1. How many 2yo races were run in each season?
2. What was the breakdown by Types of races?
3. What was the breakdown by Class of race?
4. What was the breakdown by race distances?
5. How many races are run during each month of the season?

The 2006 season was always slightly behind schedule in terms of number of races run from early April onwards. The very wet October then caused a range of meetings to be abandoned (most which would have included divided 2yo maiden events) to cause the shortfall in number of races.

Back to Top of Page

Note that the 'Auction' category only covers races where raceweights vary with runners' auction prices. 'Median Auctions' races with normal weight-for-sex raceweights are categorised as 'Maidens'. See the Glossary on this site for an explanation of the difference between 'Maiden' and 'Median' Auction races.

For an explanation of the difference between Group, Classic, Pattern, Listed & 'Black Type' races see the article on the site covering the 2006 Group Race schedule.

Back to Top of Page

A new race classification was introduced on July 1st 2004 and the remainder of the 2yo races in that season were assigned to their expected Classes under the previous system.
 

Note:- Increase in Class 4 over Class 5 in 2006 = racecourses allocating more prize money, mainly to maidens, to lift them into class 4.

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
2005	62	36	40	200	504	141	15
2006	63	42	41	250	432	124	7

At the start of the 2005 turf season a new system was started which split the races into 7 categories based on rating range and race prize money. Only the relatively small number of Nurseries could be split by rating range for 2yos so the majority of races are split by their prize money level, but with two exceptions :-
 

All Group and Listed races (i.e. the races often referred to as 'black type' level) are in Class 1 regardless of monetary value.

All 'Regional Racing' (now 'Banded') events (i.e. the 0-45 rated lowest level) are in Class 7 and prize money is limited to a low level. (Less than the levels that people were deriding as too low 25 years ago....)

Penalties for previous winners in Novice and Conditions races often take into account the Class of the previous win(s). The majority of 2yos do not win and those that do win only one race. The range of prize money value for maiden races is not wide and a win will not cover training fees in nearly all cases. Therefore the lower Class races can be quite strong because 'a win is a win' and the thrill of a winner is what most owners hope for at best. A win in a lower Class maiden then has the added advantage of attracting a low, or no, penalty in later races and probably a lower Official Rating (for Nurseries) regardless of the actual quality of the winning performance.

Back to Top of Page

5 furlong races are run throughout the season. The longer races currently begin at these points :-

• 6f races used to start at the York May Meeting but there were two earlier races in 2006 on May 10th. The longest prior to this is over 5.3f at Brighton. Warwick run 5.5f races from mid-May and Bath 5.7f from late May.
• 7f races start in early June (on the 13th in 2006 with a selling race).
• 8f races start in early August (on the 10th in 2006).
• 8.6f races at Wolverhampton start in late August. 9f+ races start in September (on the 11th in 2006). Wolverhampton staged 9 of the 18 races beyond 8.5f in 2006. Of these 6 were maidens in the last week of the season. The small number of long distance races include a Listed race and a Conditions event at 10f.