WATCH: Ed Arkell looks ahead to Goodwood Racecourse's 2025 fixtures

The racecouse will again stage 19 fixtures – four in May, four in June, including the Three Friday Nights series, the Qatar Goodwood Festival from July 29 to August 2, the August bank holiday weekend festival and three late-season meetings in September and October.

The fixtures are out and, Ed, it's pretty much ‘as you were’ for Goodwood isn't it? You've got a flow to the season, a formula you're sticking with – is that a deliberate thing from your point of view?

Ed: We changed the fixture list or had a play with it three or four years ago. We really like the combination we've got at the moment.

A nice start to the season with a two-day meeting, then a two-day meeting at the end of May and then it just flows away and works really well. I'm pleased with that and it's nice to have the continuity.

People know where they stand when the fixtures are coming and that works well. As well as annual members who are here regularly, you have quite a number of people who come to certain meetings and want those meetings to stay in the same place.

They might come to the couple of days in May. They might come to the Three Friday Nights, the August bank holiday or they might just come for the festival week. So I guess keeping it as it is suits a lot of the audience and helps people plan and keep coming back.

I think the balance and how the fixtures run, from a personal point of view and track-wise, works really well. It takes as much effort to get the track up and ready for a single day meeting as it does for a two, three, four, five day meeting. So it's nice to be able to have them in little blocks.

Then the track has time in between just to recover. We can do any light remedial work we need to, move some running rail, that sort of thing. And it works really nicely.

After the Three Friday Nights and the June Sunday, is it good to have a break ahead of the big festival week?

Yes – you get about five weeks between the last June meeting and the start of the festival, which you need. I'm sure that's about right for getting everything ready for that big week.

That's really key actually. The track's had a bit of a beating, especially if it's been warm and dry and we've had to put a lot of water on it in June. Those five weeks give us a chance to let the track down slightly, do a little bit of work to it and then use the final two-and-a-half or three weeks to really bring it back up to where we want it.

It gives us a chance to make sure it's in pristine condition for the main meeting.

One big bit of news for 2025 is that the Qatar sponsorship of festival week is continuing, as announced during the 2024 festival. That must be massive for everybody here and for the continued success of the festival...

Yes, we're hugely grateful to Qatar and Visit Qatar for their continued sponsorship. It makes the meeting what it is and we wouldn't be able to do what we do here now without their support.

They've been great in encouraging us to develop the programme and the meeting as a whole, so that's really, really important. It’s fantastic news of the extension and hopefully we can continue to go from strength to strength over the next two years.

The new deal comes at a time when racing is facing challenges. It's not getting any easier to keep top level racing going. What are some of the challenges facing not just Goodwood, but racing as a whole?

It's a crowded leisure industry these days. There's a lot of places and events wanting people to spend their money with them.

I think what we have to be true to that is that racing is a fabulous place. We have some of the best racing in the world. That's proved by the fact that we're getting international runners here, people are coming across, they're buying our bloodstock.

Organisationally, we (racing) are having a difficult time. There are all sorts of factors at play, but we mustn't let that confuse the fact that our racing is fabulous.

If you come racing at any of these big meetings – here at Goodwood, York, Ascot, they are brilliant meetings and you will see some of the best horses in the world competing. That's what we have to market and promote.

Obviously, it's difficult. Money is becoming tight. To push on and go forward, we have to make sure that whatever we're doing here, and any racecourse, is the best it possibly can be.

If money is tight, people want to make sure that when they go somewhere, they're getting the best experience they possibly can. We very much hope that if you come to Goodwood, you think you're having an amazing experience.

You look at the family fun days, all the free entertainment, children going free racing on any day, at any racecourse in the UK. That's a huge asset and benefit that we can give. Hopefully, we can continue to draw the crowds that we do.

The fact that crowd numbers held up pretty well last year must be seen as a sign that you're doing something right...

I hope so. Those events are very popular. The Qatar Goodwood Festival crowds were great, just about on a par with the previous year. That was great. Obviously, we came off a difficult and wet year in 2023.

That was one of those things where we knew it would be tough, but we had a great year. Hopefully, people that came understand what an amazing place this is when it really ticks and the weather's lovely.

Goodwood’s 2025 schedule

Season Opener: Friday, May 2 & Saturday 3

May Festival: Friday, May 23 & Saturday 24

Three Friday Nights: Friday, June 6, 13 & 20

Family Race Day: Sunday, June 8

Qatar Goodwood Festival: Tuesday, July 29 to Saturday, August 2

August Bank Holiday: Friday, August 22, Saturday 23 & Sunday 24

Midweek Racing: Tuesday, September 2 & Wednesday 24

Season Finale: Sunday, October 12