Just how public should stewards’ inquiries be? The debate has raged for years, opinions ranging from adopting the live transmissions favoured in Australia to preserving the old-school closed doors of the headmaster’s study traditional in Britain. Now, at last, there is official acknowledgement that the decision-making must be more transparent.
Adopting the Australian way, with cameras and audio equipment broadcasting inquiries to racegoers and even TV audiences, is one of the items on the agenda of the Racing For Change committee, due to report with firm recommendations next month. Meanwhile, a halfway house solution is already under way.
Paul Struthers, communications officer of the British Horseracing Association (BHA), will be at Cheltenham’s Open meeting from tomorrow to launch an experiment, in which the stipendiary steward explains the machinations of each inquiry on an audio clip, which will be posted on the BHA website.
“It is about getting more immediacy, so that people do not have to wait so long for explanations,” Struthers explains. “We are trialling it at high-profile meetings over the coming weeks before any firm decisions are made.”
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It is probably as well that Struthers’s present role is restricted to audio. He is not shaving through November to raise funds and awareness of prostrate cancer. “My bosses are dreading me being shoved in front of a camera,” he admits.
Within the Holborn offices of the BHA, there is understandable anxiety as the rulings of the High Court are awaited in the case of Dean McKeown. Mr Justice Forbes is expected to pronounce shortly on McKeown’s appeal against his four-year racing ban for conspiracy over the laying of horses.
It is not just the allegations of BHA bias, made in court by McKeown’s legal team, that are causing concern but certain legal points raised by the judge over betting by owners and corporate card-marking by jockeys.
The reserved judgment is expected within days and Struthers said: “We can say nothing until the outcome is public but there are certain issues we may wish to address publicly.”
Betfair, the betting exchange, continues to win enterprise and industry awards and to make the fortunes of its clever creators.
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Within the racing and gambling communities, though, they still attract high degrees of jealousy and suspicion, so it was a pleasant surprise to find themselves embraced fervently by such a fine institution as Ascot, when they became an official partner last year.
The love, however, only went so far. Speaking at a recent sponsorship seminar, Stephen Burn, director of horseracing at Betfair, recalled regretfully how Ascot, responsive to so many initiatives from their new chums, drew the line at one saucy wheeze - handing out Betfair-branded condoms to spectators at the Valentine’s Day meeting was considered just too risqu? for Her Majesty’s racecourse. Another time, maybe...
With the dire quality of so much Sunday racing such a hot topic, credit is due to Warwick. Its fixture on the first Sunday of December is usually a modest affair but it has been enhanced by a new three-mile conditions chase worth £40,000. Huw Williams, the managing director, fears it will be “a one-off”, but hopes otherwise. The response of trainers and public will dictate.
Observing Harry Findlay’s restless agitation during a race in which he might have had, shall we say, a fiver each-way, is an entertainment in itself. But Big H will be seen in altogether different action at Exeter tomorrow week. Diary can reveal that he has agreed to take part in the three-legged race around the paddock, run by the racecourse for Children In Need. Might even put more on the gate than Denman’s gallop managed this week.