Racing League names team managers ahead of jockey draft 

The Racing League will host a ‘jockey draft’ on Saturday morning (26 March) at Doncaster Racecourse to assign competing riders with their designated teams.

The draft marks the return of the Racing League – the Arena Racing Company’s (ARC) team competition for its second season.

Following its successful launch in 2021, the Racing League will begin its second season hosting Thursday evening fixtures during August and September.

The ARC has guaranteed a competition prize-pool of £2 million, to be shared by winning riders and trainers.

Ahead of the jockey draft, the Racing League announced the seven managers that will represent the competition’s regional teams of Ireland, London and the South, Scotland, the East, the North, Wales and the West, and Yorkshire.

Consisting of racing experts and figureheads, the regional teams will be managed by – Kevin Blake (Ireland),  Matt Chapman (London & South),  Linda Perratt (Scotland),  Rupert Bell (The East), Micky Quinn (The North), Jamie Osborne (Wales and West) and Leonna Mayor (Yorkshire).

Jeremy Wray, Racing League CEO, said: “We are delighted to announce team managers with such a wealth of racing knowledge and experience to represent the teams.”

“They will play an important role this year starting with the jockey draft on Saturday which is something new for the sport and adds a really fun element to the competition. 100 jockeys have registered and those selected will join over 120 trainers who have signed up across the seven regional teams.”

This year ARC will trail a new competition format, with each team providing two runners per race selected by respective team managers.

A total of 123 trainers signed up to be involved in Racing League 2022 and all have been assigned to represent either their preferred or second-choice region.

The Racing League will begin at Doncaster on August 4 and finish at Newcastle on September 15 –  taking in further Thursday evening fixtures at Lingfield Park, Newcastle, Windsor and Southwell.

All six meetings will be shown live on ITV Racing and  Sky Sports Racing.