- Investment targeted at grassroots flat and jumps programmes
- Major changes to the All-Weather Championships
- Three day 'Winter Million' fixture announced for Lingfield Park in January 2022.
Arena Racing Company (“ARC”) today announce prize money investment plans which will see the group’s executive contribution to prize money increase by £4 million in 2022 (against 2019 values), to a total of £21.7 million.
Combined with Levy and other funding, a total of £41.5 million in prize money will be available at ARC racecourses across 2022, up from £31.4 million in 2019.
In addition to the general support of the grassroots flat and jumps programmes, ARC will look to establish a number of new features to complement and elevate current fixtures. These will include significant changes to All-Weather Championships Finals Day, which will move to Newcastle for the first time on Good Friday 2022. On the same day, Lingfield Park will host the new ‘All-Weather Vase’ meeting, consisting of Class 3 and 4 handicap races, worth a total of £395,000.
The inaugural ‘Winter Million’ fixture will see two days of jump and one day of flat racing at Lingfield Park from 21 to 23 January. With jump racing on Friday and Sunday, and the new Coral Winter Oaks headlining Saturday’s flat card, the three days will offer a minimum of £1,000,000 in prize money.
ARC Chief Executive Martin Cruddace said, “We are delighted to confirm our investment plans for 2022 of an extra £4,000,000 in executive contribution against 2019, which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the sport.
“I would, of course, like to thank racehorse owners for their continued support of our racecourses alongside our partners in the online betting sector, who have all shown considerable support for the sport over the last eighteen months.”
“After what has been a difficult period for the whole industry, we want to make sure that we can continue to support our core race programme as well as embracing innovation, such as the Winter Million weekend and the All-Weather Vase at Lingfield Park on Good Friday.”
“Newcastle has proven itself to be one of the best all-weather racecourses in the world since it was converted to tapeta and we think that the £1,000,000 Finals Day will be another major sporting event for the city to get behind. Equally, we are very much looking forward to reopening Southwell in December, which we are confident will quickly establish itself as another world class tapeta surface.”
This news follows on from announcements earlier in 2021 confirming investment into the Cazoo St Leger Festival, Chepstow’s Unibet October Jumps Season Opener and across Class 4, 5 and 6 flat races between August and December 2021.
