Racing suspended until start of May

The BHA have taken the decision to suspend racing in England and Scotland until the start of May at the earliest, thereby ending the 2019/2020 National Hunt season and delaying the start of the Flat season. This follows the shift from the British Government earlier this week in their strategy to manage the spread of Covid-19, and to release ambulances, doctors and paramedics from duties on the racecourse.

“The BHA took the decision to protect essential emergency services and the health and welfare of staff working in the racing industry. Racecourses and racing have obligations to ensure the safety of participants and provide medical cover which clearly cannot be fulfilled in these circumstances. This follows the new advice issued by government yesterday to combat the spread of the virus.” 

Whilst it is desperately disappointing to be be losing the end of the jumps season, we must remain optimistic that racing will be returned to normal by the end of the spring. All being well come May, the bulk of Flat turf season will still await us, and we still have two exciting groups of horses to enjoy for the rest of the year.

We are forced to postpone the start of our events programme, but will continue to litter our members inboxes with videos/photos of all of our horses who of course remain unaffected as long as the lads/lasses in the yards remain healthy. We will be rescheduling all ‘postponed’ events for later in the summer and will have news on the new dates as soon as we can.

If you are interested in getting involved in one of our flat groups (very limited places remaining), please email sam@hottotrotracing.com. Best wishes to everyone at this difficult time – it won’t last forever and then some flat runners will be just around the corner!