Weather leads to major National Hunt changes announced by BHA

The British Horseracing Authority has announced a number of changes to the upcoming National Hunt programme, with next month’s Welsh Racing Festival at Chepstow to become an all-hurdle meeting due to the extremely dry summer.

For many the three-day fixture in Monmouthshire (October 9-11) marks the start of the jumps season proper, with the Grade Two Persian War Novices’ Hurdle and the £50,000 Welsh Champion Hurdle among the major prizes on offer.

However, it has been agreed with the BHA course inspectorate that time has run out for the chase course to be a in a raceable condition, meaning the races over fences will be transferred to what will now be all-chase cards at Worcester (October 12) and Ffos Las (October 14), where the BHA says “more appropriate chasing ground can be presented”.

Ben Cook, racing director for Arena Racing Company, owners of Chepstow, said: “We are obviously disappointed to have to make these changes to the DragonBet Welsh Racing Festival, but we wanted to make and announce the decision as early as possible.

“The racecourse team have been working incredibly hard over the course of the summer, and into the autumn, to get both of Chepstow’s jumps tracks ready for this meeting. We have simply been beaten by the weather, as far as the chase course is concerned.

“Chepstow received 63 millimetres of rain in late August, which made a significant positive impact on the track, alongside the irrigation that the team have been undertaking. The track has received only 43mm of rain in September however, with none in the last 10 days. This has stalled that progress and meant that the chase course will simply not have sufficient ease in the ground.

“We are grateful to colleagues at the BHA for their assistance in reprogramming this fixture, and the surrounding fixtures at Worcester and Ffos Las.

“We very much look forward to hosting the meeting and to celebrate the stars of jump racing in Wales.”

Hereford’s meeting on October 13 will also become an all-hurdle card, with the hurdle races originally scheduled to take place at Worcester and Ffos Las moving there as well as Chepstow.

Ludlow’s meeting on October 7 has been abandoned entirely because the track is unraceable, but an additional fixture at Worcester will be staged on the same day.

Tom Byrne, BHA head of racing and betting, said: “We appreciate that these are significant changes to the race programme at this stage of the season. However, we hope that as a package they will allow the sport to deliver an appropriate jumping programme over the coming weeks.

“Our intention is to ensure that racing over both hurdles and fences takes place on the best ground available, and we are grateful to Ludlow and ARC for their support in enabling these interventions. We also hope they are welcomed in the circumstances by participants, and we thank them for their ongoing support.

“Further updates are likely to follow on a weekly basis from this point as we continue to work proactively with racecourses and participants to provide the best jumping ground possible amidst the ongoing challenges presented by the lack of rain across the country.”