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ROA ANNUAL RE PO RT 2020/ 21
P RES IDENT’S STATEMENT
A YEAR IN THE SADDLE — A STATEMENT FROM YOUR PRESIDENT
My first full year as President was not the year any of us expected. Racing has faced a challenging year that has posed significant questions about its structure, finances and future. The ROA has been at the heart of these debates representing all owners and we will continue this crucial representation over the coming years. I am extremely grateful to all the members of the ROA Board, our Chief Executive, Charlie Liverton, and the rest of the ROA Team for contributing so impressively during this exceptional year. Charlie and his team have led this organisation and its members through an everchanging landscape of lockdowns, restrictions and re-openings, fighting for the best outcomes for owners at every turn. It has all been done unflinchingly and with a consistent focus on the bigger picture. Building on their work throughout the year, my focus has been on bringing the owners voice to bear across the sport’s leadership groups and committees to ensure that owners are recognised for their contribution and properly represented and rewarded in the future. I have also been working alongside the Horsemen’s Group, the BHA and the Racecourse Association to bring the sport’s participants closer in order to secure the sport’s future. In general, we have seen significant steps, collaborating with the sport’s other organisations on considerable structural issues such as the Levy reform, prize-money and corporate governance.
The foremost issue for the sport is prize-money levels. It is the focal point of how owners are rewarded for their investment. I have devoted substantial time and effort into various initiatives to protect and grow prize-money, either directly or by generating revenue growth. In particular, increased Levy contributions achieved by reforming the way it is collected, and initiatives to make our racing product more attractive have both been, and will continue to be, priorities. However, increased inward investment will only benefit Owners if there are sensible and robust distribution agreements in place that guarantee prizemoney levels. Finding common ground amongst all participants has been no easy task. The conversations and negotiations around new commercial agreements continue and are moving forward. There has been progress and, with Racecourse businesses returning to something like normality, we hope to convert the discussions into a substantive agreement. The proposals around Levy reform have seen a cross industry working group formed, which has made real progress around what proposition would suit Racing’s interests best. The Levy, with its clearly defined parameters, is much more aligned to the Sport’s participants than the commercial world of Racecourse businesses. It has funded the majority of prize-money throughout the year and increases to this source of funding are a priority going forward.
Revenues from gambling are of vital importance and require attention as we head into 2022. Whilst political headwinds are always difficult to negotiate, the Government’s ongoing Review of the Gambling Act, the Government’s promised Levy review and potential reform of the Levy across both overseas bets and how it is calculated, all present a real opportunity to increase funding to the benefit of all participants over the coming year. Elsewhere, the ROA has made good progress on its own corporate governance and a review has been completed with a series of progressive and much needed outputs which will be adopted, subject to approval, to bring the Association up to speed in this crucial area. The first steps from this review’s recommendations have been taken already in our transition to a skills-based board to broaden experience and representation. The recent elections of Philip Davies MP, Mouse Hamilton-Fairley and Celia Djivanovic, bring a variety of experience and professional backgrounds to the Board and I am looking forward to working with them. This year has been a wakeup call for the industry as to what can happen if owners and the sport’s participants are not put front and centre. We have done well to focus minds. We will ensure that the ROA continues, across all of its communications and projects, to guide our sport’s leadership to improve ownership – as an experience and as an investment - and protect the future of racing. There are significant challenges in the recovery still to come, but the big questions facing the sport are also an opportunity. As we look to 2022, we will be focussed, as an organisation, on delivering positive change for our members and all owners whether its tweaks to race days or addressing the commercial structures that govern our sport. The coming year will undoubtedly present challenges, but with our excellent team in place and the new initiatives we have launched, it promises to be an even more interesting one than the last.
Charlie Parker
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