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Simon,
I know little about other sports, but I suspect the Premier League, the RFU and other major ruling bodies own or have commercial control of the fixtures.
This has been a long-running ‘sore’ with me. I’m told that the BHA had to surrender the fixtures because they could not act as a commercial body. I don’t know how much truth there is in this (they did then set up a commercial body in REL, so I don’t see how it could not have been handled by REL or similar). My guess is that the fixtures, their allocation, in-fighting, disputes about whether their value was being fully realized, and general hassle got too much and the BHA effectively said ‘to hell with it, let’s hand them over and see if they can do any better’.
Even if that was not the case and some ruling was made decreeing they had to surrender the fixtures, any CEO worth the title would have fought to the point of resignation before doing so. It’s like summoning a a general prior to a very long war and telling him he must hand over his best weapons.
So many of racing’s ills have arisen from all these fingers in the pie. It reached its laughable nadir when the grandly named Horsemen set up their group and put the deluded Alan Morcombe in charge on a huge salary. Mr M’s entire, and sole business strategy was to blackmail racetracks. The Horsemen eventually scraped up enough brain cells among them to realize what they’d done and got rid of Mr M, before retreating to lick their wounds.
Yes, there’d be court cases. Yes, there’d be more in-fighting, but in my view it would be worth whatever it takes for the BHA to get all fixtures back. Then there is just one proper power in racing. Then, we know exactly who owns the pie, and who can finally stop people shoving their fingers in it for their own ends.
Responsibility without power, without proper and full control, never worked for anyone, or for any organisation. The BHA can throw its weight around in certain matters, sure, but it does not have what it needs to promote the sport commercially. That ‘power’ sits with racecourses, and their use of it will be in the promotion of their own interests, not the interests of the sport. It’s a farcical situation and one which is on its way to inflicting death by a billion cuts.
Good stuff. Not sure the comparisons with other sports are entirely valid. Whatever power the EPL or the RFU have over their fixtures, it is basically moving an agreed set of fixtures around. What the BHA/REL need to be able to do is the equivalent of telling Chelsea they can’t play Everton, or that Northampton Saints should take three months off in the middle of the rugby season.
But I agree that the status quo in this area should be challenged. It may have been many times behind the scenes for all I know.
Do you anticipate Rust making a positive difference?
Who races and when isn’t important in this case. Ownership of the fixtures is vital because the owner can decide what price they should be sold at for the benefit of the sport, rather than for the benefit of ARC or of individual tracks.
Media rights costs are what has made racing the most expensive product bookmakers sell – it offers them a tiny net margin; they have no mechanism for increasing prices to combat cost rises. They can’t pay 6/4 about a 2/1 winner.
In the past 30 years, racing’s market share as a betting product has almost halved. The sport survives on income from betting. The situation is untenable, and the bookies have no commercial interest in arresting the drift toward death. If every racetrack closed its doors tomorrow, the collective sighs of relief in bookies’ boardrooms would be audible nationwide. No more racing would mean a massive reduction in costs, with very little sacrifice in turnover.
Sure, bookies still advertise racing in shop windows, the Racing Post, CH4 etc, but these are close to loss-leaders. Win the punter, convert him to buying higher margin products – football, dogs, FOBTs, casino games online et al.
Between media rights and levy, racing is on the way to pricing itself out of the market. I don’t know what Nick Rust will do, but I know what I would do: I’d take a peppercorn payment for media rights in exchange for a package deal putting racing at the forefront of every betting outlet. I’d make sure bookies got back to making a very healthy profit from racing, and I’d take a sizable slice of that profit, and invest for the sport, rather than paying shareholder dividends to ARC investors.
Of course, there are many more improvements that could be made, in stewarding, integrity, administration etc., but nothing else is remotely as important as ensuring a healthy long-term income. Without something to sell, that is impossible.
Joe ,,,,spoken like the true bookie advocate/ apologist that you continue to be
Just cannot take your points to heart ,as they are loaded in favour of the enemy within racing ….the bookies …and now the bookies rep about to lead the BHA …
.a joke to the world
sad indeed
imo
Firstly – a happy new year to one and all.
1) Removal of all handicap racing, and replace with a system more similar to the American model.
2) Return of novice chases in the NH sphere to give inexperienced horses more chance to learn their trade.
3) Imposition of a condition / requirement upon connections to prove the humane disposal of all horses at the end of their careers.
4) Efficient review of the fixtures calendar to prevent 3 meetings on the same day within a short distance of each other, as compared to other days when there is a NH meeting at Catterick for example, accompanied by another all weather meeting.
5) Extended bans for horses as well as jockeys when they have won but broken the whip rules. Jockeys are currently left in an impossible position when faced with possibly losing to a rival who may be willing to accept the ban in return for the win (possibly under pressure from connections).
6) Removal of bookmakers to be replaced with a PMU type system. The funds then being fed back into the grass roots e.g. re stable lad / lass welfare issues.It reached its laughable nadir when the grandly named Horsemen set up their group and put the deluded Alan Morcombe in charge on a huge salary. Mr M’s entire, and sole business strategy was to blackmail racetracks. The Horsemen eventually scraped up enough brain cells among them to realize what they’d done and got rid of Mr M, before retreating to lick their wounds.
Already my favourite paragraph committed to this forum in 2015 – succinctly, deliciously put.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
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