Joe, that is a really substantial contribution with a host of facts, observations and arguments. There was an article about the Kempton closure plan in 2017, which focussed on Thierry Doumen’s dismay and the setting up of a battle by green belt protestors to stop the planning pernmission.
Doumen’s contribution strongly supports your arguments and Lydia Hislop’s about the suitability of the ground in the winter.
Jim Mullen’s approach, having come from the publishing industry and Ladbrokes, through whose eyes he probably sees UK horseracing, is, as you say, entirely lacking in imagination. He is just reaching for the first and most obvious means of raking in a capital sum. All the entirely valid and indeed, straightforward means of raising funds to develop the sport in the UK which you outline have probably never been considered. It must be asked what the credentials are of his financial advisers? Do their interests encompass the well being of the sport which could see it developed across the whole spectrum of tracks with the application of imagination and the sort of funding streams which you mention.
You have commented many times on the paucity of the leadership of UK horseracing given the nature of the tripartite organisational structure. The Jockey Club has a real opportunity to launch a real programme of re-vitalisation of the kind that you outline, but which is about to fall at the first hurdle. It is indeed depressing.