Galloping Towards an Uncertain Future
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Online This special report continues on the web at HORSERACING www.ft.com/ FINANCIAL TIMES SPECIAL REPORT | Saturday June 4 2011 horseracing twitter.com/ftreports Galloping towards an uncertain future A sport in flux, racing This is horseracing at its most pristine – fine horses, watched Epsom in the familiar silks of black is facing a tough battle by wealthy owners and drawing tasselled cap, purple jacket and red to secure its longterm a big audience. Beneath the sur- sleeves by jockey Ryan Moore, showed face, however, UK racing looks real promise as a twoyearold. He was financial success, anything but polished. quickly installed as a shortpriced favourite writes Roger Blitz The sport’s revenues are for the Derby after winning York’s Dante under intense strain. Although Stakes last month, giving Saturday’s race the industry has a statutory its highest profile for decades. ll eyes will be on right to a share of the profits The Queen has had Derby runners Epsom on Saturday to made by the betting operators, before. In the momentous week in 1953 see if the Queen’s this amount has steadily eroded when she was crowned and Everest was horse, the highly fan- as bookmakers move offshore. climbed by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Acied Carlton House, can take vic- The betting levy now makes up Norgay, her horse Aureole came second. tory in the Derby, the most pres- 51.4 per cent of total contribu- Since then, the best result achieved by tigious event in British racing. tions to prize money. any of her eight runners was the fifth Some dynamic performances While the reasons for this place recorded by the latest of them, this season, notably Frankel’s have been bitterly contested Church Parade, ridden by jockeyturned storming win in the 2,000 Guin- between racing and betting, pundit Willie Carson in a race won by the eas at Newmarket, have pro- those who run the sport have legendary Shergar in 1981 (coincidentally vided plenty of excitement for gradually come to accept that the year of another muchwatched royal the sport’s followers. But mat- its long-term future needs to be wedding, that of Prince Charles to Diana ters off the track are giving founded on a more business-like Spencer). race-goers much to worry about. approach. The levy system, the You do not have to spend long in the This year alone, the UK indus- UK government said earlier this Queen’s company on a racecourse to try has been engaged in a series year, is outdated. realise how much she cares and of battles over the future of its Contrast the UK, where the understands about horses. But that is not funding relationship with bet- competitive and deregulated bet- the only reason so many racing people are ting operators, the sale of the ting industry is to the detriment rooting for a royal victory. It goes deeper: state-run Tote, the reduction in of racing, with France. There, they reckon that just for once in her life, a the foal population and a major racing receives 8 per cent of rev- monarch so steeped in duty and public corruption inquiry. enues – nearly €800m ($1,150m) – service deserves the unrestrained moment Around the world, the sport is from parimutuel betting, in of airpunching personal pleasure (not that in varying degrees of flux. In the which winning bets are paid at she would) that comes with leading in a US, an extensive review is under odds relating to the pool size, Derby winner. way into horseracing’s future, and restriction on betting compe- Crowning achievement: Carlton House, owned by Queen Elizabeth and today’s Derby favourite, with rider John Nolan Getty John Warren, the Queen’s racing while Ireland is suffering deep tition protects the parimutuel manager, has already relayed to the world pain as a result of the country’s monopoly. Indeed, racing tends On Her Majesty’s equestrian service A first royal victory beckons at Epsom her excitement when the still wider economic problems. By to do better in countries with inexperienced Carlton House burst through contrast, racing in the Gulf has betting monopolies, such as In 1992, a year of royal marriage world’s attention that even professional has turned out to be a personal triumph. a gap between horses in the Dante Stakes largely shrugged off the finan- France, Japan and Hong Kong. breakdowns capped by the Windsor Castle grouchers confessed to enjoying Now the industry is hoping that her horse, to assert himself and go on to win. “He’s cial crisis, and the industry is Even after France last year fire, Queen Elizabeth admitted to an themselves. A fresh and modern wave of Carlton House, can bring off the first going through the gap,” yelled Her faring well in France and Aus- introduced laws regulating the “annus horribilis”, writes Robin Oakley. But affection for the royal family was victory for a reigning British monarch in Majesty down the telephone. If Carlton tralia. But perhaps most disap- gambling industry, racing’s will the Derby help to make this year her unleashed. the premier Classic since Minoru won it House can conquer the cambers and pointingly for those who are share of the betting market has “annus mirabilis”? Since then, the Queen’s risky first visit for King Edward VII in 1909. gradients of the undulating Surrey track optimistic about its growth, the more than held its own. The The wedding of her grandson William to Ireland, during which her rapport with Carlton House, trained at Newmarket by and win the Derby on Saturday, it will be sport has failed to break into the first quarter of the year has and Katherine Middleton so caught the its racing community proved significant, Sir Michael Stoute and to be ridden at hats off with a vengeance. mainstream in new markets that seen growth of more than 3 per offer the most potential, particu- cent in prize money. larly China and eastern Europe. As prize takings reduce else- of the International Federation “Bookmakers cannot simply country’s 60 racecourses have time been brought together in a The common ailments afflict- where in Europe, owners and of Horseracing Authorities. The be expected to prop up a prod- been rising since 2008 and grew series to provide a narrative for ing racing across the world are trainers are increasingly bring- sport’s best hope is to lobby gov- uct that is declining in popular- a further 0.9 per cent last year. the less initiated, while some partly due to the effects of the ing their horses to race in ernments to increase betting’s ity without racing being incen- The Cheltenham Festival, jump fixtures have been shifted from recession and partly a result of France. A horse owner compet- contribution to racing. tivised to provide what betting racing’s prestige four-day gath- midweek to Saturdays to the intense competition between ing in France is more than twice The betting industry’s operators need to make the ering, drew more than 220,000 increase their visibility. sports for audiences. as likely to recover costs than response? Forget it. Racing, says product commercially success- spectators in March, while the Racing has also sought to The UK, the sport’s birth- one in the UK, which is not Dirk Vennix, chief executive of ful,” he says. Aintree Grand National attrac- tackle the issue of corruption place, has a strong claim to be alone in seeing a fall in the the Association of British Book- The popularity of racing as a ted a TV audience of 8.8m, more that has blighted the sport far racing’s heartbeat. Interest in number of owners with horses makers, has “an inflated view of betting product may indeed be ‘Racing has an inflated than last year’s FA Cup final. more than others. While eradi- Carlton House has spread in training and the number of its own worth in the market”. A under attack from other sports, view of its own worth In response to its problems, cating the problem is too much beyond racing, and it would be a horses taking part in races. commercial agreement between notably football, but racing in UK racing is pushing to improve to expect, the industry invests major story if he could secure “We have a big challenge,” betting and racing is the only the UK remains a popular in the market’ its image. The elite races in the the Queen her first Derby win. says Louis Romanet, chairman way forward, he says. attraction. Attendances at the flat season have for the first Continued on Page 2 2 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES SATURDAY JUNE 4 2011 Horseracing The speed and spectacle – and the irresistible lure of a flutter National that it was “better Racing also appeals to that US trainer, once said no man few ounces to spare, the new between the rider in the saddle its feet and how it looks at Inside Track than sex”. For those who love other basic instinct, the human ever committed suicide or man got a glass too!” and the animal beneath. you, and you must understand. ROBIN OAKLEY it, racing is about speed, love of a flutter. It carries a thought of retiring while he The sheer courage displayed Jockeys need sensitive hands, When I sit on a horse, I can spectacle and athleticism. It is beguiling whiff of risk and had a good two-year-old in his by the jump riders who risk physical strength and a clock tell its character within five about colour, courage and uncertainty.