tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42949075213188490972024-03-13T20:28:57.158+00:00The Owners OpinionThe positives and negatives of race horse ownership, written by Jon Hughes and guests.Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.comBlogger182125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-25113132779130018262020-12-01T00:00:00.025+00:002020-12-01T00:00:11.086+00:00All Change with the Final Owners’ Opinion Blog – But don’t worry, we’ll be continuing the campaigns under the Keep Owners in Racing banner from 1st January<p>When we set up Owners for Owners back in 2012 as a not-for-profit organisation, our goal was to encourage owners to get together to share the costs, risks and pleasures of owning racehorses. We’ve had a lot of success, not just with the racehorses on the track but also with the super friendships across the network of owners we have built up. Long may that continue! We’re currently working on a complete rebuilding of the web site, <a href="http://www.ownersforowners.co.uk">www.ownersforowners.co.uk</a>, which we hope will be live by 1st January. The current web site will then be archived, so if you would like to download any materials from the site, please do so during December.</p>
<p>However, our campaigns to secure a better deal for owners will most definitely continue. We’ll be using the <a href="http://www.keepownersinracing.com">www.keepownersinracing.com</a> web site for this, and as you may already have seen, we’ve been creating lots of reports, blogs and films to promote the cause. Here are two of the latest KOIR blogs.</p>
<p><b>Get Counting – Time to Register Every Owner and Properly Understand the Ownership Base</b></p>
<p>An entertaining article by Peter Scargill from the virtual Racing Post Arms suggested a tiered system of ownership for segmenting sole owners from syndicate members on the racecourse. This is a sensible suggestion but it needs to be underpinned by data otherwise it could have a negative impact on the overall level of ownership.</p>
<p>Surely nobody would argue that a syndicate member with 5% of one horse should enjoy the same on course privileges as a sole owner. But what about the syndicate member who owns 10% of ten horses or an individual who owns a leg in four horses?</p>
<p>The sensible way forward is for all the % shares of each owner to be aggregated and for the resultant data to drive a multi-tiered/ segmented ownership hierarchy. For example , Platinum for those owners with the % equivalent of five horses or more, Gold for those with 100% or more, Silver for those with 50% or more and Bronze for the rest. Racecourses could determine which level of ownership status would gain access to Owners & Trainers facilities on certain days. For instance, with an ordinary midweek meeting the racecourse might grant access to all ownership levels but a big Saturday meeting might allow just Platinum and Gold. Indeed, such status levels could increase ownership by encouraging owners to buy extra shares so they could get to the next level.</p>
<p>But there is a huge problem.</p>
<p>Racing cannot set sensible thresholds for ownership status because it doesn’t currently know what thousands of its owners actually own. There are around 35,000 owners in the UK but only 14,000 are registered and even being registered only provides a partial picture of what an owner actually contributes to the sport. I’m involved in 19 horses but am the registered owner of just one of them. The sport doesn’t know what I own in total. I’ve been a member of the ROA for five years but they haven’t a clue either. I know scores of other owners who are investing £50k+ a year in the sport yet don’t appear on it’s radar. So taking the simplistic but ultimately flawed option of tiering ownership on a sole owners v the rest approach could cause British Racing to lose large numbers of owners who invest substantially in the sport.</p>
<p>The answer is simple. Every owner and every share they own, no matter how small, MUST be registered. This would reassure owners that they actually own what they think they own and would enable the sport to finally understand its ownership base. Then, and only then, could it introduce a tiered ownership approach safe in the knowledge that it understands the value of every individual owner. The inevitable complaints about extra bureaucracy and administration should be ignored because the prize for the sport is so much greater.</p>
<p><b>Ownership Strategy: What Do You Think Of It So Far? – Rubbish</b></p><p>In the last couple of weeks I’ve spoken to almost as many journalists as I’ve had bottles of champagne to celebrate winners – and I’ve had a few! A number of articles have come out already, in the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and the Racing Post. The theme is the Ownership Strategy, or rather, its absence, despite the sudden release of almost 200 pages by the ROA on 3rd November – not a bad day to bury voluminous information, as it was the US Presidential election and two days before lockdown.</p>
<p>Incredibly, the biggest document, an 166-page slide pack, was produced in 2017, so why on earth it has not been publicly released before is beyond me. The Horsemen’s Group are passionate about transparency but not, apparently, when it comes to their own discussions and decision-making. This document passes the first part of my “half-life test” for British Racing decision-making, i.e. three years to produce a report, followed by three years to bury it. I could not help but quote Eric Morecambe! They are beautiful documents from a design standpoint but “rubbish” from a strategic perspective. Here’s why:</p>
<ol>
<li><b>Is there a strategy?</b> The greatest academic in strategy in the world is Professor Richard Rummelt of the University of Southern California. He describes most strategies as “garbage”, long “laundry lists”, “statements of desire” that avoid dealing with the small number of difficult, complex, critical issues; peppered with a huge number of “f” words – “fluff” and “flannel”. All the ROA documentation confirms is that they have not produced a strategy, despite being paid £1.2m to do so.</li>
<li><b>Is it an Industry-wide Ownership Strategy? </b> No. Somewhere along the line from 2017 it has morphed into what, in effect, is an ROA membership drive. I have no problems with the ROA trying to attract more members, but they were given the task of finding out ways of retaining and attracting owners to the sport, which is not the same thing.</li>
<li><b>Is it capable of being implemented?</b> As there is absolutely no plan of campaign, no road map, no targets or deliverables, no resource plan or funding model, you quickly conclude that the answer is “no”.
