The new racecourses involved for 2022 are Hamilton Park, York and Pontefract, who will join Musselburgh, Haydock Park and Sandown Park – who staged the three fixtures of the inaugural series in 2021.
Building on the success of this collaboration in 2021, the Series’ objectives are to present compelling and competitive racing for excellent prize money to a new Sunday terrestrial audience.
The Sky Bet Sunday Series, which showcases the sport in a late afternoon slot on summer Sundays will offer total prize money of £1.2m. The Series will be open to all trainers who have horses eligible for the race conditions.
In 2021, the Series offered £200,000 worth of bonuses, and in addition, £10,000 of prize money for stable staff with Sky Bet also offering increased Best-Turned-Out prizes of £250 per race. Following consultation with stakeholders and horsemen, the additional details of the 2022 Sky Bet Sunday Series will be announced in the New Year.
The six seven-race Sunday cards will be showcased in their entirety on ITV4 and comprise:
- May 8 – Hamilton
- May 22 – York
- June 5 – Musselburgh
- June 19 – Pontefract
- August 7 – Haydock
- August 21 – Sandown
The series will endeavour to delve behind the scenes and uncover the less-told stories about what goes into preparing a horse for racing and what goes into staging a race day itself, as well as features on the grass roots, such as pony racing. It will also present a chance to showcase horses, trainers and jockeys who don't often get the limelight.
Leading trainer, Grant Tuer, said: "The Sky Bet Sunday Series was a most welcome, innovative introduction to the calendar in 2021, particularly as it was open to anyone who had a horse eligible to run in a variety of races on offer.
"I'm delighted to see it return for 2022. The prize money is exceptional, as well as the bonuses on offer, and we were thrilled to win £10,000 for the stable last year by saddling the most winners and placed horses. The sport also gets a Sunday slot on ITV, which can only be good news in terms of getting more people interested in racing."
Mark Trinder, Director of Commercial Sales and Partnerships at ITV, said: "After a successful first year we at ITV are very pleased to again collaborate with RMG and Sky Bet on this innovative race day format for 2022. Adding to our already exclusive and extensive coverage, ITV is truly the ‘Home of Racing’."
Steve Birch, Sky Bet CEO, said: "Sky Bet are excited to continue our partnership with the Sunday Series next year. We have seen great customer demand for good quality racing on a Sunday evening, and are delighted to expand the series to six meetings in 2022. The Series was a great collaborative industry effort in 2021, and we are really looking forward to working closely again with RMG, ITV, the racecourses, and Horsemen to put on another great show for racing."
Ed Gretton, Director of Racing at Racecourse Media Group, said: "The Sky Bet Sunday Series is a strategic collaboration between various stakeholders with a view to growing the value of the sport by maximising the Sunday opportunity for the industry and fans alike. The inaugural series featured highly competitive, good-quality racing, with excellent field sizes, and a fresh injection of significant prizemoney and bonuses. The feedback we received from racegoers, racecourses, bookmakers and the media has been highly encouraging and valuable in developing the Series for 2022."
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