The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) is pleased to announce details of an additional trial of Tuesday Twilight fixtures to be held during the autumn.

The trial takes place following consultation with the Levy Board and Bookmakers, and subsequent to a previous trial of four additional Tuesday twilights in October and November 2012. This trial was successful in terms of levy generation, and as such the Levy Board’s Betting Patterns Working Party (BPWP) sub group was keen to repeat this in the 2013 Autumn period.

Racecourses were invited to apply to stage a fixture, detailing the amount they were prepared to contribute to prize money, in addition to the prize money allocated by the Levy Board; £2,500 per race for the Flat cards and £3,500 per race for the Jump card. The Levy Board is contributing a total of £96,000 in prize money towards the six fixtures.

Dates and venues for the trial are as follows:

Details of the race programmes and times will appear on the Racing Admin website shortly and appear in the relevant Racing Calendar in due course.

Races taking place at venues without floodlights will run as close to sunset time as possible, whilst dovetailing into the afternoon programme at the beginning of the card, where necessary.

The programme at the final two fixtures at Kempton and Wolverhampton will commence approximately ten minutes after the last afternoon race.

Stuart Middleton, Racing Manager for the BHA, said:

“The Levy Board and Bookmakers are keen to expand the Twilight programme and as far as we are concerned, these come at a time of year when demand for opportunities outstrips the number of fixtures available. On that basis we are keen to make best use of the available horse population and programme these extra fixtures.

“It is encouraging that upon opening up applications to Turf racecourses for the first time, three of the fixtures will take place entirely on Turf as well as three Turf races on Lingfield’s card on September 3rd.”

Tasha Power, Levy Board Head of Operations said:

“The Levy Board’s Betting Patterns Working Party (BPWP) sub group – members of which comprise of representatives from Racing and Betting – strongly supports the additional Tuesday twilight fixtures which provide additional opportunities for horses in September and October and create fixtures in new betting sessions.”

Brian Clifford, Regional Head of Racing and Clerk of the Course, Kempton Park, said:

“We are delighted to be participating in this trial of Tuesday twilights.”

Stephen Lambert, MD and Clerk of the Course, Stratford Racecourse, added:

“Stratford are delighted to be hosting this Twilight meeting. It introduces a welcome extra race fixture into our summer jumping calendar, without which the course would have sat idle for seven weeks.”