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This is the latest statement from the BHA:
BHA Board approves core principles for innovation and improvement in the 2024 fixture list
Principles shaped by the work of the sport’s Commercial Committee and unanimously approved by the BHA Board
Innovations introduced in 2024 aim to grow the sport’s reach, appeal to new fanbases and better engage existing customers
Changes represent vital first step in longer-term improvements to the structure, funding and promotion of the racing productInnovative and wide-ranging changes to the 2024 fixture list based on several core principles have been approved by the Board of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA).
Developed as part of British racing’s cross industry strategy, the principles – which will be implemented and tested over an initial two-year period – represent an important first step in delivering more substantive changes to the racing product.
They have been shaped by the work of the industry’s Commercial Committee – consisting of representatives from the BHA, racecourses, owners, breeders, and licensed personnel – as part of efforts across the sport to develop a long-term, sustainable model for British racing.
The agreement of core principles for the 2024 fixture list is the first phase in the sport’s strategy to grow its fanbase, maximise engagement and generate increased revenues, which in turn will see increased prize money levels.
Work around the future racing product was identified by industry leaders as the most time-critical aspect of the strategy development, and this has therefore been prioritised to ensure that fundamental changes can be incorporated into the 2024 fixture list.
This wider strategic work is looking at a broad suite of customer-focused and data-driven initiatives around how the sport is structured, funded, presented, and promoted – work that will be further developed in the coming months. This sits alongside associated workstreams in key areas such as racehorse ownership, equine welfare, integrity, industry people and corporate social responsibility.
The principles agreed unanimously by the BHA Board that will inform the 2024 fixture list, include:
A “Premier” racing tier with higher prize money and more competitive top-quality racing featuring the best horses
A two-hour “shop window” on most Saturday afternoons with three fixtures, including up to two Premier fixtures, taking place during the peak customer engagement period (usually 2pm-4pm). Other Saturday fixtures will take place outside the protected window.
Piloting six Sunday evening floodlit fixtures between January and March 2024 – a time of the week where betting activity tends to be strong
Boosting Core racing – moving more fixtures later in the day in response to changing customer preferences, making the most of our Core fixtures during major festivals and supporting Summer Jumping
More competitive racing with a reduction in 300 Jump races across the year, and some Flat races moved from summer to autumn/early winter, based on data showing these measures will help increase field sizes and betting
Better quality racing on Sunday afternoons, including Premier fixtures.More information about these core principles can be found here.
These measures are supported by extensive research and analysis, underpinned for the first time by data from betting companies, racecourses, and the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB). The work has also been informed by customer insight, including from the Horserace Bettors’ Forum (HBF), and input from the industry’s Fixtures and Funding Group.
Further detail to support the implementation of the core principles will be developed and refined in the coming weeks and used to inform the 2024 fixture list. This will include funding submissions to the HBLB to support the delivery of the strategy, particularly around areas of higher prize money levels.
There will also be ongoing dialogue about how best to support racing’s people as the sport innovates the racing product and seeks to meet the changing preferences of its customers.
This will initially include discussions and recommendations around the number of breaks in the calendar, while a long-term strategy to future-proof racing’s workforce is developed by the Industry People Board.
Joe Saumarez Smith, Chair of the BHA, said:
“The BHA Board endorsed and approved these recommendations because it was clear to us that they were necessary and in the best interests of the sport.
“The information that was presented by the sport’s Commercial Committee included detailed consideration of both the upside and downside of all proposals. This allowed the Board to make its decisions based on the complete picture.
“It is inevitable that not all parties agree with all proposals. But it was for this reason that the new governance structure was agreed by the industry, so that difficult decisions can be made and there can be progress in the best interests of the whole sport.
“This wider strategic work is looking at a broad suite of customer-focused and data-driven initiatives”.
It was tempting to stop reading at that point. How much corporate management speak nonsense can you get into one sentence?
“Appeal to new fanbases and better engage existing customers”.
I have a feeling those two things are mutually exclusive.
It sounds to me as if all this statement is saying is racing is going to continue chasing after an audience that is not interested while ignoring its real supporters.
