New dawn in British racing begins with first ever fixture of its kind – but one trainer admits ‘I f***ing hate it’
BRITISH racing enters a new dawn on Sunday with the first ever fixture of its kind.
But already one trainer has admitted: “I f***ing hate the idea.”
A massive 203 entries have been made for the Sunday evening meeting at Wolverhampton later this week.
The first race is off at 5.30pm and the final contest, a 6f Class 6 handicap worth £7,581 to the winner, will be run at 8.30pm.
Never before on a Sunday has racing taken place so late in the UK.
But the initiative is the brainchild of the BHA this Wolverhampton fixture will be the first of six all-weather Sunday night spectacles.
There will be seven races in all and a massive £145,000 up for grabs in prize money.
All the races at Class 4 level or below – very much the bottom end of racing – will be run for at least three times the relevant minimum value, report the Racing Post.
The Sunday night fixtures are being trialled between now and March 10, the Sunday before Cheltenham Festival.
But despite the money on offer, some trainers are worried about staff welfare – and actually having enough workers to help.
Group 2-winning trainer Charlie Fellowes is one of them.
In a conversation on X about the new fixtures taking place so late in the week, he said: “I f***ing hate the idea but when the prize money is that good what choice do we have, when the alternative is running for peanuts?
“That said we haven’t worked out if we have enough staff to go racing on Sunday and look after the horses back in the yard.
“If not, my horses won’t run.”
While Breeders Cup-winning trainer and all-weather king Mick Appleby added: “Personally, I wouldn’t run on a Sunday night, but it all depends on what the trainers want to do.”
With packed fields the new meeting could provide too good to resist for punters – and one recently scooped £47,000 from a £20 bet at Wolverhampton racecourse.
All the action will be shown on Sky Sports Racing, too.
Whether it proves a success, though, remains very much up in the air.
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