HBLB Increases Prize Money Contribution by £2.2m in 2027 With Targeted Initiatives

The Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) has budgeted to contribute £79.33m to prize money in 2027, a 3% (£2.2m) increase on the 2026 budget.

The additional £2.2m will support four areas as proposed in a submission from Racing: further increased prize money for the programme of Flat and Jump Developmental Races; targeted prize money at the upper levels of racing to aid the retention of high-quality horses in Britain; an extension to the Great British Bonus (GBB) scheme; and increased support for the Mid to Lower tier of racing.

Next year will see an uplift for existing headings as follows:

• £1,607,000 to the Developmental Race programme
• £593,000 to the GBB scheme
• £400,000 to the Elite Global Group 1 Strategy
• £90,000 to the Incremental Prize Money scheme
• and a reduction of £200,000 to the Divided Race Fund, reflecting an anticipated lower take-up of the fund in 2027.

These five headings comprise a £2.49m increase in support for existing schemes, taking support for those to £79.618m against the comparable £77.128m initially budgeted for 2026.

The Board has also agreed £975,000 to enhance other expenditure areas.

Mid to lower tier support (£503,000) will directly increase prize money for Class 4-6 Handicap and Classified races on the Flat and Class 3-5 Handicap races over Jumps via the existing Ratecard Plus mechanism. The funding will provide additional returns to owners with the aim of incentivising retention of horses in training.

An extension of the GBB scheme to geldings (£300,000) will see, on similar lines to the existing scheme for fillies and mares, bonuses paid to British-bred geldings who win qualifying races, the aim being to provide an incentive to the ownership and breeding of National Hunt horses.  

There will also be an uplift (£172,000) to support increased minimum prize values in Jump Class 1 races.

The Board has agreed a change in the modelling for the Ratecard Plus system in 2027 which is designed to make less likely an underspend on budget. An underspend on ratecard expenditure, the largest element of HBLB’s funding, has happened in the last three years. The introduction of an “abandonments allowance” of £1.26m is explained in the notes below.

Taken together, the net position is:

• Additional funding for existing schemes: £2.49m
• Additional funding in other areas of the race programme: £0.975m
• Abandonments allowance: -£1.26m
• Net increase in budget: £2.205m   

The increased funding has been made possible by Levy income of £110m in 2025/26, and HBLB continuing to hold an appropriate level of reserves in recognition of potential risks to future income.

A series of targets and measurement criteria for the new investment will be agreed between HBLB and British Horseracing Authority (BHA).

The BHA’s press release containing further details of all the new initiatives can be found on britishhorseracing.com.

The overall planned split of HBLB prize money funding between Flat and Jump will be 61/39, reflecting the share of betting turnover generated by code in 2025.

Alan Delmonte, Chief Executive of HBLB, said:

“The Board is pleased to continue the trend of recent years and again increase its contribution to prize money.

“Racing’s submission on behalf of the sport’s constituent organisations proposed funding for a number of targeted areas. These were races in which horses begin their careers, Pattern races and a wider focus on the number of high-quality horses racing in Britain. The Board welcomed the commitment of the sport to a longer-term strategy in these areas.

“The Board is mindful of potential threats to Levy income including from the continuing fall in betting turnover and the reduction in the number of licensed betting offices. However, the Board’s existing reserves position and cash balances make possible an increase in expenditure for 2027, during which time further assessment will be made of the outlook for 2028 and beyond.”

Notes

1. The Board agreed the 2027 contribution following consideration of a joint proposal submitted by Racing organisations (BHA, Thoroughbred Group and RCA) and then considering 2025/26 Levy yield and the latest expenditure and income data for the 2026/27 year.

2. For 2026, HBLB initially budgeted to contribute around £77.1m to prize money, comprising £60.67m Ratecard Plus, £4.05m Incremental Prize Money, £4.915m Great British Bonus and Elite Mares Scheme, £0.7m Sunday Appearance Scheme, £1.3m Divided Race Fund, £1.383m Winter Jump Fund, £2.5m Developmental Races, £0.4m Elite Global Group 1 Strategy, £0.2m Increase in Flat Black Type Values, £0.76m Training Fees Credit Scheme and £0.25m GB Pointing Bonus.  

