The Future Of Horse Racing In Great Britain

The Office Of Fair Trading rejects the British Horseracing Board's appeal against the Rule 14 notice imposed upon it, as does an independent tribunal and, ultimately, a higher court.

The BHB no longer has a meaningful role and, when the Levy Board is wound up, betting operators - bookmakers and betting exchanges alike - negotiate with the racecourses directly, some of which band together into small groups.

What will be the end result?

The betting operators will want two, maybe three afternoon meetings, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.

Maybe two or three evening cards as well.

Maybe even two or three morning cards.

A lot of these betting fodder meetings will be staged by the likes of the all-weather tracks at Lingfield, Southwell, Wolverhampton and Great Leighs who won't see many racegoers through the turnstiles, but will be
compensated by a percentage of betting operators' profits/commissions earned from betting on their meetings.

The bigger racecourses putting on the quality meetings will have similarly little bother in selling the data rights to their meetings to betting operators.

It is the unwanted smaller cards, those fourth and fifth cards on a Saturday afternoon, those Bank holiday cards, that the betting operators won't want to buy.

Does this mean a host of smaller tracks will go to the wall?

Not necessarily.

Freed of the shackles of a Levy Board/BHB imposed fixture list, every racecourse can race as often as it wants to, and when it wants to.

If Hexham wants to race every Saturday, Hexham can race every Saturday.

The betting operators may not accept bets from there, the newspapers might not even carry the card, whoever replaces the ATR and its hapless business plan with a no-frills, pictures and betting shows only, TV service might not screen it, but the racecourse executives at Hexham and all these other small tracks will have complete freedom to stage racing whenever they feel it will attract racegoers/sponsors in sufficent numbers to turn a profit.

We could have mid-week days when, apart from the big meetings, all-weather racing is the staple, but a plethora of opportunities to go jump and flat racing every week-end - a permanent Bank Holiday feel to the week-end fixture list.

Point-to-points have operated this way successfully for years.

It simply means that off-course punters will no longer subsidise racegoers, but racegoers, particularly those with Monday-to-Friday jobs, are likely to find their lcoal courses able to put on more week-end meetings which they can actually attend, even if the admission price is higher.

It will put stress on betting indsutry employees and stable staff alike - and is another reason why these people need to band together into effective unions - but it will provide grater income and employment opportunities than ever before, while simultaneously giving punters more choice and better value than ever before.

Anyway, love, loathe, or simply laugh at, this scenario, I reckon it's the shape of things to come in Great Britain.