Ludlow clerk of the course Bob Davies today played down fears that Shropshire’s only racecourse could lose some of its fixtures.

A report in this morning’s Racing Post claims the British Horseracing Authority is poised to axe around 250 meetings from the fixture list for 2011.

It comes as a response to rapidly falling income received by the Levy Board from betting industry profits.

There are 1,503 meetings in the list for this year, with around 250 of those being BHA-owned.

BHA director of racing Ruth Quinn said: “Given the income and expenditure levels we are expecting from the Levy Board next year, a fixture list of 1,503, like this year’s, cannot be justified.”

The report claims that all the BHA fixtures could go, though Ludlow chief Davies insisted nothing had yet been decided for sure.

“At the moment, it’s a case of wait and see,” he said. “The certainty is that there will be less meetings next year, but the question is how many?

Worst case­

“Nothing will be finalised until the Levy Board meeting on July 14, which looks at what might occur. The story in the Racing Post is the worst case scenario.”

Davies revealed that Ludlow — who have 16 meetings scheduled for 2010 — would be affected if a decision is taken to axe all BHA fixtures.

But he believes that would be a terrible move for National Hunt racing.

“The only way it could affect Ludlow is that we have two BHA fixtures on a three-year lease, and there are two more years left on that,” he revealed.

“They are both afternoon fixtures in January.

“There are 14 National Hunt meetings in January which are BHA fixtures, which is about 50 per cent of the total in the month.

“It would be very bad for National Hunt racing to cut meetings in the core of the National Hunt period in the lead up to the Grand National.”

By CHRIS HUDSON