New Series Hopes To Boost Racing
The British Champions’ Series, a major new premier initiative of British
horseracing, will be introduced from 2011, climaxing with the British
Champions’ Day at Ascot Racecourse.
??The move has been pushed through by senior industry figures as a crucial step towards broadening the appeal of horse racing to the UK.??
A new company will be formed, British Champions’ Series Limited (BCS Ltd), to run the initiative.
??The investors in the British Champions’ Series project are the BCS racecourses and Racing Enterprises, which will benefit from equity stakes reflecting their respective investments in the new company.
With a total prize money pot of more than £13m, British Champions’ Series will feature 35 premier Flat races, staged at ten of the UK’s leading racecourses.?
British Champions’ Series will comprise five champion categories, namely Sprint, Mile, Middle Distance, Long Distance and Fillies and Mares.
Each will feature the six highest-rated races in each championship category to create easy-to-follow narratives for a wider audience.
Offering more than £3m of prize money, British Champions’ Day will become the UK’s richest-ever day of racing. ??
With Ascot’s location and international brand, the long-term aim is for the event to create a high profile stage to rank with the likes of the USA’s Breeders’ Cup and France’s Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe.
The series will launch on 30th April 2011 with the 2,000 Guineas on Newmarket’s Rowley Mile course and climax at British Champions’ Day at Ascot on 15th October 2011.
Karl Oliver, Project Director for Premier Racing at Racing Enterprises Ltd, has been appointed Chief Executive of BCS Ltd, effective immediately, having been central to its formation.
Oliver will oversee the marketing and commercial rights associated with the new series.
A business case for BCS Ltd through until 2018 has been established and has been endorsed by RfC, REL and the BCS racecourses.
The terrestrial broadcast rights to all races that will feature in British Champions’ Series are currently contracted to the BBC (11 races) and Channel 4 (19 races) through until 2012, with the exception of British Champions’ Day.
BCS Ltd has entered into discussions with a number of prospective commercial partners to British Champions’ Series.
The British Champions’ Series will have no bearing on the official start and end of the Flat racing season in the UK, with the Jockeys’ Championship and Trainers’ Championship still being awarded at Doncaster in November 2011.
