£10Million British Race Series

[brockguy]

penned in for 2010, it sounds like a good idea...

from racingpost:-)



PLANS were unveiled on Wednesday to link ten Group 1 races in Britain, from the 2,000 Guineas to the Champion Stakes, in a£10 million points-based series that will offer a huge cash prize to the winning horse's connections.

The Sovereign series will be run from 1m to 1m4f, for three-year-olds and upwards, but with no race exclusively for fillies and mares.

The organisers' objective is to stage the events on Saturdays, in order to provide a promotional TV narrative through the main part of the Flat season, aimed at lifting racing's profile for a potential new audience.

The races, currently worth around £5m, will have an average of £300,000 added to their value. A £2m prize fund will be split between the winner, who will be acclaimed as Britain's champion Flat racehorse, the runner-up and third in the series.

Increased revenue from TV deals would provide the main series prize, and possibly boost prize-money on offer.

The introduction of the series in 2010 is timed to coincide with the first year of new or renewed terrestrial television contracts, which are bound to be negotiated with existing broadcasters,the BBC and Channel 4, and possible newcomers, such as ITV, with the possibilities of the Group 1 link in mind.

Three of the races - the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot, the BGC Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, and York's Juddmonte International Stakes, could all be given new exposure by being transferred from their midweek slots to be included in fixtures that must also be moved.

Racecourses have been involved in preliminary discussions on the broad outline of the series, which is set to beginin 2010, but executives were sworn to secrecy until the launch in London. The proposals have been co-ordinated principally by Andrew Brown, chief operations officer at Racing UK, in conjunction with a consultancy that has acted as an advisor to Formula One motor racing.

Brown said: “Sovereign series is a competiton to crown the British champion Flat horse.

“Racing needs to reach to a broader audience. The Sovereign series is an easy-to-understand concept to take racing into the mainstream and to optimise the value and exposure of racing on television.”

The BHA, which is throwing its weight behind fresh moves to improve racing's overall profile, has worked closely with the principal organizers and will have input on fixture programming and promotion.

A serious consideration will be the position of existing commercial sponsors of the series races, which range from such as betting operator Stan James and BCG, Juddmonte stud and airline Emirates.

The organisers are exploring ways to introduce an overall series sponsor, which would not cut across individual race sponsorship but would bring in valuable extra prize-money.

The proposed Sovereign series races

1 Stanjamesuk.com 2,000 Guineas 3yos only 8f
2 Juddmonte Lockinge Stakes 4yo+ 8f
3 Vodafone Derby 3yos only 12f
4 Prince of Wales's Stakes 4yo+ 10f
5 Coral-Eclipse 3yo+ 10f
6 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes 3yo+ 12f
7 BGC Sussex Stakes 3yo+ 8f
8 Juddmonte International 3yo+ 10f
9 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes 3yo+ 8f
10 Emirates Airline Champion Stakes 3yo+ 10f

[_ed_]

Wow, sounds fantastic.

I hope something might also be done for the fillies and mares though, they seem to be a bit left out of this.

[brockguy]

Originally Posted by _ed_

Wow, sounds fantastic.

I hope something might also be done for the fillies and mares though, they seem to be a bit left out of this.

ed, they could do somthing for fillies and mares, yeah but in fairness, over the last number of years, the number of G1 races in Europe for older fillies and mares has increased enormously that at least now, there is a benefit to running a filly/mare in Europe after their 3yo career.

it'd be great to see a Ouija Board type try to win the series but more than once throughout the season, they'd be tempted to go the easier option and win a G1 restricted to their own sex..

[brockguy]

i have too much time on my hands, but if i take the racing order of merit scoring they use for jump racing here :
1st - 20
2nd - 16
3rd - 12
4th -10
5th - 8
6th -6

and there was joint winners!!
1. Ramonti / Authorized 56
3. Dylan Thomas 52
4. Notnowcato 50
5. Duke of Marmalade 48

Both Notnowcato and Duke of Marmalade ran in 4 of those races last year..

In trying to find someone who ran in more, I got Falbrav who ran in 5 in 2003 (Giants Causeway also 5 in 2000). trying to think of others.. not many are that flexible from 1m to 1 1/2miles