Big shake-up to Winter Million weekend with jumps fixtures moving to Windsor next year

Arena Racing Company (Arc) announced on Saturday that the two valuable Winter Million jumps fixtures will be staged at Windsor in 2025.

Under its new title of the Berkshire Winter Million Weekend, Windsor will team up with Ascot to provide three consecutive days of top-class jumps action, offering more than £1.2 million prize-money.

Day two of the three-day meeting, which had been a lucrative all-weather card at Lingfield, will now showcase the Grade 1 Clarence House Chase at Ascot, while the Fleur de Lys Chase remains the feature on Sunday.

Mark Spincer, managing director of Arc’s racing division, confirmed all three days would be covered by ITV and Lingfield would not lose its valuable Saturday card, although it would no longer be part of the Winter Million.

He said: "In some ways it's been the worst-kept secret and we thought it was the right time to make the announcement. We'll lift Friday and Sunday and drop them into Windsor, have Ascot on the Saturday, then probably have this card or one very similar at Lingfield.

Mark Spincer: "Windsor won't be a figure of eight"

"It's great for the sport. Ascot is one of our partners, ITV are in for the three days and I can't see anything bad. There's £1.25 million in prize-money to offer jumps fans and I think we've got three exciting days."

It was announced last July that Windsor would host jump racing for the first time since 1998, with the track holding its first meeting on December 15, this year.

Spincer said the ease of getting to Windsor was a factor for the switch, while adding that advanced ticket sales for the first meeting were going well and that he hoped there was a big appetite for jump racing to return to the track.

He added: "We're excited about jump racing coming back to Windsor. We've had to change the layout and it won't be a figure-of-eight. We've done some trackwork over the last 12 months and we've ordered all the fences and all the hurdles, so there are lots of elements coming together.

"I think the location is a little bit easier to get to and, with Ascot on Saturday, hopefully we'll see people come for the three days."

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