Battling for Britain - the future of racing

By Katie Roebuck
First Published: 07 December 2009 - Issue Number: 28

Consultancy firm Harrison Fraser have been asked to define a brand for British horseracing – to broaden the sport’s appeal. While most people agree racing needs to change and improve, there is no definitive answer on how it can and, more worryingly, there is no definitive person who can actually make this happen.

Racing Enterprises has spent a lot of money – hundreds of thousands of pounds thus far – on trying to find out how racing can widen its audience. What really is the best way to get racing in the mainstream and not disappearing downstream?
Harrison Fraser want to create a British horseracing brand people can unite behind. All good – but when Rod Street, project director for Racing for Change, talks about it, the jargon tends to take over. Mr Street said, “The job of the Racing for Change board has been to separate the tactical from the strategic. There are lots of straightforward items we can action relatively quickly, but it is vital we address the material issues that will positively affect racing’s future.”
Quite simply, the proposed changes to the sport seem to raise more questions and eyebrows than provide appeasement to those who want to see their beloved sport of kings return to its former glories.
Racing is one of the most popular spectator sports in the UK, but is there too much of it? Should the trainers’ championship be decided on prize money or number of winners? As for punters who go racing, is it so expensive they are put off returning again? Should racing be ‘dumbed’ down so it is accessible and approachable to all or ‘glammed’ up so it is a special outing, a treat to attend? What is wrong with having different tiered enclosures and different tiered races?
If there was one boss in charge of horse racing in the Great Britain what would he or she change?
Kingsclere trainer Andrew Balding said, “I am all for looking at avenues for the sport to evolve. The key thing for us is to look at new ways to fund prize money – like working with Camelot to bring pool betting such as the Placepot and Scoop6 into newsagents and pubs, etc. The French betting system makes the sport so much more accessible.”
But Balding...

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