Horse Racing at Southwell

A four-runner competition at Southwell planned become scrapped on Thursday was reprieved by the British Horseracing Authority. Photo: John Giles/PA

Southwell racecourse has narrowly escaped the deletion of a battle from its programme the second few days operating in British Horseracing Authority’s new system to deal with the issue of tiny industries, after the regulator decided that a four-runner occasion at training course on Thursday could not be scrapped as a result of a lack of suitable alternatives for the stated athletes.

A four-runner fillies’ handicap planned for Southwell’s conference on 1 January the other day had been scratched from routine just 24 hours before it had been considering be run, prompting anger through the owners and trainers associated with horses involved. The £5, 000 32Red Handicap at exact same program on Thursday in addition has drawn only four runners, having already been designated as “at threat” when under 10 entries had been gotten in the five-day stage. In this situation, but the BHA has opted to let the competition go ahead, on a card by which all except one of seven events is contested by a single-figure field.

Last week’s removal of a battle through the programme from the first-day of BHA’s three-month test regarding the new plan ended up being called “a farce”, “outrageous” and “a disgrace” because of the connections regarding the horses involved, but Robin Mounsey, the Authority’s spokesman, stated on Tuesday that the criticism had not informed its decision to allowThursday’s four-runner event to continue.

“There are no hard-and-fast principles on it, ” Mounsey stated. “There are a couple of various other races [in the second a week] that are similar, but we don’t want to take a hard line using this trial. In this situation, top plan of action would be to allow it run.

“The minor distinction between this therefore the competition we culled is its a pretty specialist. It's quite a serious length [one mile and three furlongs] for three-year-olds and because of that, it absolutely was always the scenario there wouldn't be as much options around. You will find probably some horses available that especially need a race similar to this, of course you take away their choices, you’re maybe not assisting.