Kelso boss reports Morebattle Premier meeting a big hit and the result of years of development and preparation

Kelso hailed Saturday's Premier meeting as a success but stressed the strength of its Morebattle Hurdle card was down to years of work.

The flagship fixture, which carried £310,000 in prize-money, was designated as a showcase programme under the changes to the fixture list introduced in 2024 in a two-year trial of premierisation.

A crowd of around 3,500 was the best for nine years for a card which featured a Grade 2 race and a Listed contest as well as the £120,000 feature event.

Managing director Jonathan Garratt said: “This has been a four or five-year project, this isn’t something we’ve come up with in the last six months. It’s been developing for a long time. We’re really pleased with the card. It was pretty much everything we wanted it to be this year but we perceive it will grow further. That was always the ambition."

Garratt admitted he has "not been a fan" of premierisation, which is designed to signpost the best racing in order to maximise betting turnover and marketing opportunities, and said: "The intention to identify the purpose for different meetings is the right sentiment but I think it’s not nearly nuanced enough. 

Jonathan Garratt: premierisation "not nuanced enough"

“Jump racing is not the same as Flat racing which is not the same as all-weather racing. Each of those three codes has very different opportunities and quite different challenges. We need to separate them. For jump racing, for example, the top end is inextricably linked to the bottom end. We need developmental races on ordinary cards. 

"It’s a bit too simplistic, particularly in jump racing as the whole of jump racing is closely interrelated, while an all-weather card of Class 6 races has quite a disconnect with Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood. At Cheltenham next week, there will be horses who ran on a Friday at Kelso."

The fixture list shake-up differentiates between Premier and core meetings and Garratt said: "The problem with the idea of the 'core' is its main purpose is for betting. 

"Yes, for some fixtures it's off-course betting but there are arguments to say there are other reasons, there are developmental races or there are country racecourses like Kelso that attract a really strong annual membership and a fanbase who come week after week, they don’t differentiate, it’s all part of the thing that they love.

"Then there are courses like Cartmel and Perth which have summer fixtures where they have festival events; they’re not premier in the quality of the racing but they’re premier in terms of the festive atmosphere they deliver."

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