Following the recent spate of abandonments and with the current cold snap delaying the resumption of racing on turf, the British Horseracing Authority has programmed an all-National Hunt Flat race card on the All-Weather track at Southwell for Wednesday, January 13th.聽 The six races will be made up of varying National Hunt Flat race types and utilise two new starts at Southwell, over two miles and one mile six furlongs.聽
The races will close at noon on Saturday, January 9th, with declarations to be made by 10.00am on Tuesday, January 12th.聽 A running order and full race conditions are attached.
Running Order:
1:00聽聽 33463聽 The Dine In The Pantry Maiden Open National Hunt Flat Race
(Class 4)
1:30聽聽 33465聽 The Southwell Racecourse 鈥淛unior鈥� Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race (Class 4)
2:05聽聽 33462聽 The Membership Of Southwell Golf Club Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race (Class 4)
2:40聽聽 33464聽 The Book Your Tickets Online Mares鈥� Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race (Class 4)
3:15聽聽 33466聽 The southwell-racecourse.co.uk Intermediate Open National Hunt Flat Race (Class 4)
3:50聽聽 33461聽 The Southwell Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race (Class 4)
Stuart Middleton, BHA Racing Manager, said: “Other than the few occassions a year where a race divides, this will be the first time where more than two National Hunt Flat Races have been staged on the same card before anywhere in Great Britain.聽 Obviously there will be cross over entries, but we’ve tried to provide as much variety as possible with the race types and we hope they are well received.聽 The NTF and the trainers have been tremendously supportive, as have Southwell Racecourse and the Levy Board.聽 As we have never done anything like this before, entries won’t close until Saturday, to allow connections an extra 24 hours to consider their options.”
Ferdy Murphy, trainer, commented: “The BHA are to be applauded by showing this initiative to put on an all weather card to accommodate the National Hunt fraternity on the all weather as it looks like it is the only place that we will have racing in the next 2/3 weeks. We shall be pulling out all the stops to support this card as we have a few bumper horses to run.”
Rupert Arnold, NTF Chief Executive, added: “Trainers will be delighted that BHA has pulled out the stops to get this meeting on following numerous requests to the NTF to see what could be done.聽 Our thanks go also to Arena and the Southwell management for agreeing to stage the meeting and do their bit to ease the backlog of runners. It’s a really great effort by all.”
Alan Delmonte, Operations Director at the Horserace Betting Levy Board, reported: 鈥淓xceptional weather calls for exceptional measures. We are all for giving something new a try in order to get racing on. We anticipate competitive racing and it will provide a much needed outlet for the jumping fraternity.鈥�
For further information please contact:
Richard Russell听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 or聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽聽聽聽 Roderick Duncan
BHA Jump Race Executive聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽聽聽聽聽Southwell, Clerk of the Course
020 7152 0050聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽聽聽聽聽07772 958685