</li><li><b>Has the so-called “strategy” been scrutinised? </b> There’s no evidence to say that it has. While doubtless a number of individuals are aware of these documents, there has been no challenge process and therefore the ROA has not been held to account. Indeed, and going somewhat further, if you asked the board members of the ROA under oath about their sight and scrutiny of these documents, I believe that some would confirm that they weren’t aware of them until 3rd November. A board is there to hold the chairman and chief executive officer to account, and there seems to have been a serious breach of governance here.</li>
<li>I<b>s the industry engaged? </b> No. Indeed, if you ask anyone, in any position (outside the ROA, of course) in British Racing whether they understand or are committed to the ROA’s ownership strategy, they will come out with an identical response: “What is it? I haven’t seen it.” In a sport as territorial as racing, it takes some doing to produce such unity.</li>
<li><b>Has racing and the Levy Board received good value for money?</b> It most definitely hasn’t. This is one of the most worrying features of the investment made, and one that the Keep Owners in Racing team intend to raise with the chair of the BHA, Annamarie Phelps, later in the week. If it’s not a scandal, it’s certainly a fiasco. We will also be pressing for a change of leadership of the ROA.</li>
</ol>
<p>Back to Eric Morecambe. Did you know that his real name was Eric Bartholomew? Although he was born in Morecambe. That’s you now primed for quiz night for whenever we’re allowed back into pubs again. Do stay safe and well throughout the next lockdown period.</p>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/12/all-change-with-final-owners-opinion.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-21449600047395058642020-11-01T00:00:00.008+00:002020-11-01T00:00:05.297+00:00Sole Leadership of an Industry-Wide Ownership Strategy Needs to be Taken Away from the Racehorse Owners Association<p>Regular readers of this blog and also the one on <a href="http://www.keepownersinracing.com"><b>www.keepownersinracing.com</b></a> will know that there has been a critical need for an industry-wide ownership strategy, structured in a way that incentivises and motivates owners to remain in the sport, while attracting new ones. Back in 2017, it was agreed by racing’s leadership that this strategy would be developed by the Racehorse Owners Association, but with collaborative work groups linking together all the important players so that there would be a coherent approach to ownership, and one that would be able to launch major initiatives impacting racecourses, trainers, owner-breeders, syndicators and the whole ownership population. The process that the ROA has pursued, under the leadership of their chief executive Charlie Liverton, has unfortunately been an heroic failure, despite its being funded to the tune of £1.2m by the Horserace Betting Levy Board. Almost no-one in the industry can tell you what the Ownership Strategy actually means, there is no commitment to it (not least because no-one knows what it is) and the strategy process would fail any test of good design. Indeed, the leading academic in this area, Richard Rummelt, of the University of Southern California, describes many strategies as “garbage”, full of “fluff and flannel” and laundry-lists of “statements of desire” with no chance whatsoever of being implemented. He could have been reading the bumf put out by the ROA.</p>
<p>In the most recent blogs on KOIR, we have come to the conclusion that the Ownership Strategy needs to be taken away from Charlie Liverton and handed back to a cross-industry working group of the committed and the competent. We would go even further than that, calling for his replacement. Here are two blogs that convey the argument and the flavour of what we are advocating.</p>
<p><b>Ownership Strategy, Part 2 – Testing and Tracing the ROA’s Six-Point Covid Plan</b></p><p>
What has your reaction been to the last eight months? Frustration on seemingly incoherent and inconsistent policy; irritation at the endless procrastinations and prevarications; anger at constant ineptitude in implementation of initiatives, “too little and too late”; amazement at the fortunes being paid out to armies of management consultants; incredulity at the disarray of high-ranking leaders and their inability to lead; wonderment at the endless TLAs (three-letter acronyms) of bureaucracies and working groups producing ever more confusing and contradictory reports? All compounded by a lack of scrutiny of actions, results and accountabilities. And that’s just the Racehorse Owners Association and their non-existent / inept leadership of an Industry Ownership Strategy that was promised back in 2017 (we’ll pass over your views about Dido Harding and Test and Trace).</p>
<p>You’ll know from the Keep Owners in Racing blogs that we campaigned hard for the release of a meaningful Ownership Strategy. We understand that over £1.2m was invested in it through funds from the Horserace Betting Levy Board. Portas Consultants supported it, and even at bargain basement rates (for consultants) of £1,000 per day, that represents at least five years of effort. It seems reasonable to expect strategic outputs of the highest quality for that investment. Indeed, my co-author Ged Shields has been expecting a “Sistine Chapel of an ownership strategy”, bearing in mind how long it has taken and the cost involved. We’ve been requesting sight of the Ownership Strategy for a long time, and Ged and I joke that its publication has been delayed more times than the latest James Bond movie.</p>
<p>Back on 25th August, when Nick Rust announced the nine goals of his Recovery Plan, it was promised “within weeks”. The lockdown was ordered by the Prime Minister on 23rd March and we’re now 220 days on from that momentous announcement. Finally, on 28th October the ROA released a six-point action plan aimed at retaining owner investment during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. Dear oh dear! Such a long wait for so little substance. Few meaningful initiatives; a complete absence of reference to the £1m+ funding exercise with Portas; no project management structure to design and implement actions; just lots more words and waffle, rather than solutions.</p>
<p>Reluctantly, we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s time to take the sole leadership of this strategy away from the chronically under-achieving ROA. For the good of the sport, it is absolutely vital that a task force of the committed and capable take charge immediately of the number one priority of retaining owners. As far as the CEO, Charlie Liverton, is concerned – sink him, park him, move him or sack him. Just move this prime blocker away from the strategy and stop the ongoing damage. Put him out of his misery.</p>
<p>We said in Blog 24 that “We’ll be Back”. I don’t think we expected to return quite so quickly. We’re determined to do everything possible to drive significant change in the leadership and governance of the Ownership Strategy. Stay tuned!</p>
<p><b>What Did the Romans Ever Do For Britain – or the ROA, For That Matter?</b></p><p>One of my favourite sketches from <i>Life of Brian</i> is the one where a bunch of conspirators is being challenged by John Cleese to denounce the Romans. The repeated refrain of “What have the Romans done for us?” is interspersed with a long list including the aqueduct, sanitation, roads, irrigation, medicine, education, health, wine, baths, public order and peace. Not a bad portfolio of benefits; “But apart from <i>that</i>, what have they done for us?”</p>
<p>Being a rather irreverent fellow, I was wondering what conclusions I would come to if I raised the same question about the Racehorse Owners Association. At one level you can regard them almost as a hospitality organisation or members’ club setting up social events, visits and marquees on big racedays where aged members can escape the elements and at least sit down in a little more comfort than is often provided by the racecourses. “But apart from that ….?” They produce the Owner Breeder magazine, offer third party liability insurance cover, discounts on BHA fees, free priority parking at the races, the racecourse admission scheme, owner sponsorship, occasional ROA owners’ jackpots and similar types of benefit.</p>
<p>Quite a good set of offerings, and by focusing on them they have attracted 8,000+ members at an annual sub of a couple of hundred pounds. Their annual turnover in 2019/20 was £2.6m, although they had a deficit of £222k.</p>
