Racing sunk to a new low when a contest had to be scrapped after attracting no horses.
The event at Newbury, due to round off the card before a Craig David concert, was called off following the declaration stage. Connections of the 13 entries decided against confirming their thoroughbreds for the Stonegate Homes Fillies' Novice Stakes.
It was the final race at the weekend meeting, which hosts the feature Weatherbys Super Sprint, worth £98,340 to the winner. Only £3,510 was on offer for the first-placed horse in the race which drew a blank.
John and Thady Gosden, Saeed bin Suroor and Roger Varian were among the trainers who initially nominated horses for the 1m 2f novice contest. Their colleague Ralph Beckett, who also made an entry, said trainers were unhappy at the money for winning.
The president of the National Trainers’ Federation added: “£6,500 for a novice race at a Grade One track on a Saturday is a disgrace.
“Furthermore, when the race conditions were published a month ago, it was published at £5,300. It was only upped on Monday and that was too little, too late.
“Horsemen are independent people and are fed up with the derisory prize-money on offer in general and in this instance they decided to vote with their feet.”
Jon Hughes, who has several horses in training, tweeted his support for the move.
"Sign of the times," he said. "As an owner it's an insult to be racing on a Saturday at a top track for win money, before deductions and all the costs of racing, of £3,500. Bound to be more direct action while we all wait for the "super strategy" @BHAPressOffice @NewburyRacing."
And trainer Ben Haslam posted: "Group 1/Grade 1 track offering that prize money, for a race that (at this time of year) has limited purpose. Hardly a surprise."
Middleham-based Mark Johnston hit out at prize money levels when he and his fellow handlers boycotted another race at Lingfield in 2019.
Chief executive of Newbury Racecourse, Julian Thick, called the latest no-show "particularly disappointing" for fans.
He highlighted that the track had committed to returning to 2019 prize money levels this year, despite challenges that have arisen due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Looking at our forecast for 2022, we will be putting up £2.5m in executive contribution to prize money this year, which is the largest amount the racecourse has ever committed to," he added.
“We have recently publicly announced an increase to prize money levels when our new media contract comes into effect next year, committing a minimum of 40 per cent of total media revenues to our prize money for the next three years.
“As a PLC, our total media revenues and profits are always fully disclosed unlike most other racecourses, giving full transparency so there can be no misunderstanding about our commitment.
“Given this background, it’s disappointing this has happened and at a time when the industry needs to pull together.”
The weekend call by trainers comes just days after a controversial overhaul of the British whip rules.
Jockeys will be disqualified from winning for serious breaches and from the autumn, can only use the stick in the backhand position.
There is also much concern about planned affordability checks on punters and the impact on the sport's finances.
A spokesperson for the British Horseracing Authority said: “It is the responsibility of all leaders within racing to work together to improve the prize-money situation so that we can retain the best horses in Britain whilst also maintaining a horse population that consistently provides competitive and compelling racing. Addressing this challenge will form a key part of the strategy that British racing’s leaders recently pledged to work together on last month.
“While it is disappointing to have arrived at such a situation on a key day for racing, the BHA remains optimistic that improvements to prize-money and its distribution across the race programme can be found through constructive dialogue between ourselves, racecourses and participants.”
