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Rachel Hood is the new President of the Racehorse Owners Association (ROA). In her first speech to the ROA she proposed a radical change to racing’s fixture list.
Part of her speech contained:
To this end, the BHA should immediately instigate work with the Horsemen’s Group and racecourses to construct a clearly defined three-tier fixture list based on prize-money levels for races and fixtures. The fixtures would fall within the three distinct categories. Let’s call them Premier, Middle Tier and Third Tier.
Both Premier fixtures and Middle Tier fixtures would have to comply with Horsemen’s Tariff values and race planning requirements. They would be underpinned by contractual agreements between the Horsemen’s Group and racecourses. There would be a prescribed number of fixtures in each category and racecourses would be required to bid for these fixtures on the basis of how much prize-money they were offering. Only racing festivals and the major jump fixtures on Saturdays would be protected.
For Third Tier fixtures, racecourses would be able to maximise their attendances by putting on fixtures on any days and times of their choice. There would be no restrictions on programming and race-type and no prize-money stipulations. Unfettered market forces would prevail within the Third Tier. If racecourses can attract runners, media rights payments and levels of attendance that make these fixtures a worthwhile commercial exercise for them, then it must be allowed to happen. The only stipulation would be for these fixtures to conform to the rules of racing.
Her full speech is at:
http://www.racehorseowners.net/en/news/ … agm-speech
Having seen the Horsemen’s Tariff adding nearly £7 million to prize money this year, are they letting this success go to their heads, or is this scheme of letting the lowest grades of racing only continue if outside agencies (bookmakers) want to pay for it directly, and only better class racing be funded by the levy or the levy-alternative, likely to find favour with other factions of the racing industry?
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At last – someone with balls getting to grips with racing’s finances.
Tuffers is on the money , however there is a danger here of letting the bookies feed the low grade fodder to betting shops for bags peanuts, then turn around and tell the courses et all to take a hike,as they would have enough to cover the betting shop customer needs
This being the case , we will see the great divide predicted by Zorro many moons ago when the post was worth buying , ie horse racing betting will be conducted on the exchanges , betting shops will havethe mugs feeding on virtual and bags trash
Which will then make life very interesting for the levy
Happy days Rachel …, only question remains is how long will folks realise that the BHA is at best incidental and at worst a cumbersome cost , methinks changes are afoot …and about blinking time Marm
Ricky
The ‘three tiers’ idea seems half-baked to me. She even says so
Today, I have given just the bare bones of a plan that requires much refining.
So why, then does she make the following urging?
But I have no doubt the adoption of this concept would leave British racing in better health and on the road to significantly improving its finances. We must do it now.
If the plan requires much refining why must we ‘do it now’.
The owner’s are pretty well organised – racing needs to be careful that the squeakiest wheel isn’t the one that gets all the oil.
The ‘three tiers’ idea seems half-baked to me. She even says so
Today, I have given just the bare bones of a plan that requires much refining.
So why, then does she make the following urging?
But I have no doubt the adoption of this concept would leave British racing in better health and on the road to significantly improving its finances. We must do it now.
If the plan requires much refining why must we ‘do it now’.
The owner’s are pretty well organised – racing needs to be careful that the squeakiest wheel isn’t the one that gets all the oil.
I think the “do it now” is to agree the concept that bookie-fodder racing should be paid for directly by the bookmakers, or customers who want to watch that level of racing (really?) or die a death; and that levy or levy-alternative money should be spent only on racing that benefits the whole industry. Once the concept is agreed, then planning the detailed implementation can begin.
I have not, nor have I ever been, a racehorse owner. But. The “squeaky-wheeled” owners and the racegoers/punters are the two groups that put money into horse racing. Every other group feeds off the input of these two groups or just act to redistribute it throughout the industry. The owners put in much more than do the punters. As in any business, it is worth paying most attention to those people who “write the cheques”.
Any woman who has a big enough personality to stand on an equal footing with John Gosden is no shrinking violet. Lord Derby and his legal and planning teams will not underestimate her again if he goes to appeal after her leadership scotched his plan to concrete over a contentious bit of Newmarket. The ROA have elected her for a reason. If I was an owner, I would have the view that owners pay the piper so they want a decent input to calling the tune. Rachel Hood is a leader and has political (small ”p”) nous. The speech is as much a message to the other players in the game as it is to her ROA membership. No-one is skilled at everything, but I am sure that the ROA have what they want as a President.
