British European Breeders’ Fund to contribute over £1.1m in prize money to Flat racing in 2014
Sun 30 Mar 2014
The British European Breeders’ Fund (BEBF) will contribute £1.125m to prize money in Britain in 2014, with over 550 Flat races around the country to receive BEBF funding throughout the year.
In a change of policy from recent years, a larger proportion of the BEBF’s support will be directed to conditions races, fillies’ handicaps and Listed races. Previously, the bulk of BEBF funding has been directed to maiden races, but additional support will now be targeted at other race types.
Over 30 Listed races will carry BEBF support, more than 20 of which are fillies’ only races, underlining the EBF’s support of the fillies’ programme, along with a series of fillies’ handicaps throughout the Flat season.
In another shift in previous policy, this year racecourses were invited to tender for additional funding which has resulted in around 30 races at courses around the country receiving substantial boosts to their funds.
Among the numerous races to benefit from this are such as a Class 2 conditions stakes at York in May which will now be worth £30,000 following an increase of funding from the BEBF. Others meetings to benefit include a twilight meeting at Salisbury which includes a well-supported maiden and conditions stakes, while north of the border, Hamilton and Musselburgh have both received a boost in support from the BEBF.
The BEBF chairman Philip Freedman commented: “We are delighted to have been able to increase prize money in 2014, while also restoring our reserves to the levels they were prior to the downturn in the bloodstock market. With the continued increase in the number of high value stallions standing in Britain owners racing here should, in the years to come, benefit from additional prize money funded by the domestic breeding industry.”
Kerry Murphy, chief executive of the European Breeders’ Fund, added: “The tendering process which the BEBF carried out in the early part of this year met with a huge response from racecourses seeking additional support for their Flat race programmes. The majority of the EBF’s funding comes from stallion contributions and so we are delighted that the bloodstock industry’s money is being put to such good use.”