<p><i>“But apart from that ….?”</i> What else do they do? They have certainly been in existence a long time, with three themes over the decades consistently receiving some focus: pressure for better minimum prize-money (hardly a success), trying to establish a credible long-term financial plan for racing (now in tatters), and working for the common good and leaving the factionalism of the past behind it (not sure that has been the case over the last few years, judging by ROA outbursts in the <i>Racing Post</i>).</p>
<p>A central question is whether they are genuinely representative of owners, and whether they have sufficient legitimacy to have taken charge of an Ownership Strategy which has not yet made its appearance despite being funded by £1.5m from the Horserace Betting Levy Board and the Racing Foundation. As we worked through the 100-day Keep Owners in Racing campaign, many of the individuals we’ve interviewed expressed strongly critical views about the endless delays and inadequate involvement in the framing of what should have been a genuinely cross-industry strategy. This has certainly damaged the credibility of the ROA and its leadership.</p>
<p>When <i>Life of Brian</i> was released in late 1979, its satire was deemed to be very controversial – so much so that it was prohibited in countries such as Ireland and Norway. This notoriety was a godsend for marketing, with posters apparently appearing in Sweden that read: “So funny it was banned in Norway”! While the ROA wouldn’t have gone that far, I’m sure they would have preferred it if Keep Owners in Racing had not banged the drum for owners with such tenacity. Never mind, while we’re waiting for the promised land of the Ownership Strategy we can at least whistle along to <i>Look on the Bright Side of Life</i> as ownership numbers and investment start to plummet.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</p><div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/11/sole-leadership-of-industry-wide.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><p></p>Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-62042512096019116812020-10-01T00:00:00.011+01:002020-10-01T00:00:03.463+01:00The Keep Owners in Racing Campaign Enters the Home Straight – No Sign Yet of a Proper Recovery Plan<br />
Since 12th July, when friend and co-owner Ged Shields and I launched our <i>Blueprint</i>, we’ve been working very hard to apply pressure on all the various leadership groups of British racing to come up with a meaningful Racing Recovery Plan that has the right mix of radical initiatives, short-term survival strategies and urgency of action. Unfortunately, over the last month, the crisis in the sport appears to be increasingly heading towards potential catastrophe, not least because of the government’s decision only to allow racing behind closed doors, possibly for the next six months.<br /><br />
We’ve produced lots of blogs (four of the latest are shown below) and films, and had numerous Zoom conference calls. There is still a considerable amount of work to be done as we head into the end of our campaign on Monday 19th October. We’re no longer convinced that the BHA has the authority or credibility to drive this Recovery Plan, and you’ll see that our major recommendation is for a cross-industry task force to be established and take charge. It really is a most worrying time for the sport, and everyone whose livelihood depends on it. At least Ged and I didn’t stand on the sidelines, and we’ve “done our bit” over the last three months.<br /><br /><b>
IF YOU WANT A PLAN OF ACTION – LEARN FROM A GENERAL (OR MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT)</b><br />
Have you heard the bells of Peover? All will be revealed.<br /><br />
When Ged Shields and I launched our campaign on 12th July to make the retention and acquisition of owners the number 1 goal of a racing recovery plan, we challenged the industry to produce and implement that plan within 100 days. Fifty days out Nick Rust, CEO of the BHA, announced such a plan but unfortunately the reaction to it has been decidedly muted. While it is encouraging that at least the stakeholders have focused on a number of goals and duly published them, they don’t meet my criteria, as a former management consultant, of an effective and motivating plan of campaign to help the racing industry get back on its feet, bring in significant additional revenue, boost prize-money and do everything possible to keep owners involved in the sport. A plan needs very clear goals and objectives, well-structured and sequenced activities, specific timelines and deliverables, explicit roles, responsibilities and accountabilities and, most importantly, be designed to enthuse everyone connected to the plan so that they are highly motivated to implement it. It should galvanise proactivity with a strong sense of urgency. Anyone in a key position, when asked about a recovery plan, should be able to summarise it clearly and know their own role within it. Sadly this plan doesn’t achieve this (or at least, not yet).<br /><br />
General George S. Patton famously stated that: “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week”, or, if applied to racing, next month / quarter / year. There was no misunderstanding Patton’s colourful, and often profane, speeches. The one he made to the Third Army the day before the D-Day landings was immortalised in the film, <i>Patton</i>, starring George C. Scott, which won seven Oscars. Patton favoured strong, decisive action and commanding from the front. He wouldn’t have had much time for the wishy-washy, weasel words of racing’s leadership. Mind you, I don’t know if we need quite the level of exhortation that Patton is most famous for in his comment that: “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country.” Powerful stuff!<br /><br />
Long before my career led into consultancy, I lived up in Cheshire, not too far from Knutsford and Alderley Edge. One of my favourite pubs was The Bells of Peover, next door to a church. Many years before that, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Patton used to relax there in the evenings while masterminding the Normandy invasion. Maybe I should invite the top brass of the BHA to a planning meeting in this historic setting?<br /><br />
<b>Owners – Our Sport Needs You! But Where Are the Incentives?</b><br />
In the most recent <i>Perspectives in Racing </i>film, I became a bit carried away towards the end with the military theme that I had woven into Blog 11. This time it was to do with Lord Kitchener and the iconic and most enduring poster and finger-pointing of World War I. This hugely influential image – “Lord Kitchener Needs You” – depicted him as the Secretary of State for War, wearing the cap of a British Field Marshal. Over the decades since, it has inspired numerous imitations (and more than a few parodies).<br /><br />
When we published the <i>Blueprint</i> on 12th July, we emphasised to racing’s leadership that it was vital to do everything possible throughout Q3 / Q4 2020 to encourage owners to remain in the sport. In particular we felt that, as the main sales season progressed through to its culmination in the Tattersalls Yearling Sales at Newmarket, there would be a clear indication of the readiness of owners to reinvest, and so far they appear to be cutting back by 25%+ apart from at the very top. This is exceptionally worrying and we fear that it will deteriorate further.<br /><br />
In any other industry, serious attempts would be made to retain customers through various types of incentive. Any chief executive knows that it is far easier to retain customers than to acquire new ones. With owners we are talking about customers that spend £527m annually, and with the contraction that has already started, we forecast an immediate financial loss to racing of £124m but with the multiplier effect of 1:7 that means, in turn, a significantly more damaging £868m.<br /><br />
So where are the incentives? Has any owner received any communication from any racing body to encourage them to remain in the sport? Are you aware of reductions on any fees or charges? Does racing have a plan to reduce costs and reinvest the savings with owners? Are stallion masters going to reduce significantly the stallion fees? Are sales houses going to slash their charges? Are trainers and racecourses trying to provide any additional benefits to compensate for a sub-par raceday experience? If you are aware of any initiatives such as these, do please let me know. Unfortunately I’m not expecting too many emails.<br /><br />
So who will be the modern Kitchener to recruit and retain the next generation of owners? Somehow I’m not convinced on the evidence of the announcement of the Recovery Plan that Nick Rust, in his natty blue suit, is going to put fire in the belly of the ownership army. Bring on the new generals!<br /><br />
<b>The Three Pillars – Not the EU or Zen Buddhism, but Our Critical Priorities for British Racing</b><br />