It will be interesting to see whether there will be a shift of power among the owners, the racecourses and the BHA over the next year.
So, from the BHA Annual Report we know that the number of owners is down.
And from this we know that the foal crop is down meaning less horses in training.
Less horses = less races = less fixtures
You don’t need to swing an axe yourself when market forces will swing that axe for you.
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If only that were true though, AC?
While the fixture list is hardly affected, we’ve seen swingeing cuts in the value of the better races, and courses deliberately downgrading any number of others to meet the Horsemen’s tarriff.
The sooner the likes of Rachael Hood and Mark Johnston can wrest control of the programme book from the behest of the big bookmakers, the better the sport will be.I guess my point MV is that punters have no such organised voice and rely on the BHA to look after our interests in the face of all those whose interests conflict.
I’d just be concerned (and this is a compliment to RH) that if the owners steam-roll the BHA into going ahead with thier suggestions it might not be in the punters interest, particularly if those suggestions are just a vague concept of something that might or might not work in practise (as seems to be the case with the tiered system).
I’m not sure the third tier free-for-all outlined in that vision would be in anyones interests. It’d be throwing owners of low grade horses to the wolves and would almost relegate that tier to the status of flapping.
I think the ROA are geared towards owners at the middle/top end of the game and I think those suggestions reflect that.
The age old problem of racing having too many diverse groups of stakeholders and the people who should be taking it by the scruff of the neck (BHA) failing to do so. Hence the squeakiest wheel analogy (and the bookmakers have always had by some distance the most audible wheel).
For Third Tier fixtures, racecourses would be able to maximise their attendances by putting on fixtures on any days and times of their choice. There would be no restrictions on programming and race-type and no prize-money stipulations. Unfettered market forces would prevail within the Third Tier.
See what I mean. Owners at the top/middle would, in this vision, be protected by contracts and tariffs while those at the bottom would race in an uncontrolled environment where the racecourses called all the shots.
Why should ‘unfettered market forces’ be confined to a bottom tier?
The bottom tier could be called "regional racing" and as it is difficult to handicap these letter lights we could put the horses into handicap rating bands.
Oh, hang on a minute, haven’t we been here before?
I came on this thread thinking I’d be attacking this proposal. But (at least at first glance) it seems a good idea.
In my opinion Peter Savill’s vision that every grade of horse should be able to win a race is wrong. The lowest handicapped of the lowest grade should not be good enough to win races in GB. Their owners are lucky to get anything back.
If this takes some rotten racing out of this parish, all well and good.
Value Is EverythingGinger I agree , but sadly business works on the principal of greed : ergo , if the bookies can get away with showing all of the low grade stuff, where finding a winner is harder than the lotto , its mecca to them
If I were in their shoes , I would buy all the picture rights to the low grade stuff, and tell all other to go away politely
Then just do deals with Ascot , York and Cheltenham for their festivals and away we go , job done , the rest of you guys can look to racing Uk and Market forces (he he )
Its a double edged sword Rachel, BTW Corm , nobody gives a hang about punters , never have and never will so forget that
Lets see what happens
Ricky
If this takes some rotten racing out of this parish, all well and good
There’d be no centralised race-planning GT. Courses would put on races that they could do as cheaply as possible – i.e the lowest grade possible. I think you’d find that the amount of ‘rotten’ racing would increase significantly.
If this takes some rotten racing out of this parish, all well and good
There’d be no centralised race-planning GT. Courses would put on races that they could do as cheaply as possible – i.e the lowest grade possible. I think you’d find that the amount of ‘rotten’ racing would increase significantly.
That is a possibility Corm, but the fact they are not getting Levy money is the main thing, it won’t interfere with better grades. Without it I am not so sure there will be a lot of racecourses taking the chance on lower grades. Bookmaker / sponsership will be key. Can’t see owners being interested keeping horses in training to run them if racecourses do as you suggest.
Value Is Everything
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