Savill Says British Racing On Eve of Destruction

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Peter Savill, entering the final year of his chairmanship on the British Horseracing Board, has warned that the racing industry in Britain is under grave threat.

Speaking to the BHB on June 12, Savill said: "I would be failing in my duty as chairman if I did not warn you of the serious danger to this industry posed by the Office of Fair Trading's Rule 14 Notice, which threatens the very foundations of British racing and everything that has been achieved these past five years."

The Office of Fair Trading, a government-appointed body, has said racecourses should be free to arrange their own fixtures, data should be able to be bought direct from racecourses, collective selling of rights was not acceptable, and racecourses should be able to set their own race programs and prize money levels.

Savill argued: "The moment racecourses are allowed by the OFT to race when they want will be the moment that British racing comes under the complete control of the bookmakers.

"Instead of the BHB setting the fixture list to ensure a balancing of interests between all of racing's customers, the betting industry will immediately take charge of the decision as to which racecourses are granted fixtures, when they can race, and what specific races they can put on."

He explained that with the supply of racing likely to be way beyond demand in this scenario, bookmakers will be able to dictate terms, thus reducing payments sharply. Jump racing would be threatened and quality in Flat racing would suffer.

Savill continued: "And then, will we be able to say that we still have the best racing product in the world? Will the Maktoum family agree with the OFT that prize money is unimportant and continue to provide employment for thousands of people, and pleasure for millions, who love racing in Britain only because we have so far managed to hang on to the best horses in the world and managed to persuade our major owners that we are confident that we can improve the financial position of British racing to match that of the countless other major racing nations which the OFT appears to have concluded are not in the same market as us?

" Will the OFT still be telling us that we don't compete with other racing nations when our overseas owners who have made British racing what it is fly all their horses at 24 hours' notice to another jurisdiction, never to return?"

However, Savill is open to constructive changes, which will allow more competition.

He added: "I have recently made six basic recommendations to a sub-committee of the BHB Board, set up to consider the financing, administration and governance of racing and I hope these recommendations will form the basis of a new structure that everyone can support and which will satisfy the OFT's requirement for greater competition.

"First, I believe it is time for BHB to withdraw directly from commercial activity and take on the role of a more conventional governing body...There has been too much friction between BHB and the Racecourse Association the past couple of years over BHB's involvement in commercial matters

"Second, the commercial negotiation of rights should be carried out by a separate commercial entity with a separate independent chairman and chief executive and a board consisting of racecourses, owners, independents and one BHB representative.

"My third recommendation is that the commercial entity must insist on being able to negotiate its betting rights centrally with the bookmakers, for it is impractical to expect either bookmakers or individual sectors of racing to negotiate as individuals.

"The strength of the negotiating position undoubtedly lies with the betting industry, 'the collective buyer', which has countless other products to sell, while British racing continues to be denied by government the right to sell its product through any other retail outlet than licensed betting offices.

"The fourth recommendation is that income from betting rights should be hypothecated, in other words allocated according to how much each fixture generates in betting turnover. Any other system is hard to justify to either a racecourse or the OFT.

"Fifth, the BHB board needs to be restructured. Without the removal of the duplication of sectional interests around the board table and the further expansion in the number of independent directors, the board will probably find it impossible to attract a worthwhile candidate to take over as chairman. I certainly couldn't recommend anyone to take on the job under the present structure.

"I have suggested that the board should consider replicating the structure of the eight-man Levy Board, with which racecourses feel particularly comfortable, but replacing the two bookmaking representatives with the chairman of the Regulatory Board and the chief executive of BHB.

"And finally, and most importantly, I have recommended that the industry resist all attempts at a fixture free for all."

Savill concluded by asking all factions in racing to pull together and work towards a joint solution to the OFT threat.

He said: "The choice is simple. Unite and prosper or divide and be destroyed. I can't put it any clearer than that."

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