Major horse racing meeting with 123 entered to run cancelled with immediate effect | Racing | Sport

A meeting at Brighton’s racecourse has been cancelled with immediate effect because of an ‘unfit track’. A whopping 123 horses were expected to compete across seven races for what was the first meeting of the season at Brighton.

The racing had been officially cancelled before the final declarations on Thursday. The first race was scheduled to be a Class 6 5f sprint and as pencilled in to go off at 4.05pm on Saturday.

An official announcement read: “Following this morning’s pre-declarations course walk, further areas of damage to the racing surface have now been identified in consultation with the BHA course inspectorate.

“With their approval, the racing surface has been deemed unfit for racing and the fixture has been abandoned.”

The actual specifics behind why the racecourse wasn’t fit for purpose are unknown, but the suggestions are that conditions at Brighton are seemingly getting worse. A separate statement read: “Unfortunately, the opening fixture of the 2026 season at Brighton Racecourse on Saturday 18th April has been abandoned this morning (April 16th) due to damage to the racing surface.

“The areas of concern were being well managed by our ground staff team ahead of the meeting through treatment to the track which had a positive and encouraging effect.

“We had also arranged movement of running rail lines and reduced the field size limits to counter the issues.

“However, the situation has worsened significantly overnight on Wednesday to the extent that there are now damaged areas on the track that cannot be avoided.

“Safety always comes first, and therefore we have been left with no option to abandon the race meeting with the approval of the British Horseracing Authority Inspector of Courses.

“We are bitterly disappointed that our efforts have been in vain and would like to apologise for the inconvenience.

“Looking ahead, we are doing everything we can to resolve the track issue ahead of our next fixtures on Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th April. Further updates will be released as soon as possible.”

Speaking to the Racing Post, trainer James Owen was unimpressed with the situation: “I’m very disappointed. They obviously must have known about this before, and for it to be called off so late in the day at the declarations stage, it’s unfortunate for owners who have waited for these races.”