term strategy.
“We are just seven months into the trial, and it was at an even earlier stage when the principles of the fixture list were agreed,” said the BHA's director of racing Richard Wayman.
“As such, there were no plans to fundamentally alter anything for 2025, given how short a period this has been in terms of accurately assessing the performance of the changes.
“The volume of fixtures and races remains largely consistent with last year, but the race programme will fluctuate as more agile planning allows us to better tailor supply to the needs of the horse population – ensuring sufficient opportunities for connections to run their horses. We have also published the fixture list much sooner this year, which will support earlier production of the Programme Book. We hope this will help field sizes in early 2025 by giving connections more time to plan their campaigns.”
There was an obligatory increase in prize-money for racecourses wishing to stage Premier Racedays, of which there are set to be 165 this year. That theme will continue into next year, with prize-money levels set to increase by a further 10% for the 162 Premier fixtures in 2025.
“Having increased the minimum prize-money criteria for Premier Racedays, we did expect to see a contraction in the overall number, but while some meetings have returned to core status, others have met the new thresholds. Hopefully this extra prize-money will be welcome news, as will the strengthened offering on a Sunday,” Wayman continued.
“The Commercial Committee did discuss whether the number of Premier Racedays should be restricted by other means. However, there was a strong consensus that the two-year trial should be allowed to play out before significant changes are introduced.”
In a bid to give a break to the busiest Flat jockeys, there will be eight days with no Flat meetings scheduled from directly after the November Handicap meeting at the end of the turf season. Similarly, there will be a 19-day break in the summer with no National Hunt fixtures.
“We are acutely aware of the impact of the demands that the fixture list places on the many involved in servicing it and know that more progress is necessary in this area in the future,” said Wayman.
For 2024, the number of fixtures overall dropped by 20 from the 1,488 scheduled in the two previous years, which had in turn come down from 1,511 in 2019. However, there was a marked shift towards evening slots, partly through the introduction of a trial of Sunday evening racing through the winter months and through some Saturday fixtures being moved to a later slot from outside the 'protected' window of only three fixtures on Saturday afternoons. The number of evening fixtures in 2024 has increased by 29 to 452, while afternoon meetings dropped from 1,065 to 1,106. In 2025 the balance will be adjusted slightly once more and there will be 13 fewer evening fixtures, which place extra pressure on participants.
Wayman added, “Staging Flat racing under floodlights on an almost nightly basis through the winter means that those standalone meetings will generate higher financial returns than if they are scheduled alongside Jump fixtures in the afternoon. It has to be recognised, however, that this comes at a cost for those regularly servicing these meetings. The sport will need to consider whether the current approach is sustainable or if there is an alternative way forward that, in the round, would provide a better outcome.”
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