2011 Fixture list – delayed publication now set for Sep 23rd

<b>From the BHA – </b>

<i>British Horseracing’s 2012 Fixture List Published </i>

The British Horseracing Authority has today published the Fixture List for 2012.

The headline figures for the 2012 Fixture List are:

The total number of fixtures has decreased from 1,480 to 1,456;
876 Flat and 580 Jump fixtures (2010: 898 and 582 respectively);
Flat fixtures are made up of 583 Turf fixtures and 293 AWT fixtures (2010: 598 and 300 respectively);
By session there are 1,097 afternoon fixtures, 261 evening fixtures and 98 twilight fixtures (2011: 1,111, 273 and 96 respectively);
The HBLB has committed to an expenditure budget of £65.1m for 2012, £5m higher than 2011’s budget (£60.1m);
Of this extra £5m, £4.2m will be allocated towards prize money, primarily to support higher quality racing.

Major Fixture Moves

The most significant fixture moves within the 2012 Fixture List can be summarised as follows:

On the Saturday following the Cheltenham Festival (17th March), Kempton Park will stage a new Jump fixture (with, on the same afternoon, Jump fixtures also taking place at Uttoxeter – Betfred Midlands Grand National – Newcastle and Ffos Las).
The Flat season will commence at Doncaster on Saturday 31st March, with no Flat Turf fixtures staged before that date.
Changes to the Spring Bank Holiday in 2012, which will take place in the first week of June rather than the final week of May as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, mean that the Investec Derby Meeting will take place on the Bank Holiday weekend (Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd June).
Ascot’s meeting including the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, sponsored by Betfair, will take place one week earlier than normal so that it avoids clashing with the Olympics and can therefore be shown on BBC. This has been achieved by Ascot swapping a number of fixture dates with Newbury and, as a result, Newbury’s Weatherbys Super Sprint meeting will replace Ascot’s Betfred Summer Mile meeting on the same afternoon as the Darley July Cup at Newmarket and the John Smith’s Cup at York.
Newton Abbot and Worcester have agreed to move fixtures out of early August to create a ten-day Summer Jumping break between Monday 6th and Wednesday 15th August inclusive. There will also be ten days without a Jump meeting in September (from Thursday 13th to Saturday 22nd inclusive).
Following consultation with Scottish trainers, it was agreed that Ayr’s Flat fixture on the penultimate Saturday of the Flat season will become a Jump fixture.

Other key aspects of the 2012 Fixture List are outlined in Notes to Editors.

Ruth Quinn, Director of Racing for the British Horseracing Authority, said:

“Whilst the BHA remains concerned about the declining horse population, a rise in the number of races with small fields and recent downgrades to the race programme, the 2012 fixture list is a pragmatic outcome to a long and difficult process during which the views of the sport’s stakeholders have been taken into account.

“We will continue to work closely together to address the challenges facing British Racing, with the immediate priority being to produce a race programme that is better matched to the demands of the horse population.

“The delay in producing the fixture list will have undoubtedly inconvenienced many of the sport’s loyal followers and all of the parties involved in producing the fixture list are committed to doing everything they can to ensure that it is not repeated in the future.”

Notes

1. Racecourse Fixtures
The number of Racecourse Fixtures has increased from 1,203 to 1,211, the increase relating to 8 such fixtures allocated to Ffos Las as a New Racecourse.

Racecourse Fixtures are racecourses’ historic fixtures and they give racecourses the right to race on a particular day.

2. BHA Fixtures
These are fixtures that are leased by the BHA to racecourses.

There are 106 such fixtures in 2012 (2011: 112) comprising 98 twilight fixtures and 8 fixtures allocated to Ffos Las as a New Racecourse. The latter will become Racecourse Fixtures in 2013 once they have been staged for three years.

The twilight fixtures will take place between 1st January and 19th April, and 1st September and 28th December. They have been allocated evenly between Kempton Park and Wolverhampton.

In 2012, they will receive prize money contributions from the HBLB of £10,000 and have been allocated on the basis that the average prize money at each BHA twilight fixture will not be less than, on average, £3,000 for each programmed race. They were allocated on 3 year leases for years 2011, 2012 and 2013.

3. Leasehold Fixtures
There are 96 Leasehold Fixtures in 2012 (2011: 123). These fixtures also form part of the HBLB’s fixture criteria but receive no contribution from the HBLB towards prize money. The specific conditions on which they have been allocated were agreed between the Horsemen’s Group and racecourses, and are listed below:

The fixtures are allocated for one-year only (2012).
Prize money at the Leasehold Fixture will be at least £25,000.
The racecourse will also pay £5,000 into the Horsemen’s Group Development Fund for each Leasehold Fixture.
All races programmed must comply with the 2012 prize money tariff.

The process for allocating the Leasehold Fixtures between racecourses was decided by the RCA.

4. Self-Funded Fixtures
In addition to Musselburgh’s Derby Day fixture, granted in 2006 to provide a sufficiently attractive fixture for Channel 4 to broadcast, Self-Funded Fixtures allocated by the Board fall into one of four categories:

Enterprise Fixtures
These are all non-criteria fixtures in racegoer-friendly slots, the vast majority being on Thursday and Friday evenings during the summer. Allocated in 2008, the minimum prize money requirements at Enterprise Fixtures for 2012 will continue at £34,000 (Flat) and £25,000 (Jump).

Cheltenham, which was allowed to suspend its (April) Enterprise Fixture in 2011, has subsequently decided to cancel it on a permanent basis. In addition, Newbury, which has previously staged an Enterprise fixture in July, has also cancelled their fixture. The total number of Enterprise Fixtures in 2012 is therefore 27 (2011: 28).

Bank Holiday Fixtures
Applications were invited from racecourses to stage Self-Funded Fixtures on Bank Holidays providing that there was a requirement for a fixture in that area. Given the differences in relation to Bank Holidays in Scotland, applications were also invited from Scottish racecourses to stage such fixtures on any local holiday in the racecourse’s region.

In 2012 there are seven such fixtures included within the fixture list.

New Year’s Day Fakenham (allocated until 2014) + Musselburgh (2012)
May Bank Holiday Beverley (2014)
Spring Bank Holiday Towcester (2012)
August Bank Holiday Bangor-On-Dee (2013)
Boxing Day Ffos Las (2013)
Sedgefield (2014)

Fixtures to coincide with a special occasion or local initiative
Racecourses were invited to apply to stage fixtures that would coincide with a special occasion or would form part of a local/community initiative. One such fixture was granted in 2012, with Perth staging the Scottish Autism Charity Raceday on 18th August, which is expected to be covered by terrestrial television in Scotland.

Applications for non-criteria Self-Funded Fixtures
Applications are also considered for other extra fixtures in non-criteria slots on the basis that the racecourse would put up a significant amount of prize money at the fixture.

Six such fixtures have been granted in 2012 (2011: 3).

Musselburgh 7th April
Chester 9th June
Cartmel 21st July
Newton Abbot 4th August
Chester 18th August
Chester 29th September

5. QIPCO British Champions’ Day
The remaining fixture is QIPCO British Champions’ Day, which falls outside all of the above categories, and which will take place on Saturday 20th October 2012.