RACING FORUM

Posted: **Mon Jan 19, 2015 14:42 pm**

THE triumphant end to the British turf season has been dismantled after just one year with Champions Weekend no more following a number of changes announced on Monday.

Dubai Future Champions Day, which was moved to the Friday before Qipco British Champions Day last year, will be moved to the Saturday before the Ascot meeting this year while the Middle Park Stakes has a new home on September 26, two weeks before the Dewhurst Stakes on October 10.

The creation of Champions Weekend was hailed as a "big leap forward" by the BHA when the changes were revealed in 2013 and was forecast to provide "a fantastic shop window for top level British Flat racing generating a whole raft of benefits."

However, the experiment has ended with the weekend split up as part of "the on-going review of the autumn two-year-old programme" by the European Pattern Committee (EPC).

The EPC has also reversed the unpopular decision to run both the vision.ae Middle Park Stakes and Dubai Dewhurst Stakes on the same day by moving the Middle Park back to its traditional spot two weeks before the Dewhurst.

Brian Kavanagh, chairman of the EPC, said: "I would like to thank all the members of the committee as I believe the outcome of this year's meeting has delivered significant progress, while recognising that the autumn two-year-old programme, in particular, could be improved further in the years to come."