Racing in a recession

The lead story in Thursday's Racing Post outlined the British Horseracing Authority's plans to axe around 250 meetings from the 2011 fixture list in response to falling income from the Levy Board. Such a move will bring plenty of worries to a number of courses, with Saturday's Morning Line mentioning particular fears for the future of Kempton, Wolverhampton and Ffos Las. A report in Friday's South Wales Echo was more upbeat about the Welsh track's future while Bob Davies, clerk of the course at Ludlow, played down fears about Ludlow's fixtures in the an interview with the Shropshire Star. Having said that, attendances and betting turnover at the recent Royal Ascot meeting held up reasonably well; some commentators had talked about thinking the unthinkable and allowing race sponsorship at next year's meeting but that now seems less likely.

All of which brought to mind a review Mike Atherton wrote in The Times a couple of weeks ago of a recently published book, A Last English Summer by Duncan Hamilton. The author takes up the theme of the rapid pace of change in the sport that he loves - cricket. The changes are coming thick and fast, they're not always for the best and those changes tend to be driven by the harsh realities of participating in sport when the commercial world is on the brink of recession. Traditionalists like Hamilton look at their sport, see the passing of a way of life and express unashamed sadness at the passing of those old ways.

What struck me in particular was that racing faced similar issues - the work of the Racing For Change initiative came to mind. In a nutshell the message appears to be - enjoy the old ways now for they are likely to disappear. Change has to be embraced; failure to do so will lead to oblivion.

Of course, in the old days I could have provided a direct hypertext link to Mr Atherton's well-written review but The Times, operating in the commercial world, has taken the decision to introduce charges for its online content.

Like it or not, the money talks.

In brief

At Newmarket's Guineas meeting the layers were happy enough with a 33/1 winner in the colts' Classic (although I note the return was only £12.80 on the Tote) but the stewards' decision to reverse placings in the fillies' equivalent is thought to have cost the industry £5 million.

Having said that, bookmakers can't be doing too badly - look what they've been spending our money on. William Hill has sponsored the Monster Raving Loony Party during this election while Paddy Power has paid £10,000 for a new confessional box at a Catholic church in Newmarket.

Equiano's all-the-way win in the Palace House Stakes on Saturday was impressive. Channel 4's Emma Spencer interviewed winning jockey Michael Hills on the walk back to the winner's enclosure, while John Francome observed the entire looked 'ready run in the next'. With the bay still taking a strong hold, the microphone picked up Michael remarking to Emma, 'He'll be the first man to run away from you!'

Last week's Racing For Change initiative, offering racegoers free admission to several courses, appears to have been a resounding success but the trial of decimal odds at Ascot on Wednesday was branded a failure by several layers who reported a big drop in turnover and, as we all know, for bookmakers turnover is everything.

Finally, a National Hunt footnote to finish on; best wishes go to Robert and Sally Alner who have announced they intend to retire from training this summer. The yard won the 1998 Cheltenham Gold Cup with Cool Dawn (returned at odds of 25/1) while Sir Rembrandt was a particular favourite of mine.

Figures in the snow

The big freeze has ensured a paucity of form figures for jumping fans to study this week. Here are some alternative figures that have come to my attention recently...

William Hill reported that on blank racing days they were seeing a ten-fold increase in the number of bets taken on virtual racing. Julian Muscat's piece in Wednesday's Times quotes David Hood, William Hill PR director: "In the last week alone we have taken over 300,000 individual bets."

Tom Scudamore, who missed a double at Plumpton last Sunday as the result of a suspension, informed readers of the same newspaper on Friday he hadn't earned a penny since December 29th and was roughly £10,000 out of pocket. Riding fees are reported to have risen recently by 3% but, of course, if the weather doesn't relent, an additional 3% of nothing equates to absolutely nothing.

Racing for Change launched a ten-point plan with the aim of modernising the sport; a tweet to me from @Mulldog quite rightly intimated it's likely to take a lot more than ten points. The recommendation that appears to have received most press coverage from the RfC report is the proposal that in spring British racecourses will look to trial decimal odds in an attempt to attract younger people to the races. Apparently 11/10ths of the younger generation just don't get fractions.

On Friday Alan King's Karabak was well-backed for the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at Cheltenham in March. He's now quoted at 6s and 7s (from 10s).

Finally I'm informed the highlight of Bonhams Spring sale is 'a highly important racing painting by Munnings'. 'The Start, Newmarket' is scheduled to go under the hammer on Wednesday 17th March with the price estimate quoted as £500,000 - £700,000. Excuse me, old boy, doesn't that clash with Champion Chase day?