SPORT 129

This is a mid-month update, because events are beginning to run away from me and weaknesses in my IT technology has let me down bigtime. More likely I  have let it down, but the result is the same: a sense of “don’t panic” threatens my comfort zone.

Chairperson Mrs Annamarie Phelps leaves the BHA in a fortnight. Probably a good move for all concerned. She is replaced by Joe Saumarez  Smith from June 1 2022 to the end of September 2023. Not such a good idea unless it is clearly understood that his role is to keep the throne warm until the succession is duly launched and duly processed. Nothing wrong with  Saumarez Smith, but  he has been part of the furniture at the BHA for many years and is therefore inextricably associated with the unsatisfactory service which the BHA has served up consistently over the last half century.

Was it six months ago that Sir Antony McCoy suggested that “Racing needs a Barry Hearn”?  He referred to the accountant who turned Snooker into a goldmine for the participants, and then did the same for Darts.

Interesting? I thought so, so I researched and found that he is married to a lady who has been breeding thoroughbreds for thirty years, and among the horses she has bred is Subjectivist,  winner of the Ascot Gold Cup for Doctor Jim Walker in 2021.

Anything else? Yes indeed: her husband  went to Ascot on the day that the horse won and decided it was the best day of his life – and he clearly meant it. In conversation with the press he did not conceal the fact that he knows all about British racing including the utter disaster which sums up its position as the poor relation of the world’s top racing nations – a situation almost certainly created by the chronic inertia of racing’s “engine room”, the BHA.

Could Mr Hearn save racing ? Sir Antony thinks so. I think it’s a “no brainer”, as they say. Has anybody at the BHA picked up the telephone to find out if he might be interested? If not, why not? British Racing needs a magician, because it is in a bad, bad, bad, bad state. There aren’t many magicians around. One is enough, and one might be available. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. I seriously doubt whether the man will cometh from within the BHA – chronic inertia is no joke. I strongly suspect that the Horsemens Group should become involved.

Wake up,

and best wishes,

DONEC