Sean Boyce kindly invited me to take part in <i>The Racing Debate</i> on Sky Sports Racing last Sunday, and I concentrated on the need for an urgent focus by British Racing on three critical priorities, together with a task force based change model comprising industry leaders and influencers rather than bureaucrats. The KOIR campaign is designed to keep pressure on racing’s leadership to adopt a series of radical initiatives capable of transforming the sport’s funding in a way that makes it sustainable. Increasingly we believe a stretch goal of £250m+ p.a. of incremental revenue through a five-stream funding model should be driving the recovery plan. It also has to secure short-term financial support for the industry together with meaningful incentives for owners to stay in the sport. Finally, it is vital to persuade government and local public health officials of the need for owners and racegoers to be brought back on to the racecourse as quickly as possible through pragmatic solutions balancing economic need with public safety.<br /><br />
The £250m+ can be delivered through five initiatives: Levy development, phase 2 (£70m); betting innovation and international pool gambling (£100m); expansion of shared ownership (£50m); leveraging racing’s assets more effectively (£20m); and media rights pooling (TBD). In addition racing should set a £50m cost reduction target. Metrics such as these are vital to drive action, prioritisation of resources and ultimately accountability. Precisely who is responsible for the success of these initiatives?<br /><br />
Interestingly, when I came off the TV programme I saw in the <i>Racing Post</i> that both John Gosden and Mark Johnston had been similarly forceful. On Levy development, John commented: “We cannot let this drift. We don’t have six months to start floating about and having committee meetings and chitting and chatting, we need to get our heads together.” Mark, as he did in our <i>Perspectives</i> film, emphasised: “At the end of the day, owners accept that they are racing for poor returns in Britain, but when it gets so low and they are not getting pleasure going racing, the concern is it will focus their minds on what it is costing them.”<br /><br />
We’ve started to refer to the framework as “the three pillars”. You may know that the phrase has been much used, not least by the EU as it was their guiding legal framework adopted after the Treaty of Maastricht. Three columns also underpin Zen Buddhism and its view of the Tree of Life. That is not a bad metaphor to guide racing’s future.<br /><br />
<b>Oliver Twist Asked for More – The Begging Bowl Comes Out Again for Sport and British Racing</b><br />
There have been a number of metaphors recently about British Racing, the Recovery Plan and the funding crisis, and doubtless there will be many more over subsequent weeks. Take your pick from rudderless ships, the Titanic heading towards icebergs, baking larger pies, splitting bigger cakes and now it’s time for the magic money tree and the begging bowl. With the Prime Minister’s announcement this week of more pandemic restrictions and the disappointing news that there is a distinct possibility of no racegoers returning to British racecourses for six months, it really feels as though we’re sinking deeper into crisis. Indeed, increasingly, our view is that the Recovery Plan now has three elements within it: survival, rebuilding and then growth.<br /><br />
Only last weekend, during a discussion on Sky Sports Racing’s <i>Debate</i>, I argued that one of the three critical priorities for British racing was to bring racegoers and owners back on to the racecourses in significant numbers as soon as possible in order to stem the huge losses of income for the tracks, estimated at £300m. It is said that a week is a long time in politics, but my exhortation barely survived four days. Clearly it is a major blow, not least because such a considerable percentage of racecourse income derives from spectators and non-racing social gatherings. It is certainly at least 50% and, for some of the larger tracks, as high as 70%, which is four times greater than for a stadium sport such as football. This loss unfortunately will have a considerable knock-on effect on prize-money.<br /><br />
When Ged Shields and I ran a Zoom forum with MPs, we encouraged them to examine racing through the prism of a business sector making a £4bn contribution to the British economy, direct / indirect employment in excess of 80,000 jobs and a considerable ecosystem of small and medium-sized enterprises dependent on it. They responded positively and were sympathetic to supporting our sport. Following Rishi Sunak’s announcements yesterday of a new job support scheme, and the ongoing discussions that have been taking place between various sports bodies, including racing, and DCMS, it is most important that the case for additional funding for racing is positioned as part of a broader initiative led by the £250m+ of self-help projects that we have been advocating for the past month. Furthermore, rather than racing doing an Oliver Twist and asking for more on its own, it would be more effective to link closely with these bodies and to lobby government for emergency support over the next six months on a united basis.<br /><br />
I had to study a number of texts of Charles Dickens at school. I disliked his maudlin sentimentality and found it heavy going. Maybe I should go back and re-read <i>Oliver Twist</i> ….. and definitely another volume more relevant for racing, <i>Hard Times</i>.
<br /><br />
<br /><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/10/the-keep-owners-in-racing-campaign.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-68066118095814187262020-09-01T00:00:00.006+01:002020-09-01T00:00:06.661+01:00Half Way in the 100-Day Campaign and we Already have a Result – BHA Announces a Recovery of Racing Plan …. But There is Still a Chasm to Cross<br />On 12th July, Ged Shields and I launched our <i>Blueprint for Racehorse Ownership in the UK: Making retention and acquisition of owners the number 1 goal of a racing recovery plan</i>, and since then we’ve been lobbying all the key stakeholders across the sport to design, launch and implement one. An enormous amount of time has been spent on Zoom conference calls as well as successfully launching a micro web site, <a href="http://www.keepownersinracing.com" style="color: #990000;">www.keepownersinracing.com</a>, where we’re building up a bank of Zoom videos and blogs in pursuit of our cause. The whole motivation is to encourage the top table of racing to work collaboratively and kick on with urgency to launch major initiatives designed to retain owners in the sport. At the heart of that is a requirement for substantially improved funding of the sport, not least to boost prize-money and radical reform to capitalise on the opportunity presented by the pandemic. A major milestone was reached on 25th August when Nick Rust, the outgoing CEO of the BHA, announced the launch of a Recovery Plan. While this was an encouraging step forward, there is still a huge amount of work to be done and, indeed, many owners and pundits, such as the <i>Racing Post</i>, were less than complimentary because it seemed to be more a “plan for a plan” rather than a robust set of initiatives and actions. We’ll doubtless see the evolution of the plan through the autumn.<br /><br />
If you haven’t already done so, please sign up on <a href="http://www.keepownersinracing.com" style="color: #990000;">www.keepownersinracing.com</a> and you’ll receive all the blogs before they are publicly released. Here are four from the collection that clearly show where Ged and I are coming from.<br /><br />
<b>SIGNING THE PLEDGE – AND WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT GOING TEETOTAL<br /><br /></b>At the heart of our Campaign to Keep Owners in Racing we have advocated a strongly collaborative approach to be adopted by all the leaders of British racing. Maintaining unity and common purpose is vital, but poses a considerable challenge. Racing has never been more fractured; vested interests and protectionism prevail; trust and transparency are noticeable by their absence; frustrations are building rapidly and threaten to blow strained relationships apart. The very last thing that racing needs after the damage already done by the pandemic is a self-inflicted wound of its own creation.<br /><br />
You only have to consider TLAs – the curse of three-letter acronyms – to understand the cat’s cradle complexity of our sport: BHA, RCA, THG, ROA, (HR)BLB, NTF, GBR, JCR, ARC, TBA, ABB, TRF, RSA, PJA. Corralling this lot is a complete nightmare and raises the question of whether it is even achievable, and whether racing needs fundamental restructuring of its governance: which we will revisit in the blog soon.<br /><br />