3. For 2027, HBLB has budgeted to contribute around £79.333m to prize money, including £60.67m Ratecard Plus, £4.14m Incremental Prize Money, £5.508m Great British Bonus and Elite Mares Scheme, £0.7m Sunday Appearance Scheme, £1.1m Divided Race Fund, £1.383m Winter Jump Fund, £4.107m Developmental Races, £0.8m Elite Global Group 1 Strategy, £0.2m Increase in Flat Black Type Values, £0.76m Training Fees Credit Scheme, £0.25m GB Pointing Bonus, £0.503m Mid to Lower Tier support, £0.3m GBB Geldings Extension, £0.172m Class 1 Jump support and -£1.26m abandonments allowance.  

4. The main component of the prize money budget is the Ratecard Plus mechanism (£60.67m), which was introduced in 2022. Under this mechanism, the sum that a racecourse receives from HBLB for each race is linked directly to the racecourse’s own contribution to that race. HBLB pays a proportion of the Minimum Value of a race and then a percentage of any additional Executive Contribution provided by the racecourse, up to a specified level.

5. The Incremental Prize Money scheme has been increased slightly to £4.14m (2026: £4.05m) in the expectation of more qualifying races in 2027. This represents a significant provision of support to lower-class races and will be administered via a per-race payment. The Sunday Appearance Scheme, meanwhile, has an unchanged budget of £0.7m. These two areas of spend comprise £4.84m (2026: £4.75m).

6. The Great British Bonus Scheme and Elite Mares Scheme will receive up to £5.508m, increased from £4.915m in 2026, with the new GBB Geldings extension receiving £0.3m.

7. The Divided Race Fund will be budgeted at £1.1m (2026: £1.3m) in the expectation of a reduction in divisions in 2027; while the Winter Jump Fund budget, paid as a contribution to prize money at certain January to March Jump fixtures, is retained at £1.383m.

8. The Elite Global Group 1 budget has been increased to £0.8m, with a supplement of £200,000 per race to support the total prize funds of the July Cup, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Sussex Stakes and International Stakes. These sums are in addition to HBLB’s grant to the races under the Ratecard Plus mechanism.

9. The increased figure of £4.107m for Developmental races will be paid via the existing ratecard mechanism, as will the additional £0.503m for Mid to Lower Tier support and £0.172m for Class 1 Jump races.

10. The Training Fees Credit (£0.76m), GB Pointing Bonus (£0.25m) and Flat Black Type (£0.2m) schemes have unchanged budgets in 2027.

Abandonment Allowance:

11. The Ratecard Plus’s open-ended mechanism by its nature creates the possibility of an overspend on budget should racecourses’ contributions exceed forecasts. To mitigate this, the Board and Racing agreed an approach in the modelling from 2022 that assumes all fixtures would take place. The observation of actual performance in recent years has allowed a more accurate assessment to be made for next year.

12. In recognition of underspends in recent years, and from a desire to align budgeted and actual spend, the Board has agreed to introduce an abandonments allowance for 2027. The Ratecard Plus mechanism will be modelled to a higher value than requested, in the reasonable expectation that a combination of likely racecourse contributions and abandoned fixtures will reduce actual spend to a figure closer to the requested budget, and therefore an increase on the amount actually spent relative to the initial budget than in recent years. The allowance is therefore treated as a negative figure.

13. In setting the allowance value. the Board weighed the scale of recent underspends against the risk that, if the allowance was set too high and abandonments did not occur at scale, actual spend could result in a figure some way above budget.

14. The Ratecard allocation to prize money is adjusted to seek to ensure an overall total HBLB funding of 61% to Flat racing and 39% to Jump in accordance with the turnover generated by each code in 2025.

For further information please contact Rob Bailey, Grants and Communications Officer, at rob.bailey@hblb.org.uk.