Equinties - fixture swapping

Gm Equinauts

The front page of todays Racing Post details the BHA’s plan to inject £2m into prize money next year to try reverse the decline in the sport.

There are many things racing needs to do to bring the sport back to the fore, namely putting the punters who carry the sport first, but this is a positive step,

although we can’t help but feel this injection of money would go a lot further if they were to reduce the number race meetings per day.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

FIXTURE SWAPPING

We all have our own gripes about the BHA, and that has made the recent appointment of Lord Allen as CEO from September 1st all the more interesting. For all who didn’t know, here’s a recent timeline of the world through the BHA-tinted sunglasses.

On June 11th, 2024, Julie Harrington announced her stepping down as CEO of the BHA, and since then, she has been appointed as a non-executive director at Chester Racecourse.

Brant Dunshea came in to take on the role of acting CEO in the meantime, and then it was confirmed on November 13th, 2024, that Lord Allen would take over at the helm on June 1st, 2025.

All seems pretty normal, right? Well, in classic horse racing style, the road got a bit rocky. On May 30th, 2025, the BHA confirmed that Allen would delay taking up the role as he wanted to speak to stakeholders “to better inform his vision for the sport”.
In Lehman's terms, he started chatting to a new girl, they went on a few dates, it started to get serious, he promised the moon and the stars, and when it came to commitment time, he bailed because they were ‘better as friends’.

From there, the media started the debate about whether Allen would actually take his post, or if he would cut and run for good. There was even betting on it!

After Allen made his decision to delay, he put forward some proposals to the powers that be, the most controversial one being his desire to replace the current BHA board, which consists of directors nominated by the governing body’s shareholders, in favour of an independent board. Read more here:

Considering the fact that it has been harder than Ross Kemp to get any meaningful change through the BHA to help benefit the sport in recent years, the proposed independent board sounded like a great idea.

After a few days of lull, it was announced on July 28th that Lord Allen would take his post as CEO of the BHA on September 1st, and although we have been disappointed before by our leaders, this appointment does actually give us a glimmer of hope for the sustainable future of our sport.

Anyway, we’ve gone down a rabbit hole, but why have we gone on this tangent?

Well, even though Lord Allen probs hasn’t had much of a say on this, the BHA unveiled next year’s fixture list, and it’s fairly radical.

Let’s focus with the newly-shaped Premier Racing. They put their foot in it by announcing the scheme without any dedicated budget towards marketing, they then made meetings like Plumpton on a Sunday “premier”, and then they had meetings go off at ridiculous times without much upside.

Yep, it was pretty bad.

But now, they have reimagined it. They will now have 52 Premier Meetings rather than the staggering 162 they had in 2025. This has to be a good move. Until now, Premier Meetings had no real benefit apart from having a gold symbol in the corner of the race card. Now, the status of a Premier Meeting will mean a little bit more, and the funding towards Premierisation can ultimately be pumped into these fixtures.

Yes, more money throughout every level of the game would be desirable, but more money in the top 20% of races means the big owners stay around longer, and it also means that some of those aspiring owners will dream a little bit harder about getting that one good horse which doesn’t get sold.

Are there negatives from the fixture list? Well, it was expected, but not many fixtures have actually been removed, even though we all know our fixture list is too contested. Literally two meetings have been axed for 2026, which is hilariously poor.

We guess we can’t expect everything to change all in one year - maybe this is something they will alter in the coming years with this new leadership? Let‘s hope it’s not too late by then!

THE GREAT SHAGGAS

When William Haggas puts a plan in motion, he rarely gets challenged by his owners.
He doesn’t have the likes of Godolphin or Amo Racing in his yard, so he probably doesn’t have many clashes with his owners, but still, it’s almost a case of his word goes because, quite simply, he knows best.

We are currently seeing this play out with the improving MERCHANT. He won the Gordon Stakes quite impressively, though the race was a bit weird. They went under flag fall, and it was right at the time when the heavens were opening at Goodwood.
Still, when a horse wins the Gordon Stakes like that, the natural race to look at is the St Leger, and he wasn’t exactly stopping at the line.

When posed the question about the Leger, Harry Herbert of Highclere Racing was a bit windy about the Leger, but it seemed like his opinion was purely based off previous chats he’s had with Haggas. For a syndicate like Highclere Racing, if they have a potential Classic horse, they’d love to run them.

