British racing’s midweek programme has been reshaped again after the BHA confirmed new dates for three heat-hit fixtures and earlier starts for two Thursday cards.
Ffos Las, Kempton Park and Salisbury have now been given replacement slots after Wednesday’s meetings were called off because of the forecast extreme heat.
The update follows the BHA’s decision to abandon the original Wednesday cards at Kempton, Salisbury, Worcester and Ffos Las, a move ReadHorseRacing covered earlier in the day as the weather warning began to bite into the fixture list.
The latest BHA update means the week now has a clearer shape, although trainers, yards and racecourses remain under instruction to work around the red warning zones.
Three Cards Given New Dates
Ffos Las will now stage its postponed card on the afternoon of Monday, June 29, with Kempton Park’s fixture moved to the evening of the same day. Entries for both meetings will close at midday on Tuesday, June 23.
Salisbury has been moved to the afternoon of Tuesday, June 30, with entries closing at midday on Wednesday, June 24. The race programmes and prize-money levels at all three meetings are due to remain as originally planned, with the Horserace Betting Levy Board contributing to the funding of the rescheduled fixtures.
Worcester was part of the original abandoned group, but it was not included among the three replacement fixtures named in the BHA’s latest rescheduling note. That leaves National Hunt yards still waiting for the final shape of that part of the programme.
Newmarket And Nottingham Go Early
The knock-on effect also reaches Thursday, when both Nottingham and Newmarket will start earlier to avoid the hottest part of the day. Nottingham is now due to begin at 10.30am and finish at 1pm, while Newmarket will start at 10.45am and conclude at 1.15pm.
Newmarket’s 2m Dereham Handicap has been lifted out of Thursday’s card and moved to the Friday evening meeting on June 26. It is the sort of adjustment that matters to punters and yards alike, particularly when travel, hydration, race timing and horse welfare all have to be considered together.
The BHA’s latest position also follows a busy few days of welfare-led updates, including its recent equine flu warning linked to the Goffs Arkle Sale. In this case, the central issue is heat rather than disease control, but the governing body’s message is similar: risk management comes first.
Heat Policy Sets The Tone
The abandoned Wednesday fixtures followed a red extreme heat warning covering parts of the Midlands, southern England and Wales from 9am on Wednesday, June 24 to 9pm on Thursday, June 25. The BHA has reminded trainers that horses should not be moved from, or through, any areas where red heat warnings are in place.
That transport point was particularly important for Ffos Las, which sits just outside the red warning zone but would have required participants to travel through higher-risk areas to reach the racecourse.
There is also a wider backdrop. The sport has barely come down from a demanding Royal Ascot week, with Ascot already reviewing improvements for 2027, and the fixture list now has to absorb a weather disruption at exactly the point when the summer programme should be gathering rhythm.
The immediate priority is more practical. Ffos Las, Kempton and Salisbury have dates back in the book, Newmarket and Nottingham have earlier starts, and British racing will spend the rest of the week managing around the forecast rather than pretending it is just another spell of warm weather.
