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• Sires 2002-15
• 2yo Racing 2002-15

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?
6. How has the number of races on All-Weather surfaces changed?

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. In 2007 Paco Boy won a race also open to 3yos and Kingsgate Native won the all-aged Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes. In 2010 Morache Music won the same all-aged conditions event as Paco Boy, and in 2013 Expert was successful in it.

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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 Auction' 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. Use this link for the free online copy of the BHA's latest 'Flat Pattern and Listed Race Book'.

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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.
Note: Slump of Races into Lower Classes in 2011. See note below for a possible explanation.

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
2005	62	36	40	200	504	141	15
2006	63	42	41	250	432	124	7
2007	61	44	58	268	410	189	0
2008	58	47	48	322	416	157	0
2009	62	49	48	328	454	143	0
2010	62	61	56	316	455	133	0
2011	61	52	44	222	509	187	0
2012	62	56	51	209	492	168	0
2013	61	59	57	221	509	143	0
2014	61	55	61	245	508	117	0

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.

In 2011 the number of races in the Classes 3-6 shows a 'slump' with more races in the lower Classes in that range compared to the preceding 2-3 years. In 2011 the "Horseman's Group" became active in campaigning for higher prize money. The Group being a body made up mainly of owners and trainers and with no official role in the running or administration of British Racing.

One of their actions was to set a minimum 'Tariff' for added prize money for races within each Class. If a Racecourse put on a race at a particular Class level but with prize money below the Tariff then the Group encouraged it's members to boycott the race. The Racecourses were perceived as one set of organisations within British Racing which were getting more money out of the business than was reflected in what they contributed to prize money. Primarily because the racecourses had control over the sale of Media Rights. These actions proved successful to some extent with a number of 3yo+ races ending up with small fields. There was also an increase in the total prize money contributed by the racecourses by a 7 figure amount.

With the Tariffs set being linked to the race Class level one way for a racecourse to avoid a boycott was to keep the added prize money at the same level and drop the Class of a race. If a racecourse normally ran a maiden as a Class 4 in previous years they could just drop it to be a Class 5, and so on. For example, a number of £10,000 2yo Bonus races were advertised as Class 3-4 level at the start of the season and were run at lower Classes later in the year. The figures in the table above for 2011 seem to show some effect of this Tariff setting and boycott threat.

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5 furlong (5f) races are run throughout the season. The longer races began at these dates in 2014 :-

• 6f races used to start at the York May Meeting (on the 15th in 2013) but there were 2 earlier races starting at Doncaster on the 12th. The longest prior to this is over 5.3f at Brighton. Warwick start running 5.5f races from early to mid-May (first on the 10th in 2014) and Bath 5.7f from mid May.
• 7f races start in early to mid June (on the 12th at Haydock & Yarmouth in 2014).
• 8f races start in early to mid August (on the 7th in 2014 with Lingfueld having run a 7.6f race on the 2nd.).
• 8.6f races at Wolverhampton usually started in early September up to 2010 (the 10th in in that year) and 9f+ races started in September (on the 13th in 2010 at Redcar). This changed in 2011 with the first 8.6f race being a claimer on August 25th and even earlier in 2012 on the 14th. However there was no other long race until the 10f races started early with a Nursery Handicap at Bath on September 5th over 10.2f & a later start in 2012 on September 10th. In 2014 continued the later starts at 8.6f on September 20th with the first 10f event at Kempton on the 22nd of that month.
• Wolverhampton staged 14 of the 27 races beyond 8.5f in 2014. The small number of long distance races used to include two Conditions events at 10f with the Zetland Stakes at Newmarket & the Squirrel Stakes at Leicester. The Newmarket race was downgraded to a Conditions event for the 2009 running from Listed level (demotion of Listed races is a notably rare occurence). In 2013 the Zetland Stakes was downgraded further by Newmarket to be at Class 3 level, the same as the Leicester event in that year. 2014 saw a further change with Leicester dropping the Squirrel Stakes, presumably because of the notably small fields it usually drew.

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Remember that the table above covers 2yo races during the Turf Season from late March to early November. The totals do not include any of the 'Winter AW' meetings which has also seen a notable expansion in recent seasons. The increase in the percentage of 2yo races run on artificial surfaces in 2006-7 is quite startling.

Further increase in the percentage of AW races in 2012. Part of this caused by the number of abandoned Turf meetings through a wet season and a number of replacement AW meetings which took place during the turf season.

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