flat racing

Due to heavy, sustained precipitation, Sunday's flat meet at Fair Hill, part of the two-day "Fair Hill Turf Showcase" over Memorial Day weekend, has been canceled, the National Steeplechase Association said via a release on Saturday. After several days of rain in the region, racing officials and horsemen scrutinized the turf course on Saturday morning and, out of an abundance of caution, decided to abandon the event. Tickets purchased for Sunday will be refunded. Live racing will resume on Memorial Day Monday at 1:00 p.m. ET with a nine-race card....

GBBPLUS, an extension of the Great British Bonus, will reward owners and breeders with two new separate initiatives tackling the current challenges facing Flat and National Hunt racing. The latest incentive initiatives will kick off Jan. 1, 2025. "GBB was an important incentive and intervention step to encourage the breeding, buying, and racing of fillies," the Thoroughbred Breeders Association Chairman Philip Newton said. "Its success now gives us confidence that we can influence behaviour in two other areas of the racing programme: the vital retention of stamina within the thoroughbred...

Newmarket's Craven meeting could just as well be called Anticipation Week. Anticipation is climbing the steps of a venerated football stadium for a night game to find the floodlights blazing and the grass slick and lush. It's the bounce of the England cricket team down the pavilion steps to start an Ashes series. It's checking your tickets the day before Wimbledon tennis starts or standing just after dawn beside the first tee at an Open Championship or Masters. It's not about what you know. It's about all the things you...

The 2024 Irish fixture list, which will see the number of meetings rise to 395 while also extending the industry breaks in winter and summer and maintain six blank Sundays, was published by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) on Thursday. There were 390 fixtures scheduled for 2023. All of the 2024 fixtures have been allocated barring four, and horses-in-training numbers are up 2%. Six turf fixtures have been added to the 2024 fixture list, initially on a one-year basis, and will held at Punchestown (Bank Holiday Monday, Feb. 5), the Curragh...

Dual winner My Lyka (GB) (Intello {Ger}) is one of four wildcards added to the Arqana Summer Sale on July 4-6 in Deauville. Consigned as lot 449, the 98-rated 4-year-old was most recently fourth in the G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly. The other wildcards are lot 495, Full Of Shade (Fr) (No Risk At All {Fr}), who was second over hurdles in her second start; the placed hurdler Sun Joy (Fr) (Hunter's Light {Ire}) (lot 496); and Le Grande Yves (Fr) (Triple Threat {GB}) (lot 497), a two-length winner over...

   Sir Michael Stoute unveiled his 2022 Epsom Classic winner at York's three-day Dante meeting and bids to repeat that trick on Wednesday as he puts TDN Rising Star Infinite Cosmos (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) to the test in the G3 Tattersalls Musidora S. over an extended 10 furlongs. Following the astronomic performance of Savethelastdance  (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) at Chester last week, the Oaks appears cut and dried as long as the Ballydoyle starlet stays on track but that is not a certainty during this volatile time of year,...

Europe's first 2-year-old contest of the year, Marseille-Borely's five-furlong Prix de Carqueiranne, takes place Thursday morning and has attracted a final field of eight newcomers. It features a trio hailing from the Fabrice Vermeulen yard, including €10,000 Arqana September graduate Bad Boy (Fr), who will become the first representative of Haras de Saint-Vincent's freshman sire Fas (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}). The February-foaled bay is a son of Listed Prix Caravelle third Queendara (Fr) (Kendargent {Fr}), herself a daughter of Listed Prix Occitanie victrix and G3 Prix de Royaumont placegetter Dance...

Twelve years have passed since Roger Varian became a licensed trainer as the health of his much-loved former boss and mentor, Michael Jarvis, declined. One softly-spoken but calmly assured man took over from another after Varian had served a decade as Jarvis's assistant. By that stage he had clearly proved himself a worthy successor, and the rise of the Varian stable in the intervening years has only served to underline Jarvis's judgement in this regard. Last year was Varian's best to date. There haven't been many seasons during his term...

The number of strikes with the whip a jockey is allowed to use over jumps and on the Flat in France has been reduced from five to four beginning on May 1, France Galop announced on Wednesday. There will be an educational and transitional period from Mar. 1 to Apr. 30 to allow jockeys to acclimate to the new regulations. The sanctions currently in place regarding overuse of the whip will be applied through Apr. 30. The aim is to gradually reduce the use of the whip, and the system...

The bedding-in period for the new whip rules in Jumps racing has been extended by one week, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) confirmed on Friday. This follows a meeting between the Professional Jockeys Association (PJA) and a selection of jockeys. The extension, requested by jockeys and the PJA, was granted on account of the number of cancelled fixtures last week due to the frozen ground. The full implementation of the new rules for Jumps racing will begin on Feb. 13. The start of the bedding-in period for Flat racing remains...

The British Horseracing Authority released the full Fixture List for 2023, reflecting a series of minimum race value increases agreed upon by the BHA, Racecourse Association (RCA) and the Thoroughbred Group (TG). The change addresses three principal areas: Supporting international competitiveness of prize money in black-type races both on Flat and over Jumps. Increase prize money levels in Class 2 and 3 handicaps with the aim of improving retention of higher-rated horses in Britain Enhance prize money values at the lower levels, with the appearance money scheme to be replaced...

A total of seven wildcards have been added to the Tattersalls Ascot July Sale on July 12. Leading the new additions is Resilience (GB) (Aclaim {Ire}) (lot 55), who is a five-time winner from Mill House Racing Ltd. and is rated 85. Lot 89, the 5-year-old gelding Jack The Savage (GB) (Passing Glance {GB}), is also entered on the back of a debut victory in a Worcester bumper on July 4 from Laura Horsfall Racing. The catalogue now boasts 100 lots, with 27 fillies/mares in/out-of-training, 57 colts/geldings in/out-of-training, four point-to-pointers...