'A ridiculous position for a sport to find itself in' - Henry Daly blasts cancellation of small-field Newton Abbot race

Henry Daly has lamented the cancellation of a race at Newton Abbot on Monday due to its small field as a reflection of the "sad state of affairs" British racing finds itself in.

Three runners, including the Daly-trained Jimmy The Digger, had been due to contest a 3m2f handicap chase, but the race was removed following declarations as part of the BHA's ongoing efforts to improve race competitiveness and boost the appeal of racing to customers.

However, only 35 horses have been declared for the remaining six races, with the opening two races – a handicap hurdle and a handicap chase – containing three runners each. The biggest field is for the juvenile hurdle, which contains nine runners.

A race can be removed from a fixture only if it does not reduce the total number of races below six. A BHA spokesman said on Saturday that the 3m2f handicap chase had been removed as it had a lower rating band (0-115) compared to the other three-runner races (0-120) and was the fifth race to be cancelled this year.

Daly said he was informed of the race's cancellation at 10.30am on Saturday following declarations, and felt it reflected badly on the sport and made it unappealing for owners.

"It's a measure of the sad state of affairs we have got ourselves into as a sport," Daly said. "It certainly doesn't endear our game to owners. We find this race at Newton Abbot that other people have chosen not to run in for whatever reason; I tell my owner that if the horse gets round he'll win some prize-money and yet here we are with the race abandoned. It looks bad. 

"I can't help but think this is a most ridiculous position for a sport to find itself in. The problem now is that this horse has no suitable races to run in until September 24 at Warwick and that's a 0-140 – he won't see which way they go. Where is the encouragement to keep horses in training? There's quite a lot of disappointment because of this, to put it politely."

Improving the competitiveness of races on the Flat and over jumps is one of 12 targets set out by the BHA in November last year in advance of the introduction of the two-year Premier racing trial.

In an update last month to accompany the publication of the 2025 fixture list, the BHA said that the average number of runners per race at core jumps meetings in the first four months of 2024 had increased to 8.49, up from 7.98 in 2023 and 7.38 in 2022. 

Daly acknowledged the reasons for cancelling races with three or fewer runners, but did not believe any benefits outweigh the negatives.

He said: "I understand why these decisions are being made but you do get small fields for races sometimes. Do we go down the whole, 'we need more prize-money in racing' line because we are in a vicious circle here if owners aren't getting a chance to run and win?"

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