British horse racing loves nothing more than a new initiative being launched, and this week sees the latest instalment. It’s a joint venture between Arc (Arena Racing Company), ITV Racing and an events company called ‘Invades’, who run a variety of events aimed at younger people.
It’s a five-series event, all on Friday nights, with the aim of bringing good-quality racing and young people together, in a bid to grow the numbers watching the sport. The first of these takes place at Wolverhampton racecourse.
Of course, proof will ultimately be in the pudding, but in terms of entries for the first event, this Friday, it couldn’t have gone any better. There are seven races in total, and more than 200 entries have been made for the meeting. With the field limits in place at Wolverhampton, we’ll have fewer than 100 runners, but the fact that so many want to run is a big positive.
What is the Friday Night Live Series?
The latest horse racing initiative is the Friday Night Live series. Its aim is simple: to attract more fans to racing who are in the younger age bracket and provide them with something more than just the action on the track.
What will Friday Night Live bring to Racing? 🕺💃
Dominic Matcham, founder and Director of Invades, discusses with @olibellracing 🗯️ pic.twitter.com/FohAI15SRa
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) January 5, 2026
The partnership with Invades is key to this. They specialise in creating events and offering transport to events, specifically with students in mind. Not only will they be part of the organisation inside the track, but they’re also providing bus transport for those who are based in Nottingham or Keele, where they’ve been selling tickets, to help get people to the track.
Inside the track, there’s more than just racing going on. DJ sets are going to form much of the entertainment, and these are not like the traditional after racing entertainment we’re used to. Instead, entertainment will take place before and during racing, in a bid to keep everyone happy while they’re waiting for the next race.
Free drinks and even speed-dating sessions are all part of the plans, in what promises to be a race night that completely fulfils the needs of the target audience, 18-25-year-olds, but perhaps not the general racegoer.
Dates go from January to March, with five nights in total as per the schedule below.
- January 9 – Wolverhampton
- February 6 – Newcastle
- February 20 – Southwell
- March 20 – Wolverhampton
- March 27 – Newcastle
ITV will cover every race from every meeting of the series, and to try to fit in with the theme on course, they’ve moved to bring in a younger part of their team to handle it.
Megan Nicholls will front the coverage; expect to see her in casual wear, with a focus on the overall evening rather than just on the racing.
I’m not against ITV trying to fit in, but I do wonder whether their coverage should be aimed at those at home, who are likely to be racing fans, rather than trying to fit in with the people on track.
Can This Work for Racing?
The million-dollar question is, can this work for racing? I’ll answer by saying it depends on what you mean by will it work.
Will this attract new people to the sport? Yes, I’m sure of that. Is this designed to give non-racing fans the chance to enjoy a night out without worrying too much about the racing? Again, yes. I’d even go as far as to say you could go to one of these nights, have zero interest in what’s happening on the track, and still enjoy yourself.
But of course, the more talk like this, the further from a traditional day at the races this becomes. Will your regular racegoers like this? Unless they’re open-minded, I don’t think they will.
I never criticise anything that people inside racing try to do, because, as much as some of the ideas are bad, at least they’re trying.
The Racing League was bold and hasn’t really worked as well as it should have. We could be seeing the last of that series sometime soon. The Sunday Series appears to be popular, bringing good quality Sunday racing on a regular basis.
Now we’re seeing the Friday Night Live series kick off, and I’m intrigued. It’s not made for me, I’m sure some of the festivities will be far from what I’d want to see, but I’m open to it.
And let’s be honest, there has to be a positive in thousands being at Wolverhampton on Friday night, rather than the tens they sometimes get.
