The latest edition of the BHA Racing Department blog features a review of the most recent Racing data pack which covers the first half of 2016. Should you have any questions you would like us to address in coming editions of this blog please contact [email protected].

Racing Statistics

The data published today looks at Racing’s core statistics for the first six months of 2016 compared with the same period for the last four years.

The blog released in February reviewed the data from 2015 and indicated some positive trends with improvements in certain core racing statistics which are used to analyse the health of British racing. The situation is a mixed one, however, with other areas remaining under pressure.

A few of the key elements of the data pack have been extracted below.

Firstly, we look at the average field size:

Average Field Size

Further year on year improvement to Flat field sizes are encouraging and have seen the average number of runners per race increase to 8.9, the highest since 2012. Jump racing has seen a small increase of 0.11 runners per race although this remains below field sizes in the previous years under review.

The number of individual horses running at least once during the period paints a similar picture. On the Flat this shows that the growth in field sizes has been supported by an increased number of horses taking to the track, something that is also reflected in the horses in training data. Individual Jump runners have fallen, although, more encouragingly, the number of Jump horses in training has shown some modest growth.

Individual Runners 

Horses in Training: 

An area of concern within these statistics is the 14% year on year increase in the number of non-runners in the first half of 2016. Although the wet weather will have contributed, as evidenced by the increased number of fixtures run on soft or heavy ground, this is an important area to the sport and one we are analysing further, having recently announced a review of the non-runners system.

Non-Runners

Turf Fixtures by Going 

In summary the trends show some encouraging signs combined with areas of concern. For the full June stats package please click here.

The next blog update to the Racing stats pack will be at the end of the third quarter of 2016.