According to some business types, strategy can sometimes boil down to choosing what not to do. Trying to secure racing’s long-term future is exercising lots of official minds around the racing world, although, it seems, with different degrees of urgency.
At a recent International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) meeting in Paris, the splendidly named Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, chief executive of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and IFHA chair, was in no mood for sugar coating.
“I would submit that we have the biggest challenges facing the sport ever,” he declared. “This is in the context of significant social, political and economic uncertainties – uncertainties we face in multiple areas.”
Since Hong Kong is one of world racing’s beau ideals for financial clout and popular profile, his warnings on the need to widen the sport’s fanbase, threats to its funding, and what was described as the sustainability of the thoroughbred were stark.
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It was little surprise that much of the Paris meeting focused on betting. Money speaks all languages and the rise of illegal betting hits racing bodies where it hurts most – in the pocket.
It’s also doing so right now. In comparison, Engelbrecht-Bresges’s comments on how racing is flirting with losing its popular relevance are intangible. They are vague enough to be put on the long finger by governing bodies busy keeping the bureaucratic carousel turning in the here and now.
That carousel turned in Irish racing’s favour in the recent budget. The Government gave an extra €2.3 million to Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) for 2027, bringing its total funding next year to €81.6 million. On the back of two budgets where the figure stalled, it was a welcome increase for the sector.
Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon made a point of saying the extra money put into the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund is linked to implementation of an Indecon review’s recommendations on animal welfare and integrity.
That Indecon report to the Oireachtas last year argued that a stronger public-policy rationale exists for funding of welfare and integrity programmes than for prizemoney, “given the public good” of the former. It even recommended some of the funding be “ring fenced”.
As is the way of such reports, maybe its existence alone is job done, another document to gather dust. Heydon’s reference could even be just a box-ticking exercise. But even at that, it is an indication of the direction of travel when it comes to racing’s broader relevance.
Convincing the public that the four-legged participants at its core are treated properly is the ultimate challenge for racing everywhere. It is existential in a way everything else isn’t.
Failure to invest in mechanisms that provide meaningful reassurance to a wider world ever more dubious about animal sports has the capacity to prove disastrous. Even a cursory look at the online venom generated by the Government’s budget increase to racing underlines the constant balancing act it faces to keep its vital social licence.
Recognising that should be part of the foresight and leadership that is urgently needed, according to Engelbrecht-Bresges’s comments.
It is particularly required in Ireland where racing has both a unique relationship with government as well as major economic status. But welfare continues to be a relative afterthought in a pecking order that seems strategically focused on ploughing on in the same old way.
After 25 years of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund, the Government’s funding safety net is more vital than ever since Irish racing’s other great financial pillar, the gambling industry, is in such a state of flux. Not that such upheaval is immediately obvious from HRI’s policy direction.
Much of its current five-year strategic plan is predicated on reaching over €92 million in government funding by 2028, which looks a no-hoper at this point. Another major element continues to be increasing fixtures, at the heart of which is the new Tipperary all-weather circuit due to open in October 2027, for which HRI has borrowed €34 million.
Much of the commercial logic for an increased fixture list is tied up in media rights sales and betting turnover. But the gambling industry reality has transformed. Racing’s significance to bookmakers is declining, betting shops are dying a not-so-slow death, and government instincts towards gambling generally are increasingly more hostile, particularly in the vital UK market.
Declining foal crops, less overall runners and smaller field sizes add up to a questionable rationale for a record 396 fixtures in 2027. If it made financial sense in 2024, the logic of lumping on an ever more uncertain betting outlook when the numbers don’t seem to add up looks increasingly like an old strategy for a new reality.
It certainly doesn’t smack of fresh thinking. Neither does HRI’s perpetual concentration on prizemoney inspire confidence that it’s got the strategic chops to navigate increasingly choppy waters. All of it underlines the potential long-term impact of stale ideas on a sport struggling to recognise that its self-interest is tied up in staying relevant enough for people to care about it.
Something for the Weekend
The weather gods look set to play ball and provide decent ground for tomorrow’s Champions Day action at Ascot. The going doesn’t seem to matter to Rayif (3.20) – winner of the French Guineas and Jacques Le Marois – who will be the freshest QEII runner having had just three starts this season. His trainer Francis Graffard could hardly be in better form and saddled The Revenant to win the race in 2020.
James Doyle has picked incorrectly from a choice of Wathnan runners more than he’d like, but he could have got it right with Division (2.05) in the Champion Sprint. Doyle has overlooked both Paborus and 2024 winner King Of Blue, and the choice looks significant. Division has had little luck this season, particularly on his last start. But a strong pace and midfield draw can help Doyle smuggle him into contention for a late spurt.
