Increased prize-money and wet spring cited as April figures show British field sizes continue to recover

Field sizes in Britain reached their highest April figure for four years, with prize-money incentives and more favourable ground conditions suggested as factors contributing to the return to pre-pandemic levels.

Key fixtures in the month, including the Grand National fixture at Aintree and Newmarket's Craven meeting, all attracted healthy increases, while the overall average field size rose to 9.02 from 8.39 in April 2022.

The average field size over jumps of 9.01 was the fourth highest since 2014, and a sharp increase on the 7.85 figure recorded in April last year. On the Flat the figure went up to 9.02 from 8.73 in 2022, again the fourth best average in the last decade.

After a dry February and a wet March – some areas had double their average monthly rainfall – April was also wetter than is normally the case, all of which helped to provide racing surfaces suitable for both codes at a crucial crossover between the seasons. The rises continue the positive trend for field sizes in in Britain at the start of 2023, with the first three months all experiencing year-on-year increases.

The Grand National meeting attracted its third highest number of runners in the last decade

The proportion of races with five runners or fewer – which the BHA categorises as 'failed races' – almost halved, falling from 20.45 per cent in April 2022 to 12.37 per cent 12 months on.

A boost in prize-money and change of schedule at Newmarket's Craven meeting was rewarded with average field sizes across the three days rising from 8.5 runners to 10.3, while the overall number of runners at the meeting was second only to 2018 since the fixture reverted to a three-day format in 2016.

Newmarket director of racing Michael Prosser said he was delighted with the success of the Craven meeting, in addition to the early entries for the Guineas festival which starts on Friday.

He said: "I'd say our bigger field sizes were due to a number of things. Firstly, the weather. In the last few years it's been particularly dry heading into the spring, but we've had lots of rain this year. Usually between January 1 and the Craven meeting we'd expect between 150mm and 180mm but we've exceeded that this year which has been incredibly helpful. That means we started the season on the slow side of good and everybody knew where we were.  For that meeting we also had increased prize-money."

A new fixture at Bath offering record prize-money for low-grade horses featured a bumper 104 runners, with all races featuring dozens declared but unable to run.

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