5 minute read
Ted talks
British racing must make the most of this opportunity
WITH MULTIPLE HIGH-PROFILE positions at the helm of racing currently vacant it is a vital point at which we can enact change, and the industry should grab this moment.
We certainly are going to have a Labour government and the last thing racing needs is an influx of failed Conservative MP’s awarded leadership positions and very well-paid jobs in our industry!
Not surprisingly three of the industry bodies that run sections of our industry, namely the racecourses, the stallion farms and, on the opposite side of the fence, the bookmakers, have some of the best brains at the helm; the organisations
are not going to let any of their leaders be poached away!
But now is the time for us to change things, and the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and the Jockey Club have a real chance to alter the way we run racing.
The Horseman’s Group is a valuable aid for the BHA in order to sound out the changes, it can’t change the structure as it tries to please too many industry bodies.
Having sat on the board of the ROA and the TBA for many years, thinking that each organisation could make changes at the top table, it is very clear that, although they both do sterling work in the field of breeding and ownership, they haven’t been able to drive forward any of the drastic changes needed to fundamentally increase
prize-money, other than implementing self-help prize-money schemes such as the Great British Bonus, which uses owner’s and breeder’s own funds.
The media rights and World Pool income have remained a closely secret and guarded by the racecourses, and the time really has come for one body to take the lead with new ideas and manage the income streams so that the owners receive better prize-money.
Three British racecourses are run very well – Ascot, Goodwood and York. All three give the owners a good bang for their buck – and that is right from prize-money through to the ownership experience.
This summer I have managed runners for clients at Epsom on Derby Day and at Royal Ascot and, sadly, I have to say that the experience was so underwhelming at Epsom that I left before the Derby.
There was a complete failure to look after owners on Derby Day unless they had a runner in the Classic.
Owners and industry professionals failed to be given access to the paddock in any other race than their own.
Racecourses often trot out the “Health and Safety” card, which I understand is a new world consideration, but the owners or their managers should not be the ones who are excluded for the spectacle and build-up of the main races.
Royal Ascot does a significantly better job at issuing weekly owners’ badges to larger-scale owners, as well as weekly paddock passes to those industry professionals who are doing a job on the racecourse.
Maybe this year there were times that it was overdone – getting into the paddock was often hard when many of the handicaps had 30 runners – but I was very fortunate to have a paddock pass, which made my working week extremely pleasurable.
Royal Ascot runs racing in a way many other tracks are unable to do so, too. Its ability to get participants from all over the world and give international runners a class day out is in a league of its own.
Ascot has modernised, recruited management from other sports, attracted sponsorship media rights and betting turnover like no other – it deserves to be a profitable course.
Through one week in June the track plays host to most rulers from the Middle East, as well as many representatives from our own British Royal family.
For an owner with a runner it is a broad experience and, as there are only ever seven winners each day, ensuring an owner’s “losing experience” is as good as it can be is just as important.
I think Ascot is well on the way to perfecting that.
So, to return to British racing’s current quest for its numerous leadership vacancies, the sport must find a person who can do (on a larger scale) essentially just what the team at Royal Ascot has done.
I know the Hong Kong Jockey Club has massive financial advantages but the HKJC did find itself Winifred Englerecht Bresges, who has helped ensure that the nation’s racing has become a massively profitable business. I am sure he is well looked after financially, but he has delivered.
We need to do the same in the UK and then ensure that those people taken on at the top do not get bogged down with the sport’s “traditional” ways.
We need captains of industry and people who might not “fit in”, are prepared to change the fundamentals and be more than happy go against the grain if needed.
This is a pivotal moment for racing and I hope the boards at the Jockey Club and BHA do the right thing and take a chance on a visionary person, and pay them top dollar for his or her efforts.