In the immediate future, Q3 / Q4 2020, our recommendation is for top leaders in the sport to produce a one-page Pledge summarising the way forward for British Racing, a statement on required collaboration and ten key actions, which all stakeholders must sign up to. Such a pledge provides much-needed vision and focus, and will be a real spur to leadership endeavour. The actions must be bold enough to enable our sport to recover from the crisis. We fear that many owners are already leaving the sport, or planning to do so, and this will cause real damage. Our call to arms is for a Racing Recovery Plan – RRP. Let’s get on with it – PDQ.<br /><br />
<b>“MONEY, MONEY, MONEY” – IT’S A HORSEMEN’S WORLD</b><br /><br />Our 100-day campaign to apply pressure on British Racing to develop a highly practical Recovery of Racing Plan broadly coincides with the first 100 days in office of the new Chairman of the Horsemen’s Group and President of the Racehorse Owners Association, Charlie Parker. Without any doubt he has the hottest seat in the sport, and we wish him well. What he achieves (or doesn’t) during Q3 / Q4, particularly on media rights transparency and apportionment, will have a huge impact on racing and ownership.<br /><br />
All roads, inevitably, lead back to the dire, unsustainable state of racing’s finances and the urgent need for cross-industry agreement on the most effective ways of harnessing new income streams. Without that, we all flounder. Mark Johnston, in our <i>Perspectives in Racing</i> film, argues that applying sticking-plaster to the problem has minimal impact and that we now need to be coming up with financial initiatives that “cross the gaping chasm”.<br /><br />
We believe that there is a need to generate £200m+ of annual income and that there are three principal ways of achieving that goal. Firstly, work with government at ministerial level on a second round of Levy development and reform. That was on the table in 2018 and some of racing’s leadership, for whatever reason, made a disastrous decision not to pursue it. Secondly, devise a much fairer revenue-sharing deal with the racecourses on media rights by the end of this year and then extend it into a much stronger media pooling operation. Thirdly, develop a betting strategy that targets the global gambling market through betting innovation and Tote co-mingling with other countries. And, of course, do everything possible to retain owners with the promise of more prize-money.<br /><br />
There is no shortage of income to be picked up – as we say, “Money, money, money”. Racing’s leadership needs to stop falling out over dividing cakes and get on with producing a radical new funding plan that bakes an altogether bigger and different one.<br /><br />
<b>THE BASE OF THE PYRAMID CRUMBLES – IGNORE AT YOUR PERIL</b><br /><br />
British racing is a big industry, and at the top tier of the sport a considerable amount of money can be made. In the Blueprint we examined the profitability of all the stakeholders. In 2019, the aggregate of the top five yearling sales in England, France and Ireland made £250m for their consignors. The annual income earned from the top stallions at Coolmore, Godolphin and Juddmonte exceeded £200m. Despite all the aggressive noises being made by certain Flat trainers, the top 20 trainers in the UK make significantly more profit than the bottom 20 racecourses. It would be easy to conclude, perhaps unfairly, that the most vociferous members of the training community wish to maximise their returns even further. The platinum layer of the sport is being run by the few, for the few, with an over-concentration of income in the hands of those who don’t just make significant money every week of the year but also sit astride the downstream value chain that accrues from breeding rights.<br /><br />
How different it is at the bottom of the pyramid. The grass roots of our sport cover the vast majority of trainers, breeders, owners and horses. If the financial returns were terrible pre-pandemic, then they are nothing short of catastrophic now and the situation is only going to get worse. The majority of trainers and breeders are either technically insolvent or teetering on the edge of it unless they have other sources of income, and of course the vast majority of owners whose horses are running primarily at classes 4, 5 or 6 are losing on average 93p in the £ every year, with the returns not even covering the raceday costs of getting horses to the track.<br /><br />
These owners are spending £527m a year, to lose a collective £428m. If our forecast is correct, there will be a 20% contraction in the owner base over the next five years, which will lead to an immediate loss of £124m. But the far bigger damage is the 1:7 multiplier that leads to a much greater financial hit of £868m as the ownership contraction ripples through bloodstock, levy yield, media rights, racecourse attendance and the whole ecosystem of suppliers connected to training and racing.<br /><br />Racing ignores the grass roots at its peril. This is where the contraction will be most felt, and hit hardest. We implore the leadership of the sport to produce, with urgency, a Racing Recovery Plan. Without that, the pyramid crumbles.<br /><br />
<b>9-POINT RECOVERY PLAN FOR BRITISH RACING – A BIT OF A CURATE’S EGG</b><br /><br />
In the 1890s, <i>Punch</i> magazine ran a series of cartoons about a timid curate eating breakfast with his bishop. On being told by the bishop that he seemed to have a bad egg, the curate piped up: “Oh no, my lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!” Seems an appropriate comment for British racing’s recovery plan, which made its appearance on Tuesday 25th August.<br /><br />
When we launched the blueprint in mid-July we challenged the top table of racing to produce a post-pandemic recovery plan, with retention and acquisition of owners as its #1 goal. Behaviourally we wanted the stakeholders to work collaboratively, proactively and urgently on it; analytically they needed to create a comprehensive, wide-ranging, multi-faceted plan of action with two clear phases of immediate initiatives in Q3-Q4 2020, and then longer-term, more transformational change in 2021-2025; and most importantly, it had to be operationally deliverable through practical, robust, well-defined projects. It couldn’t just be about papering over the cracks – there is a chasm to cross, because the only way in which British racing can be properly sustainable is through securing at least £250m of additional income while fundamentally reforming the sport. The pandemic presents a one-off opportunity to reimagine the future and embrace the “next normal”.<br /><br />
That the key stakeholders, within 50 days of our challenge, have produced a recovery plan is commendable and we applaud their efforts. However, rather than a set of very practical actions, Nick Rust, outgoing CEO of the BHA, launched nine broad goals, which unfortunately disappointed a lot of owners and certainly the pundits of the <i>Racing Post</i>, the editor Tom Kerr being quite caustic in his comment that: “as with Coronavirus itself it is not the diagnosis but the cure that is of utmost significance. For that, the wait continues.” To be fair to the stakeholders, while the nine goals seem to be “a plan for a plan”, there will doubtless be more specific recommendations for action soon – not least the publication of the long-awaited Ownership Strategy, under development since 2017. It had better be good!<br /><br />
We will scrutinise these ongoing developments and fervently hope that we don’t have to echo <i>Punch</i>, in the final issue in 1992 before it went under, when the cartoon was updated with a considerably more emboldened curate, who replied to the bishop: “This f***ing egg’s bad!” For racing’s sake, it can’t be.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/09/half-way-in-100-day-campaign-and-we.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-70445930520081996462020-08-01T00:00:00.000+01:002020-08-01T00:00:09.798+01:00Join the Hundred-Day Campaign and Make the Racing Industry Produce, Publish and Implement a Racing Recovery Plan to Retain Owners in the Sport<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.keepownersinracing.com/"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="260" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yt6csWqtfFU/XyP0G5N3kOI/AAAAAAAAAV8/3arAWgRzwX4IeIq3UEXY_8PHA8Zj798IACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Report-Front-cover-web.png" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.keepownersinracing.com/" style="color: #660000; font-size: 12px;">Please download the Blueprint<br />for a Racing Recovery Plan</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
