BHA confirms abandonment of five fixtures following Met Office extreme heat warning
15/07/2022 @ 15:30:00
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has today confirmed that Monday's meetings at Beverley and Windsor and the Tuesday fixtures at Chelmsford City, Southwell and Wolverhampton have been abandoned after the Met Office issued a 'Red' extreme heat warning.
The affected courses fall either within the warning area or are situated nearby and so, with a view to the wellbeing of human and equine participants, as well as owners, staff and customers, a decision has been taken that the fixtures should not go ahead as scheduled.
Richard Wayman, the BHA's Chief Operating Officer, said: "The BHA's number one priority in the staging of any meeting is the wellbeing of all involved, human and equine. Following the issuing of the first ever extreme heat warning by the Met Office, we are taking sensible precautions and have made a decision as soon as possible in order to provide certainly for those impacted."
Mark Spincer, Managing Director of ARC’s Racing Division and responsible for Windsor, Southwell and Wolverhampton, said: “We fully support the decision to abandon the fixtures scheduled to take place on our racecourses on Monday and Tuesday.
"We have been in close dialogue with colleagues at the BHA throughout this period of warmer weather and have been operating with a number of resources in place to assist horses and people working on our racecourses. Whilst we had taken steps to mitigate against the higher temperatures initially forecast for Monday and Tuesday, including moving Southwell’s race times to earlier in the day, the latest updates from the Met Office and the alerts issued this morning made it clear that it was within the best interests of all concerned to abandon these fixtures.
"We will be in touch with all customers who had bookings to these race meetings shortly, and our thanks goes to the BHA team for acting swiftly in changing circumstances.”
Neil Graham, Director of Racing at Chelmsford City, said: “As ever, our primary concern is for the welfare of everyone visiting Chelmsford City Racecourse, both human and equine, and, therefore, we fully support the BHA in making this decision in such extreme conditions.”
While the abandoned fixtures will not be rescheduled, the BHA will review their race programmes and seek to add races in the coming days where necessary should a gap emerge as a result of the decision to abandon.
The BHA will also continue to monitor forecasts and any further alterations to the race programme will be announced in due course.
Notes to editors:
1. For further information please contact the BHA Racing Department on 0207 152 0050 or via racing@britishhorseracing.com
2. More information about racing in warm weather can be found under the ‘Racing in hot weather’ tab here.
For media enquiries please contact:
Mark Scully
British Horseracing Authority
e: mscully@britishhorseracing.com
