Protest at prizes leads to big snub for race

Britain's racehorse owners and trainers went into open revolt today over cuts in prize-money when a race with 49 entries at the five-day point attracted only one runner at the overnight declaration stage.

Rumours had been circulating that the LJJ Contractors' Novices' Hurdle, which is due to open tomorrow's National Hunt card at Sedgefield, would be the vehicle for a mass withdrawal in protest at the fact that the Levy Board has cut £6million from prize money for the last four months of 2003.

And so it proved, as when the entries were published at 10.30am today the sole horse left was the George Moore-trained Prize Ring.

Moore's fellow Middleham trainer, John Weymes, added Crosby Donjohn to the line-up when the British Horseracing Board reopened the contest but Lambourn trainer Charlie Mann said he expects at least one of the two to withdraw and render the race void in support of the protest by tomorrow.

Mann withdrew all his four entries from the race and admitted that trainers and owners had co-operated on the mass withdrawal.

He said: "We've all got together and sorted it out between us and it's simply a case of trainers not being prepared to race for such pitiful prize money.