However, when the cameras turned into Haggas in the Goodwood paddock, he was pretty adamant that the Leger would not be the race for him.

His rationale? Well, his recent Gordon Stakes winner, DESERT HERO, went to the Leger after Goodwood, and Haggas felt like DESERT HERO was never the same after his Doncaster exploits. So, Haggas is not willing to risk it, and that’s fair enough.
This decision was double-downed on earlier this week as MERCHANT was never entered for the Leger. Punchy.

Why is this punchy? Well, they are probably going to take in the Great Voltigeur, but this is all to set up a potential Arc bid. Again, much like the Ebor chat, Herbert is pretty bullish about a tilt at the Arc, and Haggas wants to downplay it. We think the owners might just get there way here if he goes and wins the Voltigeur.

Anyway, he has come out of Goodwood well, even if the Gordon Stakss was a gruelling contest. Herbert said: "He's had an easy time since Goodwood and William is very happy with him. He's going to play it by ear for the next few days as he picks him back up again as to whether we go for the Voltigeur.

"It was a real slog at Goodwood. The two of them were miles clear of the rest and he absolutely hated the ground but still managed to get the job done, which is such a good sign.

"William would love to go to York as he loves having good runners there. If he feels he's fully recovered, the Voltigeur would be the priority as the track would suit him well and it's a very valuable race, now worth £250,000. If he needs more time then we'll go for the Prix Niel as an Arc trial."

As we said last week during Goodwood, whether he’s an Arc horse is yet to be decided, but when a set of connections are so keen to share just how good his ability could be, you have to sit up and take note.

With all this chat about the rising star, we can’t help but wonder how the hell we got him beat off 82 at Newmarket. Wowsers.

CHANGE OF FORTUNES?

It’s been a pretty brutal season for Charlie Fellowes this year. Six winners from 115 runners in the UK this year is, to put it bluntly, very, very bad. Yes, he’s been in the news for SHE’S PERFECT, but even she has been ruled out for the remainder of 2025.

So, does Fellowes have anything to look forward in the immediate future?

Well, as a few of you would have seen, he won the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby recently with LUTHER (in the stewards room). The decision from the stewards was ultimately right in our eyes as they consider things that happen throughout the whole race, instead of the final furlong like our stewards do. And, considering the luck Fellowes had in the French 1000 Guineas, he was probably owed this.

Not wishing to rest on his laurels, the Newmarket-based trainer already has a plan for him, as he said: “He couldn’t have taken it any better. He’s on his way home and will be back tonight. Really proud of him.

“He ran third in a Grade One over there and the form’s worked out really well. The first and second in the Belmont Derby were first and third in the Saratoga Derby, so that form looks strong and he beat some good European horses in the process.

“Then we went and won, slightly controversially, but I think anyone watching that race saw how messy it was and I think if we had a relatively smooth trip it would have been a really, really good race between us and probably the best turf three-year-old horse in America (Zulu Kingdom).

“He’s coming home, but at the moment, the potential plan is to head to the Golden Eagle down in Sydney. It’s a A$10million (£4.89m) race, seven and a half furlongs, he has so much speed, I’ve got no problem with the seven and a half with him.

“Whether he has a run here before then as a little prep run, not quite sure yet. I put him in the Park Stakes at Doncaster, so that could be a goer.”

The British horse that go down under tend to have good success, mainly due to the drop in quality horses. When that much prize money is on offer, connections would be silly not to give it a go with a horse who clearly handles travelling so well.

STATS OF THE DAY

UNPLUGGED should have won yesterday. Todays standout stats are:

VINCE LAMOUR runs in 19.30 for Tim Easterby who has won this race the last two years. This years renewal slightly different with the Racing League occupying the meeting but Easterby couldn’t be in better form with 6 winners this week. 18/1 a fun ew swing to enjoy the Racing League.

RISK ON

15.50 NORTHERN BLAZE

A pure pedigree play here in what it seemingly a weak race based on the rest of the fields pages (pedigree pages). This horse is bred for 10f and it looks like Tom Ward is perhaps trying to do a less violent Prescott style trip hike with him which should suit. 8/1 ew.

20.30 HORNSEA BAY

Ran the well handicapped CROWN OF OAKS close to the wire last time out and this looks a good opportunity for this lad to get his head back in front. Naturally, the Racing League is competitive owed to the great prize money on offer for owners but this horse looks the best in the race.