By Richard Wayman, BHA Director of Racing

There was much to celebrate on our racecourses during 2025 with personal highlights including seeing some of the best racehorses in the world cross swords in the Qipco Champion Stakes at Ascot in October – the joint best race in the world last year –  and then, a couple of months later, the sight of four of the best chasers around jumping the last in a line in the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase at Kempton.

Whilst our sport, and indeed most others, face challenges, it is important that we don’t lose sight of how much pleasure racing continues to provide at all levels. Whether that engagement is through attending race meetings, watching from home, betting on the sport, or being involved at some level in racehorse ownership, racing remains something that a lot of people care passionately about.

In the autumn of 2023, we announced a two-year trial of fixture list related initiatives that were designed to increase the appeal of our sport to fans, both current and future. Throughout the trial, we have reported on how the various initiatives have performed. We obviously had to publish the 2026 fixture list several months before the trial had concluded and so we have already incorporated learnings within the policies that have been put in place for the coming twelve months. It is important, however, that now we have reached the end of the trial, we review how things went. This blog reports on four key target areas within the trial, supplemented by the year-end edition of our racing report.

Prize Money

Total prize money increased last year by 3.5% to £194.7m (£188.0m). This included a 4% increase at Premier fixtures to £98.3m and a 3% increase at Core fixtures to £96.4m. Prize money on the Flat increased by 3.1% to £135.2m (£131.1m), whilst over Jumps there was a 4.4% rise to £59.5m (£56.9m).

There are three main sources of prize money: the funding provided by the Levy Board which increased by 4.7% to £63.3m (£60.4m), the executive contribution provided by racecourses by 2.6% to £103.3m (£100.7m), and owners’ contributions from entry fees by 3.1% to £26.8m (£25.9m).  The remaining source of prize money is the BHA Development Fund, which totalled £1.3m (£1.0m).

These prize-money numbers exclude other payments to participants such as the Great British Bonus, which paid out almost £6m in 2025. That includes a £4.7m contribution from the Levy Board, who also provided £750k for an Appearance Money Scheme that is designed to assist owners with some of the additional costs that they incur when racing on a Sunday.

Looking ahead to 2026, as part of the plans already referred to above, the Levy Board have provided an additional £4.4m in prize money as part of a £77.1m funding package.

Most of that increase will be targeted towards developmental races under both codes, which will see an increase in prize money of at least £3.2m, including £2.5m from the Levy Board. The boost in this programme of races seeks to incentivise ownership and make Britain a more attractive prospect for Flat and Jump horses of all levels to be based.

Novice and maiden races on the Flat are now being run for at least £10,000, or £8,000 for restricted races, while over Jumps, novice and maiden hurdles are offering at least £10,000, with an increased programme of novice chases running for at least £15,000.

Funding will also be targeted more strategically towards Britain’s higher-profile contests on the Flat and over Jumps, particularly feature races on ITV Racing, to attract higher quality and competitive fields and provide customers with an increasingly compelling product. Prize money for the Flat Black Type programme will be increased by over £2m to help strengthen Britain’s Pattern and Listed races, whilst new Jumping initiatives have already been announced or are in the pipeline.

Sporting performance

After delivering improved competitiveness in 2024, average field sizes in 2025 fell. The average on the Flat was 8.90 (2024: 9.14), and over Jumps to 7.84 (8.49). There was contrasting performance between Premier and Core fixtures. At Premier fixtures, averages have improved on the Flat to 11.02 (10.86), and over Jumps to 9.41 (9.22). Conversely, the averages at Core fixtures have declined to 8.65 (8.93) on the Flat, and to 7.63 (8.40) over Jumps.

These field sizes were impacted by the pattern of rainfall through last year. While overall across the UK, rainfall ended up being 84% of average, it was hugely variable with northern and western areas experiencing wetter than average weather with central, southern and eastern areas well below. As a result, we experienced lengthy periods of quick ground, but with some racecourses more impacted than others. Changing weather patterns will mean that periods of more extreme conditions are likely to become the norm in the future and we’ll clearly need to adjust the way we do things to address this challenge.

The number of horses in training at some stage during 2025 fell to 21,728, which was 2.3% lower than in 2024. This follows on from a 1.1% drop between 2023 and 2024, and further drops in preceding years.

When we announced the 2026 fixture list, we focussed on our plans to increase the number of horses, particularly high-quality horses, bred, trained and raced in Britain. Various measures have been introduced this year, including a £3.2m increase in prize money in developmental races spread across both codes. On the Flat, there was an increase to minimum values in Black Type races, as well as extra support for four of midsummer flagship races with the aim of growing their appeal as domestic and international targets. Over Jumps, as well as extending the Elite NH Mares’ Scheme, we’ve introduced the GB Pointing Bonus and the Training Fees Credit Scheme.

Whilst they will need time to have an impact, it was pleasing to see that the number of high-quality runners (defined as a horse achieving a performance figure of 90+ on the Flat and 135+ over Jumps) started to show more positive signs during 2025. On the Flat, the number of horses achieving this level of performance increased to 1,423 (1,398). Over Jumps, after significant drops in recent years, the number stabilised at 489 (490).

Looking to the future, our modelling forecasts that the number of runs in Britain in 2027 will be between 6 to 7% lower than in 2024, the last time we revised the volume of programmed fixtures and races. The BHA is leading discussions with stakeholders from across the sport as we determine what that means for the 2027 fixture list.

Racegoers

Attendances in 2025 totalled 5.031m (4.800m), the first time they have exceeded 5m spectators since 2019. This represents a 4.8% increase on 2024. The average attendance rose by 3.6% to 3,526 (3,404). These numbers have benefitted from a raft of marketing and experience initiatives introduced by racecourses, as well as The Going Is Good campaign led by our colleagues at Great British Racing.

Most encouragingly, the Racecourse Association has also reported that the under 18 count was 211,447, an increase of 17% from 2024, albeit not all racecourses currently include these numbers in their returns.

Betting

Betting activity has remained under pressure with total turnover 4.3% below 2024 and 10.7% below 2023. When you consider that the number of races run each year will vary for a variety of reasons including abandonments, the average turnover per race has fallen by 5.6% since 2024 and 11.6% since 2023.

Within these numbers, a very noticeable trend is that betting customers are increasingly focusing their attention towards the bigger racedays. Compared with 2024, the average turnover per race at Premier fixtures is up by 1.1%, whilst at Core fixtures it has declined by 8.1%.

There are multiple reasons for the stark disparity in the performance between our major events and all others including that there has been significant change in the profile of customers of betting companies, linked to developments in the regulatory environment such as the impact of affordability checks. More specifically, there are fewer larger staking customers, who have either stopped betting or are placing their bets elsewhere, with these having been only partially replaced by more recreational punters betting in smaller stakes, primarily at the bigger meetings.

Other factors contributing to this prioritisation of the higher-class meetings include that, as mentioned above, the field size trends at Premier fixtures have been more positive than elsewhere in the fixture list. there have been more races on ITV this year (with a greater number on ITV 1), and the absence of a major men’s football tournament this summer with the 2024s Euros having clashed with some of last year’s biggest race meetings.

Conclusion

There was much to be pleased about in 2025. Our major meetings and races performed strongly, and these events will have a pivotal role to play in attracting more fans to the sport at all levels. Attendances are heading upwards and prize money showed increases at all levels. Of course, there are challenges with the horse population continuing to decline and the betting environment remaining a challenging one with obvious implications for racing’s finances.

Racing’s industry strategy has been developed to drive improvements across all these areas. As 2025 has shown us, when there is co-operation with others both within and outside the sport, racing can look to the future with optimism and belief.