One of the few plus-points of lockdown was that it gave a friend and owner, Ged Shields, and me time to research and write <b><i>A Blueprint for Racehorse Ownership in the UK: Making retention and acquisition of owners the number 1 goal of a Racing Recovery Plan</i></b>. It was launched in the Racing Post on 12th July and is now being driven forward by a campaign with a web site, video interviews, blogs and social media. Full details are on <a href="http://www.keepownersinracing.com/" style="color: #660000;">www.keepownersinracing.com</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/keepownersinra1/status/1289142701280112641" style="color: #660000;">@keepownersinra1</a>. This was our launch press release:<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: both; float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://wwwkeepownersinracing.com/"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="260" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U6cut1ft8XI/XyP1z_5C-CI/AAAAAAAAAWM/40cgTfOBPHsQFU-Tvpa6c82yeOBCWGb1QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/keepownersinracing-grab.PNG" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.keepownersinracing.com/" style="color: #660000; font-size: 12px;">Please join the campaign and encourage<br />
friends to do so as well</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A hard rain is about to fall on our sport from the economic storm, triggered by the pandemic, and will continue for several years. It will rip through the weakest parts of the racing pyramid and sink without trace many trainers, breeders, owners, syndicators, betting shops and some racecourses. The pandemic is acting as a kind of “time machine” rushing racing’s outmoded business models to the end phase of a process that was always likely to happen.<br />
<br />
Many staff will lose their jobs and equine welfare challenges increase as racehorses are retired, sold or “moved on”. No part of the industry will go untouched and the only question to be answered, in time, is the scale of contraction.<br />
<br />
Why are we so depressingly confident in this assertion? Since the Resumption of Racing on 1st June we have spent five weeks researching the sport’s economic map and the financial interconnections of the supply chain from breeders to bookmakers. We’ve reflected on our own investment in the sport and the way we are currently being treated. We have been committed owners since 2004 with 132 winners so far and a current involvement in 39 horses covering everything from Flat to jumps, sole ownership to syndicates and foals to veterans. We use ten trainers across the country and ownership is by far the major drain on our discretionary expenditure. We will inevitably be part of the contraction that is coming but will do everything possible to mitigate its impact.<br />
<br />
How far we personally retrench will be determined by how well racing’s leadership handles the next phase of the crisis and whether they are prepared to drive through a number of long overdue changes to the sport. We’ve highlighted our own Agenda for Action, as a blueprint for racing recovery, containing five strategies and twenty specific recommendations reflecting our data-driven analysis of the sport. It can be downloaded from the <a href="http://www.keepownersinracing.com/">www.keepownersinracing.com</a> home page.<br />
<br />
Why did we produce it? Because of our deepening concern that the post-pandemic economic impact, racing’s tendency for stakeholders to fall out and fight each other rather than focus on the task ahead and the frustration of owners at how they are treated will lead to a significant contraction in ownership with a hugely damaging impact on the industry.<br />
<br />
Encouragingly, we were impressed by the 100-day stakeholder truce and the collaborative approach adopted by the Resumption of Racing Work Group before normal hostilities returned. Huge changes to the pattern, fixture list, prize-money allocation and safety procedures were adopted. We applaud their efforts and feel it is vital that racing extends this endeavour to a new <b>Recovery of Racing Group</b> focused on the retention and acquisition of owners as the top priority. They should consider carefully our Blueprint’s headline messages:<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Learn from the last financial crisis:</b> without a Recovery of Racing Plan, contraction in ownership and horses in training will be far worse than after 2008 / 09 when there was a straight decline in numbers for seven years. We predict a loss of 20% of owners (2,244) and 15% of horses (3,531): an immediate financial impact of £124m.</li>
<li><b>The damage is done by the multiplier:</b> for every £1 spent by owners, £7 is generated across the industry for bookmakers, breeders, sales houses, trainers and racecourses. This multiplier amplifies the £124m loss to racing to a significantly more damaging £868m.</li>
<li>O<b>wners bankroll the sport:</b> in 2019 / 20 they spent £527m on training fees and lost a collective £428m. This excludes the £145m spent (and mostly lost) on bloodstock (excluding Horses in Training sales). For every pound spent on training fees the median return was 8p on the Flat and 6p for National Hunt. It will be even worse in 2020 as prize-money declines further. This is unsustainable and increasingly drives owners out of the sport.</li>
<li><b>The trend is not racing’s friend: </b> racing faces strong headwinds this decade due to economic contraction, owner demographics and the need to rebuild personal and company balance sheets. The average age of owners is over 60 with substantial numbers over 70. Most are extremely concerned about Covid-19 and wary of going racing. This inhibits further any desire to continue investing in racehorses.</li>
<li><b>Be radical in response:</b> racing needs a recovery plan that retains and attracts owners as the prime goal for the next five years. There is no time to lose. Racing can address this in one of two ways. Option one is to deny the scale of the challenge, massively underestimate its impact, muddle through with divided leadership, claim that it is already doing things and avoid making difficult decisions, keeping fingers crossed and hoping the “old normal” returns soon. It won’t. Option two is to embrace radical change, form a coalition of all the stakeholders and drive forward wide-ranging responses that create the “next normal”. We urge British Racing to adopt option two. It is not short of the talent to do this, but they tend to operate in isolation and seem focused on narrow stakeholder interests that are often in competition with the others.</li>
</ol>
Stakeholders need to come together, put their disputed issues on the table and find sufficient common ground to implement the necessary initiatives, such as those outlined in this Blueprint. <i><b>We have made our “call to arms” and now challenge the industry to develop and communicate a Recovery of Racing Plan within the next 100 days.</b></i>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/08/join-hundred-day-campaign-and-make.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-18695715051366971122020-07-01T00:00:00.000+01:002020-07-01T00:00:00.168+01:00Do You See the Racing and Ownership Cup as Half Full or Half Empty Post-Lockdown? More Storm Clouds are Building and we Desperately Need a Racing Recovery Plan<br />
Did Royal Ascot work for you? I doubt if there’s ever been a stranger race meeting there since 1711, but full marks to everyone involved in staging the meeting behind closed doors, and there were certainly lots of innovations to keep everyone engaged and (relatively) amused. Of course, there was no Queen, no royal procession, no fancy hats or frocks (so no dress codes), no overseas jockeys, no owners and no bookmakers. There were a few trainers present, who privately were probably thinking that this was ideal racing with no pesky owners to cause problems and a completely uninterrupted focus on their steeds. They may well have bemoaned the slashing of prize-money that was halved to a total of £3.7m, spread over 36 races and the five days of the meeting, but it’s definitely worth emphasising that this huge reduction in pots had zero impact on the quality of horses that raced across Ascot Heath, nor on the total number of entries or runners. It was very much “business as usual” – if you can say that about the bizarre world of lockdown racing.<br />
<br />
