Jockey Club Estates (JCE) has announced that it will reduce the cost of its Heath fees in Newmarket by 10% for April, May and June to alleviate expenses for owners during the suspension of racing under coronavirus restrictions.
Presently, the owner of each horse in training in the town is charged £132.90 (+VAT) per month to use the training grounds. These include 50 miles of turf gallops, 14 miles of all-weather gallops and schooling facilities for National Hunt horses across the 2,500 acres owned by JCE.
“With racing fixtures suspended our gallops remain fully open to allow horses to receive the essential exercise they need,” said Nick Patton, managing director of JCE.
“As we are fully operational our costs to maintain and run the training centres remain the same as normal so it has been a challenge to find a way to reduce fees to help owners and trainers during this incredibly difficult time. Trainers don't want us to reduce the service we offer. We have agreed a plan to cut fees by 10% for April, May and June and we will keeping everything open. Any surpluses already go back into the training facilities so with less income we will have to review our projects and how can be the best possible partner in the short term.”
The town's Thoroughbred population generally falls between 2,500 and 3,000 horses at different times of the year and while many of them remain in full or reduced training, a number of horses have been turned out in the short term until racing resumes.
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