Constitution Hill’s win at Southwell showed the way to a brighter future for racing

There are times when it feels as though the entirety of British horse racing exists in a state of perma-gloom, bewailing an ageing fanbase, declining attendances and a moribund, factional leadership. It is, so the narrative goes, a sport in slow but irreversible decline, waiting for the inevitable moment in 10 or 20 years’ time when someone finally comes along to turn out the lights.

However, every now and again, there are moments such as the Friday Night Live! card at Southwell last week which lift the mood completely, and offer hope that a 250-year-old sport has plenty of running left to give.

There were grizzled veterans of many decades on the racing beat who were struggling to recall a more uplifting day at any track as they left Southwell on Friday evening. This one certainly was. While Constitution Hill’s astonishing, redemptive surge to a wide-margin success was unforgettable, so too was the buzz that surrounded him before and after the race.

It was there, in fact, from start to finish, on an evening designed specifically to sell the sport to a younger audience. The noise from the stands as the runners turned for home in each of the nine races on the card was clear evidence that the hundreds of students and twentysomethings who had bought tickets via the events and media company, Invades, were not just there for free drinks, the DJ sets or the speed dating.

The crowd was six deep around the paddock as Constitution Hill was parading, gave him a huge cheer on the way to post and then a wall of noise to run into as he strode clear in the final furlong, before celebrating long and hard around the winner’s enclosure. The horse was the star, but it was the audience and atmosphere that made the experience.

Invades has been offering cut-price tickets to the races – and other sports including cricket, rowing and rugby – to its young customer base since 2019, but has perhaps passed many longstanding racegoers by, because: a) they are too old; and b) the company generally targets meetings with “spare capacity” rather than high-profile events that sell themselves.

Dom Matcham, the young entrepreneur who founded Invades, is upfront about the company’s approach. “It’s about bringing that dance-music culture and party-like atmosphere into the sport,” he told ITV’s Opening Show this year. “I know for some people, that’s not what they’re after, but for a lot of young people that element is an attraction if they wouldn’t consider horse racing as their primary sport.”

Friday Night Live!, which is covered by ITV Racing on ITV4, got off to an unfortunate start when the first of five scheduled evening meetings, at Wolverhampton on 9 January, was frozen off in the post-Christmas cold snap. But the next card, at Newcastle on 6 February, pulled in around 5,000 racegoers for a meeting that had attracted just 314 a year earlier.

The meeting on Friday then drew a near-record crowd of 3,520 for an evening fixture at Southwell, a course that is, when compared to Newcastle, in the middle of nowhere. The same card had 320 paying spectators in 2025. While the numbers were certainly boosted by longstanding fans who were eager to see Constitution Hill, the younger racegoers with Invades tickets would have been there regardless and the buzz would not have been the same without them.

For some on the sport’s more traditional wing, of course, an influx of youngsters to racecourses is less of a cause, something to celebrate. The complaints were somewhat similar when music nights became increasingly popular about 30 years ago: they don’t care about the horses, they don’t bet enough and they’re only there to get drunk and party. Now, we live in a racing world where Newmarket regularly gets a bigger crowd for a midsummer card of handicaps with a big-name performer after racing than it does for the 2,000 Guineas. Thus far, the sky has not fallen in.

No one would suggest that a handful of meetings in the depths of winter are about to address British racing’s deeper structural problems around governance, low prize money and a declining foal crop. But a substantial live audience has always been one of British racing’s fundamental strengths and the envy of countries like France and the US where prize money is substantially higher but even Group and Graded races often play out in front of empty stands.

A positive first impression of any new experience is essential if it is going to be repeated and there can have been few complaints on that score at Southwell on Friday. It may be months or years before some of the young racegoers at Southwell on Friday return to a track. Plenty, perhaps, never will. But seeds will have been planted and if even a handful end up as the regular racegoers, and perhaps owners, of 20 years’ hence, that “spare capacity” will have been usefully employed.

A final thought to bear in mind, meanwhile, is that Constitution Hill’s fan club expanded significantly on Friday evening, as did the range of possibilities now open to him on the Flat. The Melbourne Cup at Flemington in November is suddenly a realistic option.

That can only add to the pressure on Nicky Henderson and Michael Buckley, his trainer and owner, as they ponder whether to send him to Cheltenham next month for another tilt at the Champion Hurdle. After three falls in his last four races, the first of which, in the same race 12 months ago, marked the point where it all started to go wrong for one of the hurdling greats, the essential question is whether one more run over jumps for Constitution Hill is worth the risk. And if you need to ask that, you surely know the right answer, too.