I know: they could make a video trying to sell racing to the audience that is not interested. What’s Jermaine Jenas’s phone number?
CAS,
As ever with these sort of announcements, the language is opaque. I mean what exactly is a ‘core principle’ other than a fancy way of saying ‘main priority’.
There was an article in the Post yesterday, with an unfortunate picture of J Saumarez-Smith at the top:
It makes him look like the winner of the Monty Python Upper Class Twit of the Year contest:
‘It was tempting to stop reading at that point. How much corporate management speak nonsense can you get into one sentence?:
My bingo card is still missing ‘headwinds’, ‘medium-term’, ‘going forwards’ and ‘year on year’.
I would say though that better utilisation of Sunday daytime seems like it could be a good idea. Not sure about Sunday evenings though, they were always dead in the shop I worked in, but it was a while ago now.
I was a bit surprised by the Sunday evening idea as well. Do people really want to go racing or have a bet at that time?
Agree the photo of Saumarez Smith is less than flattering but my initial reading of the management speak statement was it had Julie Julie Harrington’s fingerprints all over it.
It is ‘a time of the week where betting activity tends to be strong’ apparently. The bookies obviously have a wealth of data about betting activity but I worked in the shops at a time when online betting was starting to take off but before smartphones were in everyone’s pocket so I’d say a lot of turnover was still in the shops when I was there. Sunday was the one day where we closed at 6pm or so, they tried extending it but scrapped it because, er, nobody came in. I am not convinced that an all weather card at Southwell would have changed that.
One minute you’re at the Racing Post circa 30 years ago, glancing with wry bemusement at the latest ex-public schoolboy Brough Scott has fast tracked onto the news desk and being told he apparently changed his name by deed poll to Saumarez because he loved the Arc winner of that name.
“That figures – still, he seems harmless enough,” you think to yourself.
You blink and it’s 2023 and the bloke’s helping Julie “Colonel Hall” Harrington run racing.
Badly.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"“You blink and it’s 2023 and the bloke’s helping Julie “Colonel Hall” Harrington run racing.”
You missed an i out of run. 😉
Can anyone explain whether this is a Good Thing or not? I am not sure I cba to read through everything, but the only other alternative is Emmet Kennedy droning on about it for three hours on his podcast, no doubt accompanied by his new pal, that AWFUL Abbie woman he has on all the time now. And nobody can be done with that, surely?
Ok so you are an occasional or new racegoer fancying a Saturday afternoon at the races. So where are you going to go – your local track or a Premier meeting with all the best horses 100 miles away? Well you don’t know one horse from another so why drive all those extra miles. The local track it is then. But wait. Their meeting now starts too early or the last race is too late for the kid’s bedtime.
Off to the pub beer garden it is then.
What the bookies want,they get with the weak BHA.
They want lunchtime racing every Saturday and Sunday evening racing,the current horse population can’t facilitate extra fixtures,so we get this.
The de-cluttering of Saturday afternoons is just a smoke screen.Top races on a Saturday afternoon (except when there is something else going on, presumably), Sunday evening meetings in the winter (sounds horrendous!), promoting evening meetings and summer jumping, fewer races overall and more Sunday fixtures. That’s about the bones of it? Sounds as though they are pushing racing into oblivion.
Culling 300 jumps races is a good start but then moving 200 flat races from Summer to Autumn/Winter is a total cop out and will likely end up having a lot of those races being run on deep Winter ground. We clearly need less racing not moving races to different parts of the season.
More Sunday racedays (including evening floodlit ones) in theory sounds a good move but then the impact on staff needs to be offset and I think having no racing whatsoever on Mondays (through the whole calendar year covering both codes) could be a good idea….lets face it is there any decent racing on a Monday?
Windsor would have to move most of its fixtures if there was no racing on Mondays.
As for more summer jumping: does anyone actually know anyone who likes summer jumping?
‘As for more summer jumping: does anyone actually know anyone who likes summer jumping?’
The owners of Newton Abbot Racecourse I imagine, given some of the states it gets in over the winter.
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