The brainchild of former Swindon Town chairman Jeremy Wray, the Racing League, will see 12 teams competing against each other with each race worth £50,000 to the winner. With organisers stating that this prize money will be fixed, even if the tournament is run without spectators.
Each team will consist of two to four trainers with three jockeys, stable and support staff and 30 horses.
Altogether there will be 36 12 runner races that will take place over a distance between five and 12 furlongs. These will be handicap races, with the horses rated on a scale of 0-90. With organisers trialling new rules regarding the use of whips. During the tournament, jockeys will be allowed to carry a whip, but it should only be used for safety reasons such as correcting the course of the horse. The current practice of using the whip for encouragement will be prohibited.
All six meeting that has been confirmed will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.
Wray said his Racing League idea had endured “two false starts”, however, the BHA approving the competition had created “a rare good news story against a bleak background”. Wray had originally proposed the idea of a league in which points would be awarded for placing in 2019, but various problems had seen the concept shelved twice. Detractors of the plan had questioned if it would get off the ground, but Wray asserted that the competition format would attract a new audience to the sport.
Wray, who is a well-known figure in horse racing due to his ownership in over 40 horses, said, “Unless racing as a whole is suspended, this cannot go ahead now”. Adding: “Hopefully we can attract some sponsors not already involved in the sport”.
The lifelong racing fan added: “Innovation always meets scepticism – I find that a little extraordinary”.
The scepticism that Wray talks about is not difficult to find. A blog called Horse Racing Matters is scathing of the Racing League idea and the involvement of Wray who the blog describes as “a former chairman of a failing English football club”. The unnamed author of the post says, “if I were all-powerful, I would erase Jeremy Wray and his damned awful Championship Horse Racing from the racing Earth”.
The blog gives the example of motorsport, saying: “Formula 1 could not exist without multiple sponsorships or without the financial clout of major car manufacturers. Are we asking the horse-kingdoms of Dubai and Qatar to underwrite this (mis) adventure?”.
The blog also asks, “Will bookmakers have teams of their own?”.
Racing League Fixture List
These are the approved list of dates and courses that will hold the first Racing League competition next year;
- 29th July – Newcastle
- 5th August – Doncaster
- 12th August – Lingfield
- 19th August – Windsor
- 26th August – Lingfield
- 2nd September – Newcastle
