British fixture list continues to expand

AN extra day of the York Ebor Festival, a Saturday start for the Flat Turf season and a dramatic increase in the number of evening meetings are the key changes made by the 2008 fixture list in Britain.

The British Horseracing Board have published the new calendar and there will be a record total of 1,504 fixtures, which is up 89 meetings and 6.3% on 2007, with 372 of those being evening cards.

That is an increase of 85 on last year, with 58 previously empty evenings now filled by racing, which will be mainly floodlit all-weather cards outside the traditional evening period of April to August.