The TV channels tried ever so hard to make the meeting engaging for owners and racing fans at home, as did Ascot itself. There were virtual racecards, 360 degree parade-ring cameras, Zoom interviews with owners at home, racing tips aplenty, recipes and cocktail recommendations for drinks such as Absolut Passion, colouring pages (???) and even virtual singing around the bandstand. It was encouraging that ITV was rewarded with its highest viewing figures for terrestrial TV since 2012, with an average for its 20 hours of broadcasting of 1.2 million viewers, and they had even more than that to watch Stradivarius romp home in the Gold Cup. What a fabulous horse he is – and I’m hoping that one day Scented Lily, the broodmare we own with friends and who is currently in foal to Getaway, will have a date with this superstar.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately though, half-way through the month, normal hostilities were resumed again between the Horsemen’s Group and the Racecourse Association over the vexed subject of prize-money – or rather, the lack of executive contribution by some racecourses towards prize-money since racing resumed on 1st June. The collaborative spirit of the Resumption of Racing Group that so impressed us all will struggle to survive threats of legal action and accusations of anti-competitive collusion by horsemen against the tracks. This breakdown in working relations is one of the reasons that I fear storm clouds are building, as it will be absolutely vital that from today onwards – National Hunt has finally resumed – the Resumption of Racing Group is transformed into a Recovery of Racing Group to address the inevitable contraction of ownership that is coming, and the huge knock-on effect of that across the whole industry.<br />
<br />
Why is my cup half-empty? Back in 2016 the BHA and ROA commissioned an excellent National Racehorse Owners Survey from a specialist sports consultancy, Two Circles. I reported on their findings in this blog on 15th August and 1st September that year. Their analysis and findings were well presented, and although they didn’t frame them in the way that I am about to do, I certainly agreed with their conclusions.<br />
<br />
At university, where I studied social psychology, I was impressed by the concept of “expectation theory” to explain the motivation of individuals. Sociologists and psychologists never make anything simple, of course, but the basic concept was that each individual has a complex set of their own expectations, and whether these are or are not met directly influences their motivation to do something. It is also a two-factor theory, which means that the factors that prompt you to do something are not necessarily the same as those that might dissuade you. Anyway, I applied that approach to ownership and, as you can see in the diagram, I concluded that the factors that bring owners into the sport are to do with the emotional return that they receive on their ownership (excitement, glamour, status, close contact with their beautiful horse etc.), whereas those that drive them out are directly connected with poor financial return (bad prize-money, high costs, irritating fees and charges etc.) I was hoping that after 2016, racing’s leadership would develop a whole set of strategies to boost owner acquisition (bringing new owners and their money into the sport), together with another set to foster owner retention (reducing the churn rate of owners). I was tolerant about the relative lack of action, and then encouraged again in 2018 when the ROA announced that they were leading the development and implementation of a new Ownership Strategy. After three years without sight of it, my tolerance is just about exhausted. Does anyone know where it is, what it says, what it is designed to achieve and how it will be implemented?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 40px 0 10px 0px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-91-7j8G5DY8/XvoR9MdScPI/AAAAAAAAAVc/vFLU0UItMSA5ARrxgXubuX2mrz9r7QzWwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/scales.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="620" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-91-7j8G5DY8/XvoR9MdScPI/AAAAAAAAAVc/vFLU0UItMSA5ARrxgXubuX2mrz9r7QzWwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/scales.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
If you look over your shoulder, though, all you can see o4n the ownership front is storm clouds. When racing resumed on 1st June, it was clumsily stated that owners would not be able to go racing as they were not deemed to be “essential”. That was terribly received. Owners are funding the sport and, using my two-factor model, the emotional return has been massively reduced (as until recently they could neither see their horses in the stables nor go racing) while the financial return has similarly contracted (with reduced prize-money, not least because of the reluctance of racecourses to make their executive contribution). Owner frustration has certainly increased, and this has been acknowledged by the BHA, ROA and RCA. Indeed, as I write this blog I’ve just seen a letter from the chief executive of the ROA, Charlie Liverton, explaining that “Owners contribute so much to the sport and it has been frustrating not to be on the track to see their horses run. Their patience and loyalty have been very much appreciated during this challenging period.” Much appreciated, Mr. Liverton, and I look forward to hearing what racing is now going to do, going forward, to persuade me and co-owners to expand our involvement in the sport, or as a minimum, maintain it at current levels.<br />
<br />
Without that, racing is heading for deep trouble. In the period after the last financial crisis of 2008/09, owners and horses in training declined in a straight line for seven years. Is there any reason why this won’t happen again? Actually, and filling the cup to the brim, I believe that a Recovery of Racing Group could implement a set of initiatives to have a hugely beneficial impact on racing and ownership, and significantly mitigate this contraction. Such is the level of enthusiasm for this approach that I’ve persuaded a friend and fellow owner, Ged Shields, to work with me on the development of a blueprint for a recovery programme. We intend to release it after the Derby, and it will be detailed in the next blog.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/07/do-you-see-racing-and-ownership-cup-as.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-28640649293369381572020-06-01T00:00:00.000+01:002020-06-01T00:00:02.814+01:00“Under Starter’s Orders … and We’re Off” (Hopefully). Racing Resumes and Everyone is Thrilled, but Now the Real Challenges Begin for British Racing.<br />
Today racing is highly likely to get under way again at Newcastle, and it will be the first race meeting since the sport was closed down after 17th March. Once the seriousness of the pandemic is over, there will probably be a racing quiz question to name the final horse to win before lockdown – it came from the yard of one of our trainers, Charlie Longsdon, and was Glencassley, a 5yo in a Class 5 bumper, ridden by Aidan Coleman, and winning the princely sum of £2,599.20. Rarely will a Class 6 mile handicap at Newcastle have received so much attention, and doubtless huge viewing figures and betting investments. May everything go smoothly and safely.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M41F8vutRYY/XtEDI3J75II/AAAAAAAAAU8/GrJq2bpHnnk_pG5SnScPmWmzLGxdABt_wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/may-2020.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="930" data-original-width="260" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M41F8vutRYY/XtEDI3J75II/AAAAAAAAAU8/GrJq2bpHnnk_pG5SnScPmWmzLGxdABt_wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/may-2020.png" /></a></div>
British Racing has not had a particularly good reputation in the past for burying its differences, collaborating and co-operating, but the Resumption of Racing Group led by the BHA has excelled over the last few months and the way in which they have tackled the complexities and challenges of getting racing back on the road has been exemplary. Multiple work streams were launched, tasks prioritised and allocated to lead individuals and then the highly detailed race planning, reprogramming and creation of safety protocols were addressed in a thoroughly professional and robust manner. Everyone in the sport should take their hats off to the “Gang of Four”, namely Brant Dunshea, Chief Regulatory Officer; Dr. Jerry Hill, Chief Medical Adviser; Ruth Quinn, Director of International Racing and Racing Development; and Richard Wayman, Chief Operating Officer, for all their hard work while managing successfully to keep the stakeholders on board and the government supportive of racing’s resumption, albeit behind closed doors. More radical change has been driven forward over this couple of months of crisis than would have been achieved in years under a less collaborative way of working.
