The British Horseracing Authority said the cash boost is part of its strategy to reverse a decline in the number of thoroughbreds in training
Horse racing is to get an extra £3million in prize money next year to produce more top races and British-bred champions. The British Horseracing Authority – aka BHA – said the cash boost is part of its strategy to reverse a decline in the number of thoroughbreds in training.
It wants to make breeding, owning and racing horses in the UK as attractive as possible. Fans can also expect an Elite Midsummer series of four top level Group 1 races to ‘increase the appeal of our sport to new and existing fans’, a spokesman said.
It will be made up of the July Cup at Newmarket – one of Europe’s top sprint races – the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood and the Juddmonte International at York’s Ebor Festival.
Each will offer an extra £100,000 in prize money. The King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes will boast a record £2.5m fund, making it the richest horse race in Britain.
The move is designed to showcase ‘four of our most prestigious races over a range of distances at a time of year when Britain is well placed to attract top-class horses from around the world to compete’, the spokesman added.
The BHA’s director of racing Richard Wayman said it will make an ‘immediate difference to participants, support racing businesses and help us attract more people to breed, own and race horses here in Britain’.
“Further strengthening the Elite Midsummer Group 1 Scheme will also aid with the sport’s growth strategy, helping to make four of our flagship races at a key time of the year as attractive as possible to domestic and overseas competitors as we seek to grow interest in racing,” he said.
“British racing has a clear strategy for the coming years to stabilise and, ultimately, grow the number of horses being bred, trained and raced in Britain.”
The cash boost – from the Horserace Betting Levy Board – comes as bookmakers are battling to fight off Government plans to hike betting tax which the racing industry claims could kill off the sport.
One top bookmaker told the Daily Star: “We are fighting to save the sport of kings.
“Raising tax on legitimate bookmakers drives people into the hands of black market operators run by organised crime networks which don’t pay anything to the country, offer no safeguards to prevent problem gambling and will happily take your car and your house.
“Horseracing relies on money from bookies to keep the industry running and our stables of thoroughbreds in the amazing living conditions to which they are accustomed.
“This fun police of a Government doesn’t appear to care about this even though horseracing week-in and week-out entertains most of the people they claim to be trying to help.”