Here’s something even more irritating than Theresa May.

You point out to the BHA that big-field jump races (approx. 15 runners or more) are started in a most peculiar manner (quite different to the methods used for most British jump races), and it causes False Starts, Unfair starts, Dangerous starts.

Eliminate the most peculiar manner, you suggest.

The authorities are silent, but they do nothing.

Six years pass…. no change, but the BHA issues press releases at regular intervals declaring how pleased they are with the way in which their big-field jump races are being started.

Three False Starts on the first day of the Cheltenham Festival 2019 suggest that things aren’t all that pleasing. After Day One things improved, but I imagine that the starters had orders to let the runners go at the first attempt, or else…..)

Next case: the whip. One would have thought that the introduction of a pain-free whip was a game-changer. Pain-freedom changed the whip from being quite nasty to being quite noisy, but incapable of inflicting pain.

By all means introduce limits to the number of hits that are allowed. But bear in mind that those hits are not hurting.

So, has the pain-free whip signalled the end of the argument?

No way!

More and more paranoid with each passing day, the BHA insists that civilisation itself is under threat because so much of the population is disgusted by the noisy padded racing whip. In fact a tiny minority are disgusted (and they are never going to listen to facts or to reason). All that the “disgusted” element is entitled to is a cheerful reminder of the benefits which the noisy padded racing whip (a British product) has brought to the lives of racehorses worldwide.

A vastly greater chunk of the population are racing fans, who are satisfied with the racing industry’s policies with regard to Animal Welfare.. Between the two extremes there is “the great majority” which has more pressing things to worry about.

The BHA itself has more pressing things to worry about. Like the big-field starting malpractice and the defence of the Padded Whip. The BHA is letting the industry down on both counts.

The other participants in that industry are top class and determined to stay top class, in spite of the financial restrictions under which they work, which is another disaster area. And who is supposed to be in charge of finance? The BHA.

What’s to be done?

The last time I scrutinised a list of the BHA Board I found 14 names, only one of which identified a person who had had any hands-on experience of the racing industry. Could that be part of the problem?

Delight

I was highly delighted to see Jason Watson winning the Rosebery Handicap at Kempton, his first ride back after injury. From start to finish he made it look easy, which is a gift that belongs only to the very best. This means, of course, that those who enjoy watching top-notch horsemanship have something to enjoy while Briony Frost is nursing a broken collarbone.

Cheltenham Racecourse

I have always recommended (in jest) that all the buildings and enclosures and the winning post be picked up and moved two hundred and twenty yards to the left and downhill, thus reducing the run-in by about one furlong. Why? Because the course is demanding enough without that final slog up the hill. Note the term “final slog.” Racecourses are designed to test many qualities in the participants, but I do not see “final slog” aptitude on the list of those qualities.

My little joke, but based on genuine concern, which may or may not be madness. Humour me.

I would leave the buildings, enclosures and winning post where they are. I would move the fence at the top of the hill (reached after a testing uphill stretch and four from home in the Gold Cup, if I am counting correctly)… I would move that fence to the bottom of the downhill saunter that follows the uphill tester,  allowing the field to get a bit of a breather.  I am now getting confused because I want to be left with three more fences, and I want all unaccounted-for fences  to be moved a little bit closer to the winning post.

This would mean that the need to jump those fences correctly (whether they be three or four) would be the number one priority for the best part of a furlong further than at present. This would reduce the slog. “If Nature has provided problems aplenty, do not over-egg the pudding.” Aristotle said that.

The Tote

In 1928 Winston Churchill (Chancellor of the Exchequer at that time) decided that it made sense for the racing industry to be given the opportunity to make money out of betting on horseracing. He gave his blessing to the legislation which created “the Tote” as a Statutory Corporation.

Did the Tote’s status as a Statutory Corporation mean that the government was charged with long-term responsibility for ensuring that it did what it was created to do? Is that one of the features that identifies Statutory Corporations? Is that what Churchill had in mind, perhaps? I ask because I do not know.

What I do know is that no public money was used to launch this venture. Sportsmen provided the start-up funding, and thereafter the Tote made its own way to a position as a major source of racing’s income.

Privatisation was first suggested in 1989 by the then Conservative government following a study by Lloyds Bank into a possible sell-off. However, these plans were met with strong opposition from the racing industry and were abandoned by Home Secretary Michael Howard in 1995.

After the 1997 General Election, Michael Howard’s Labour successor Jack Straw launched a fresh study and privatisation was made a manifesto commitment in 2001.

To enable privatisation the Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Act 2004 was passed with the intention of converting the Tote from a statutory corporation to a limited company so that a sale could take place.

[Will someone tell me what that last sentence means? And  was there no further “strong opposition” from the racing industry? ]

Chancellor Gordon Brown announced plans for privatisation in the 2006 Budget and the Government invited a racing consortium and Tote staff to formally bid for the Tote by 26 January 2007. This bid was successfully submitted but was rejected by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as it was backed by private equity.

[That rejection amounted to the disqualification by a politician of a bid by “a racing consortium plus Tote staff”, a bid designed to endorse and confirm the Tote’s role as a vital asset of the racing industry, the role for which it had been created. What was going on? Apparently someone at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport had other ideas. It would be interesting to know more about this aspect of the story. There is something not entirely savoury about the way it is developing.

On 12 October 2009, Gordon Brown, at that point Prime Minister, announced plans for the sale of the Tote along with a number of other publicly owned assets, although no progress was made before the 2010 general election.

Under the new Coalition government, a competitive bidding process ensued with 18 bidders entering at the first round stage. On 31 January 2011, the government announced that a short-list had been drawn-up for the next round of the process but declined to confirm which bids were on it.

In May 2011 it was reported that only two bidders remained in the process, Betfred and Sports Investment Partners. On 3 June 2011 it was confirmed that Betfred had been chosen as the successful bidder by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, for a reported figure of £265m. The sale process was completed on 13 July 2011.

I understand that in July 2019 the next stage of the Tote’s existence will be decided and a considerable fortune will be up for grabs. If the legislation which privatised the Tote (thus making it sell-able) was not in the best interests of the Tote or of the nation, (or was an abuse of power, or a mistake, or an accident, or a crime), surely now is the time to turn back the clock and think again. Is it not obvious that the Tote belongs to racing today just as much as it did in 1928? It is also obvious that racing’s financial situation today is every bit as difficult as it was then.

The Tote is worth fighting for.

Best Wishes,

DONEC

If there are any rock solid reasons that prevented the Tote from playing a long-term role as Fairy Godfather to Racing, please let me know, as I am unaware of them. You know where to find me.