Brighton abandons season opener after track damage forces cancellation

More than 100 entered horses were wiped out from Brighton’s opening meeting of the 2026 season when inspectors ruled the track unsafe and abandoned the seven-race Saturday card. The cancellation, announced on Thursday 16 April, came with immediate effect and left trainers, owners, jockeys, bettors and racegoers facing a sudden hole in the local racing calendar.

Brighton said the meeting had been called off because damage to the racing surface had created unavoidable bad patches. The course said ground staff had already treated the affected areas, moved the running rail lines and reduced field-size limits, but the surface deteriorated overnight and did not recover enough to pass inspection. The abandonment was approved by the British Horseracing Authority Inspector of Courses.

The scale of the disruption was stark. The card had attracted 132 entries, and the late decision meant connections had only a narrow window to reshuffle plans before declarations closed. Trainer James Owen said he had been due to send four runners and criticised the timing of the call, saying owners and trainers were left scrambling for alternatives and facing extra travel and fuel costs. For smaller yards in particular, a cancelled race day can mean more than lost opportunity, it can mean reworking a week’s worth of logistics in a matter of hours.

Racing Post reported that the surface damage was linked to badgers and birds turning up the turf to feed on leatherjackets, the larvae of crane flies. The problem had been identified a fortnight earlier, but a walk of the course by racecourse officials and the BHA inspector found there had not been sufficient improvement to keep racing on the card.

Brighton said customers who had booked tickets, restaurant reservations or hospitality packages for Saturday would be offered a transfer or a refund. The racecourse is now aiming to have the issue resolved before its next fixtures on Tuesday 28 April and Wednesday 29 April, a tight turnaround that will test how quickly Brighton can restore confidence in a surface that had already been treated once and still failed the safety check.