Government changes set to affect timetable

A week is a long time in politics’ – never has an idiom felt more appropriate. The UK political sphere has rarely experienced such an intense period of turmoil and flux. With Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s successor being appointed in the coming weeks, what impact will this have on British racing and are we edging any closer to the big reveal of the Gambling Act Review white paper?

The white paper has faced an inordinate number of delays since its inception in 2020. The aim of the review was to update legislation, originally published 17 years ago, to make it fit for the digital age. The legislative process has already taken 20 months (and counting) and bringing this to a conclusion would bring much-needed closure for gambling stakeholders and reformists. We are still hearing that this is on track for release in the coming weeks. However, with Parliament’s summer recess imminent, closely followed by the final stages of the election to appoint a new Prime Minister, this is looking increasingly unlikely.

Chris Philp, the minister in the UK government responsible for gambling, resigned at the beginning of July. In his resignation letter, he shared that “the Gambling Act Review is with Number 10 for final approval, containing strong measures to protect people from gambling addiction”. On one of the more contentious issues – affordability – he maintained that some checks would be implemented, a key area of concern for the British racing industry. Affordability checks requesting personal financial records before punters can wager as little as £100 per month could result in a drop of close to £100 million in racing’s annual finances. A recent report suggested that almost a third of punters would be driven to the black market should draconian affordability measures be introduced.

There are already signs that self-policing by operators has led to a significant decline in online betting on horseracing, impacting both the levy and the media rights deals that help fund prize-money. This represents a double blow to the horseracing levy, estimated at a figure close to £5m in lost income per year. Finding the balance between protecting the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable whilst maintaining and future-proofing racing’s revenues is one of the many challenges facing our next PM.

In what was more welcoming news from Westminster, the government has decided to bring forward the review of the levy system from 2024 to the second half of 2022. However, with the change to the occupant of Downing Street and the delay to the white paper, there is no guarantee that the planned earlier review will survive the regime change at the head of the Tory party. An earlier review is critical if racing is to close the gap in the real value of the levy, especially with inflation as high as it currently is. Hopefully the new government will stick to the earlier timetable and deliver some positive news to racing’s leadership.

The BHA’s whip report was published in July, containing twenty recommendations made by the Whip Consultation Steering Group, which was formed from a cadre of experienced industry personnel. Owners were represented by ROA Board members Celia Djivanovic and Tom Goff.

One of the key discussion points within the steering group was the validity of the whip in racing and whether it should be permissible to use it for encouragement or discontinue its use altogether. The agreement reached allows for the whip to be retained for encouragement, with the number of permitted uses to remain unchanged but with the action restricted to use in the backhand only. This collaborative, pragmatic approach to a potentially virulent hot topic was expertly handled by the BHA and working group representatives. As owners, we need the jockeys to obey the rules and avoid at all costs the ultimate penalty of losing a race. We know winners are hard enough to come by, let alone lose one for an arithmetic error.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the non-declaration of starters for the final race at Newbury on July 16. I echo the frustration relating to prize-money at some meetings. We know there remain certain races and courses that are not as well supported and it is understandable that frustrations can create a situation where things boil over. Let’s work together to address these issues and build a sport based on co-operation rather than confrontation.