By Richard Wayman, Director of Racing

Over the past couple of years, we have posted regular blogs that aim to provide a data-led assessment of the performance of our racing product. One customer-related trend that has become noticeable during that period has been that many of our biggest days continue to grow in their popularity whilst more run-of-the-mill events are under a lot of pressure despite the best efforts of the host racecourses and, indeed, others. Of course, this isn’t specific to racing with this trend being experienced in many other sports and, indeed, the wider leisure industry.

Beginning with our betting customers, it has been well documented that betting activity has remained under pressure throughout this period. Total turnover up to the end of Q3 in 2025 is 4.2% below the same nine months in 2024 and 12.8% below 2023. The number of races run will obviously deviate from year-to-year and so the average turnover per race is also an important measure. This has fallen by 5.8% compared with 2024 and by 11.4% against 2023.

Within these headline numbers, betting customers are increasingly focusing their attention on the bigger racedays. Compared with 2024, the average turnover per race at Premier Fixtures is up by 2.7%, whilst at Core Fixtures it has declined by 8.6%. This preference for our highest profile fixtures is undoubtedly linked to the impact of affordability checks with there being fewer larger staking customers, who have either stopped betting or are placing their bets elsewhere, and have been only partially replaced by more recreational punters betting in smaller stakes, primarily at the bigger meetings.

With decisions relating to tax harmonisation and, also, taxes on gambling companies to be announced on 26 November, the industry’s future financial position remains under a cloud. In the event that this results in the betting industry increasing margins, reducing promotions and offers, and/or closing betting shops, this would inevitably impact racing’s finances in the years to come. Colleagues are, of course, working hard to lobby the Government ahead of the Budget to try and prevent this scenario – for more information see the AxeTheRacingTax campaign.

There are, of course, other factors influencing this increasingly polarised performance between our major events and everything else, including more races on ITV this year (with a greater number on ITV 1), the absence of a major male football tournament this summer with the 2024s Euros having clashed with some of last year’s biggest events, and, as is discussed further below, field size trends at Premier Fixtures have been more positive than elsewhere in the fixture list.

Turning to racegoers, it is pleasing to see an increase in total attendances, up by 4.9% compared with last year from 3.918m to 4.109m. Average crowds have grown by 697, or 5.3%, at Premier Fixtures and by 107, or 4.4%, at Core Fixtures. As well as the nice weather through the spring and summer, the sport’s national campaign ‘The Going Is Good’, which was launched in May, combined with racecourses’ own marketing efforts, have played a part in these improved numbers.

It was a great boost to learn that a new four-year deal to show exclusive, free-to-air coverage of racing from 2027 until the end of 2030 has been agreed with ITV. That announcement was on the back of more people engaging with our major meetings this year through the excellent coverage provided by Ed Chamberlin and the rest of the team. For example, five million viewers watched Royal Ascot across the five days it was on air, with viewing on the final afternoon up by over 20% compared to last year. The Cheltenham Festival saw its biggest peak audience for four years with a high of 1.8m on Gold Cup Day. The Derby saw its biggest audience for two years peaking with 1.3m.

The latest racing data report up to the end of September summarises performance on the racecourse itself.

The delivery of consistently competitive racing is obviously important for all of us that follow the sport. Our Premier Fixtures have generally fared reasonably well with the average field size at Flat meetings increasing to 10.97 (2024: 10.79), which is the highest they have been in recent years, and only marginally falling at Jump meetings to 9.93 (2024: 9.97).

It has been more challenging throughout the rest of the fixture list, with the average field size at Core Fixtures on the Flat falling to 8.54 (2024: 8.78), and over Jumps to 7.63 (2024: 8.52).

Despite the fact that a number of changes have been made over the past couple of years to the volume and distribution of races across the calendar, field sizes have suffered due to a number of factors including a lack of rain through much of 2025, 24 fewer abandoned fixtures during the winter meaning we’ve run nearly 100 more races and, as discussed further below, a horse population that has been contracting in recent years.

As part of producing the annual fixture policy, the sport’s leaders, as a matter of course, debate the appropriate volume of race meetings and races to schedule. That involves having to balance commercial considerations, or in other words that races usually generate a net positive financial return through levy and media rights, with the impact of staging those races on competitiveness levels and, therefore, racing’s longer-term appeal to the public. Whilst it might seem a long way off, work has already started on the 2027 fixture list and, with horses numbers continuing to fall, there is clearly a difficult question to be answered about what size of fixture list will be sustainable by then.

Total prize money has increased by £4.7m to £153m (2024: £148.3m), albeit there have been 98 more races run. That increase has been spread across both codes (Flat up £3m, Jump up £1.7m), and across both fixture types (Premier up £2.4m, Core up £2.3m).

The horse population is declining at a steady rate. With reference to the number of horses in training on 30 September, we have experienced a contraction of around 1.5% each year since 2022. In August, we announced a number of initiatives that aim to grow the number of horses being bred, trained and raced in Britain. Such measures will require time, and more are needed, but it is essential for the sport’s future that this greater focus is placed on our equine supply chain. Of course, those horses will require owners and more efforts are also required from across the sport to support those who are already working hard to recruit and retain owners at all levels, both domestically and overseas.

Finally, with the customer in mind, it is encouraging to see progress in a couple of lower profile but nonetheless important areas. Non-runner rates are at their lowest since 2022, with the latest version of the non-runner rates by individual trainer having been published recently.  In addition, the number of races going off on time is continuing to improve, with 82.2% of races starting within two minutes of the scheduled time. The latest version of our more detailed analysis of this by racecourse is now available.