PLANS were unveiled on Wednesday to link ten Group 1 races in Britain, from the 2,000 Guineas to the Champion Stakes, in a £10 million points-based series that will offer a huge cash prize to the winning horse's connections.
The Sovereign series will be run from 1m to 1m4f, for three-year-olds and upwards, but with no race exclusively for fillies and mares.
The organisers' objective is to stage the events on Saturdays, in order to provide a promotional TV narrative through the main part of the Flat season, aimed at lifting racing's profile for a potential new audience.
The races, currently worth around £5m, will have an average of £300,000 added to their value. A £2m prize fund will be split between the winner, who will be acclaimed as Britain's champion Flat racehorse, the runner-up and third in the series.
Increased revenue from TV deals would provide the main series prize, and possibly boost prize-money on offer.
The introduction of the series in 2010 is timed to coincide with the first year of new or renewed terrestrial television contracts, which are bound to be negotiated with existing broadcasters,the BBC and Channel 4, and possible newcomers, such as ITV, with the possibilities of the Group 1 link in mind.
Three of the races - the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot, the BGC Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, and York's Juddmonte International Stakes, could all be given new exposure by being transferred from their midweek slots to be included in fixtures that must also be moved.
Racecourses have been involved in preliminary discussions on the broad outline of the series, which is set to beginin 2010, but executives were sworn to secrecy until the launch in London. The proposals have been co-ordinated principally by Andrew Brown, chief operations officer at Racing UK, in conjunction with a consultancy that has acted as an advisor to Formula One motor racing.
Brown said: “Sovereign series is a competition to crown the British champion Flat horse.
“Racing needs to reach to a broader audience. The Sovereign series is an easy-to-understand concept to take racing into the mainstream and to optimise the value and exposure of racing on television.”
The BHA, which is throwing its weight behind fresh moves to improve racing's overall profile, has worked closely with the principal organizers and will have input on fixture programming and promotion.
A serious consideration will be the position of existing commercial sponsors of the series races, which range from such as betting operator Stan James and BCG, Juddmonte stud and airline Emirates.
The organisers are exploring ways to introduce an overall series sponsor, which would not cut across individual race sponsorship but would bring in valuable extra prize-money.
The proposed Sovereign series races
1 Stanjamesuk.com 2,000 Guineas
2 Juddmonte Lockinge Stakes
3 Vodafone Derby
4 Prince of Wales's Stakes
5 Coral-Eclipse
6 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes
7 BGC Sussex Stakes
8 Juddmonte International
9 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes
10 Emirates Airline Champion Stakes
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