EBF supports new two-year-old races at Great Yarmouth and Newcastle.
Arena Racing Company (“ARC”) is delighted to announce it has formalised its partnership with the British arm of the European Breeders Fund (“British EBF”).
The new partnership will see further investment in prize money by the British EBF and ARC, including the creation of new two-year races at Great Yarmouth and Newcastle racecourses.
Following feedback from leading trainers, ARC has worked with the British EBF and British Horseracing Authority (“BHA”) to create a new race for two-year-olds at Great Yarmouth. The £15,000 Class 3 contest over 6 furlongs will be hosted on Wednesday 23 May and seeks to provide an ideal early season race for horses aiming to go on to run at Royal Ascot and other feature race meetings during the summer.
Leading Newmarket trainer John Gosden OBE said: “This will provide a useful opportunity for the two-year-olds to gain race experience before Royal Ascot. After all the remedial work, the turf at Great Yarmouth is some of the best in the country and it is an ideal track for a young horse.”
Clerk of the Course at Great Yarmouth, Richard Aldous, said: “Every season racegoers have the chance the see some of the best young horses running here at Great Yarmouth. We hope very much that through ARC’s investment in the racing surface, and with the support of the British EBF, that this new race will provide another opportunity to see some of the stars of the future.”
In addition to the new race at Great Yarmouth, further joint investments in the race programme include:
- The introduction of a British EBF supported sire-dam restricted £10,000 Class 4 race for two-year-olds at Newcastle on 30 November 2018;
- The prize fund for the Listed British Stallion Studs EBF John Musker Stakes, run on the middle day of Great Yarmouth’s Eastern Festival in September, increasing to £50,000 through mutual match funding;
- British EBF support for the August Stakes at Royal Windsor; an 11 furlong Listed contest for horses aged three years and over; the total prize money for this race has been increased to £40,000 in 2018 as a result of EBF investment;
- British EBF investment in a two-year-old future stayers’ race on the third day of the William Hill St Leger Festival at Doncaster. This will be run as a Class 3 maiden over a mile with a Total Prize Fund of £15,000 in its first year; and
- Continued support from the British EBF for fillies and mares’ races through the winter months as part of the All-Weather Championships.
As part of the partnership, all ARC racecourse websites now carry the British EBF logo and both organisations work together to promote British EBF supported races run on ARC racecourses.
ARC Chief Executive, Martin Cruddace, said: “The British EBF plays an incredibly valuable role in British Racing. By formalising our partnership, we are recognising this and providing the basis on which ARC and the British EBF can develop over-investment in the race programme which is of significant long-term benefit to the sport. We look forward to seeing how the new races perform and hope they will be well supported by the racing community.”
British EBF Chairman, Philip Mitchell, said: “The trustees are delighted that ARC has worked so closely with the British EBF executive to bring these significant advancements to the race programme and funding to fruition. Of particular significance are the additions to the two-year-old programme. The maiden races at Great Yarmouth and Newcastle which have been fashioned in direct response to feedback and requests from trainers. The new Sire/Dam Restricted race at Doncaster’s St Leger Festival complements a race meeting which celebrates the staying horse and forms part of the British EBF funded initiative to encourage late-season opportunities for two-year-olds by “staying stallions”. If one day, we see a future St Leger winner graduate via this race, we will know we are well on the way to the revitalisation of this area of the race programme.”
