THE great paradox of British racing is that it enjoys unprecedented popularity while internally lurching from one crisis to another with apparent relish. This ability was encapsulated yesterday when, at the very hour in which the Court of Appeal began a process that could impoverish the British Horseracing Board (BHB), two of racing’s leaders were publicly promoting the marginalisation of the governing body.
It will not be known for several weeks, at least, if the BHB has overturned a decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that would prevent it earning £100 million from the sale of raceday data to bookmakers. The hearing began and, surprisingly, ended yesterday. Judgment is expected next month and could even result in a referral back to the ECJ if it is deemed that aspects of the database principle were misunderstood.
In the interim, however, it now seems clear that two key BHB constituents will continue a collaboration aimed at taking control of the vexed financial situation. Owners and racecourses are unlikely bedfellows, chiefly through their inability to agree on the priority of prize-money. But yesterday, just as three judges were settling in, another part of London’s West End was digesting what both bodies seemed happy to hear described as a “love-in”.
In separate addresses to the annual meeting of the Racehorse Owners’ Association (ROA), Chris Deuters, president of the ROA, and David Thorpe, chairman of the Racecourse Association (RCA) each spoke of ongoing discussions between them, which could produce an accord to make the BHB a financial irrelevance.
Thorpe, though taking sustained criticism from the floor on the prize-money question, appeased the standing room-only audience when he said of racing’s funding drama: “The present situation is, frankly, a pig’s breakfast and we must never let it happen in the future. It is by re-establishing the true power of the racecourses and the owners that we will have a strong position going forward.”
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Deuters went further, outlining a vision in which the owners and courses combined. He said: “Together with the racecourses, we represent the product and, if structured properly within a commercial company, I see no reason why our product cannot be sold on all platforms to anybody in the world willing to pay the going rate.
“We’ve a long way to go but the first steps have already been taken with the ROA now being involved in discussions with the RCA about a prize-money contract for the period up to closure of the Levy Board. If we could achieve this first step, then we can surely rapidly progress towards achieving an agreed commercial mechanism when the Levy has gone.”
Given that the BHB is seen as superfluous to this brave new world of racing revenue, it was perhaps fortunate that its senior figures were otherwise engaged. Greg Nichols, the chief executive, was in the Court of Appeal through the day and emerged in optimistic mood. “The proceedings showed that the confidence we have expressed is not groundless. We had a strongly argued case,” he said.
Earlier, Deuters had described the ECJ decision as “the defining moment for British racing politics over the past year” and added: “I am pleased that the BHB is now making more optimistic noises but, unfortunately, the smart money is on the European Court’s decision being upheld.”
Warming to his theme, he went on: “What happened in the European Court last November was an almighty blow to racing. There have already been considerable financial ramifications and these are likely to increase if we don’t get a favourable result from the Court of Appeal. It is little wonder, then, that some of us have increasing scepticism as to whether database rights on their own will ever be a sufficiently robust platform on which to base racing’s funding.”
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Seated at the rear of the hall, listening intently, was Peter Savill, who, as the previous chairman of the BHB, devised and activated the database income stream that was to become so controversial. Quite what he thought of the meeting remained private but he raised the flicker of a smile at one observation made by Thorpe.
His first year as RCA chairman, Thorpe said, had been a crash course in the realities of British racing. “I had no idea of the huge complexities of this industry, the infighting, the capacity we have to tear each other apart and apparently enjoy it. Quite amazing.”