<br />
<br />
There are many messages to take out of this period, and a key learning is for racing to continue with this collaborative and far more proactive style of working … not least because the really hard work now has to commence. The implementation of the Resumption of Racing Plan doesn’t mark the end of the activity, but the beginning of the far more complex Recovery of Racing Plan. There is a huge challenge for the sport over the next few years as it is inevitable that there will be contraction in ownership ranks, racecourse attendances, trainers, stable staff and all the other participants in “racing’s ecosystem”. The unfortunate parallel I believe is to look at the impact of the financial crisis in 2008 / 2009. In the following six years there was a straight decline every year in the number of owners and horses in training. In total 17% of owners quit the sport and the horse population contracted by 11%. The bloodstock industry almost collapsed, with the middle and lower market horses almost impossible to sell. The financial impact of this on the whole sport was huge and ran into many millions of pounds of lost investment. Why should it be any different after the pandemic crisis? The global economy may have been pumped up with liquidity, but two recent quotations show the crisis that is coming. “We are likely to face a severe recession, the likes of which we haven’t seen … it’s not obvious there will be an immediate economic bounce-back”, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor. Sir Howard Davies, Chairman of RBS, said: “Three or four weeks ago, the assumption was that there was a pent-up economy desperate to get out. All it needed was the government to say, ‘the water’s not too cold’, and we’d jump back in. Now we’re realising there are all kinds of friction points, which means a V-shaped recovery is much less plausible. The recovery is going to be very slow.”
<br />
<br />
A fundamental question therefore for our sport is whether there is any consideration at all even being given at the moment to a <b>Recovery of Racing Plan</b>. An immediate short-term plan is essential if owners are to be motivated to remain in the sport and invest in future racehorses. It is only too easy to imagine many owners deciding to suspend or terminate their commitment to invest, and the results of the sales season will confirm or disprove that statement. My challenge would be for the industry to start the first phase of a plan from 1st June to the final day of Tattersalls Book 4 Yearling Sale on 17th October. What should be done in that 139 days? Once racing is through that period, it then needs to drill down into a three-year<b> Recovery and Growth Plan</b>. Sorry to sound so pessimistic but without this, I believe a very serious economic crisis lies ahead for the sport.
<br />
<br />
Very encouragingly, the seeds of recovery can be found in the way of working of the Resumption of Racing Group. The whole race programme, fixture list and rescheduling of the Classics has been a huge undertaking and achieved, successfully, in less than ten weeks. it is not an over-statement to say that in normal times this wouldn’t have occurred in ten years. That sort of radical change needs to become the keynote for the recovery plan. Another example – something that Owners for Owners has been proposing for ages – is the need to rebalance prize-money from the top tier of the sport to the grass roots. Faced with a considerable reduction in prize-money and levy funding due to the negative impact on racing income of racing behind closed doors, reduced fixtures and lost media rights, it was inevitable that prize-money would have to be slashed, but rather than spread the pain equally the BHA has done everything possible to support the grass-roots. The pain is being felt most at the top of the sport, as the chart below for Flat prize-money clearly shows. 84% of all horses in training on the Flat race at Class 4 or below, with 46% of the horse population at Class 6 level where the drama and clamour of the sport is hardly evident. This realignment of prize-money ought to be a permanent feature and be one pillar of the recovery plan.<br />
<br />
<b>Minimum Prize Values Introduced from 1st June 2020</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border: 0; width: 620px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" style="background-color: #335e8c; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; color: white; padding: 5px; width: 10%;"><b>Class</b></td>
<td colspan="3" style="background-color: #335e8c; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; color: white; padding: 5px; width: 45%;"><b>2-year-old</b></td>
<td colspan="3" style="background-color: #335e8c; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; color: white; padding: 5px; width: 45%;"><b>3-year-old-plus</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #335e8c; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; color: white; padding: 5px; width: 17%;"><b>Old Minimum Value</b></td>
<td style="background-color: #335e8c; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; color: white; padding: 5px; width: 17%;"><b>New Minimum Value</b></td>
<td style="background-color: #335e8c; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; color: white; padding: 5px; width: 11%;"><b>%</b></td>
<td style="background-color: #335e8c; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; color: white; padding: 5px; width: 17%;"><b>Old Minimum Value</b></td>
<td style="background-color: #335e8c; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; color: white; padding: 5px; width: 17%;"><b>New Minimum Value</b></td>
<td style="background-color: #335e8c; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; color: white; padding: 5px; width: 11%;">%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">1(G1)</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 150,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 75,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">50%</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 200,00</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 100,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">50%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">1(G1)</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 65,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 37,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">57%</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 90,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 52,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">58%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">1(G3)</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 40,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 25,500</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">64%</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 60,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 37,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">62%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">1(Lstd)</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 25,500</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 17,500</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">69%</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 37,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 25,500</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">69%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">2(H)</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ -</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ -</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;"><br /></td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 45,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 40,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">89%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">2</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 14,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 11,500</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">82%</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 19,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 15,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">79%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">3</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 10,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 9,000</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">90%</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 11,500</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 10,400</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">90%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">4*</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 6,100</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 6,100</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">100%</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 7,250</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 7,250</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">100%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">5*</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 4,500</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 5,400</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">120%</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 4,500</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 5,400</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">120%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">6*</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 3,500</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 4,300</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">123%</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 3,500</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">£ 4,300</td>
<td style="background-color: #d6dde1; border: 1px solid #afbcc3; padding: 5px;">123%</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The ownership experience from June onwards is likely to be critical in owner retention. Unfortunately at the moment owners are unable to attend racecourses and see their horses in action, frustrated at the difficulties of actually getting horses into races with huge entries, forbidden to attend social gatherings with fellow owners and restricted by trainers from access to yards while having to follow all the required social distancing measures. The bottom line is that the bills remain the same, but the ownership experience is significantly curtailed. That is the demotivating reality that confronts the owners of racehorses. It is absolutely vital in the short term 139-day plan that racing, and particularly racecourses and trainers, come up with compensatory benefits to ensure that owners remain sufficiently motivated and connected to the sport to continue in it. This will be the subject of the next blog, by which time it is to be hoped that some encouraging initiatives will be under way.<br />
<br />
On a purely personal note, my wife and I have actually enjoyed the “staycation” of lockdown. There has been no rushing around the country and our mileage has never been lower. We’ve stayed well and healthy, with daily exercise burning off the calories from some fine wine tasting. The garden has never looked better. Finally, we’re lucky that some of our trainers have gone into overdrive on communication and there have been some magnificent photos and videos in circulation. Particularly well done to Martin Keighley in this regard as his videos are a work of art. Definitely a key part of keeping owners motivated, engaged and connected to the sport.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/06/under-starters-orders-and-were-off.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-32324430592595521582020-05-01T00:00:00.000+01:002020-05-01T00:00:04.160+01:00Coming Out of Lockdown – The Resumption of Racing Appears to be Getting Nearer<br />
Has anyone experienced an April like the one we’ve just been through? I was uncertain whether to start this blog with a small number of personal reflections, or to concentrate on the gravity of the situation and the grim news that we have all been encountering – lighter news prevailed, before the sombre.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qoIs1eVVCJQ/Xqrp3LIy6hI/AAAAAAAAAUU/in-zRiYJQhslOhhSA3D1EUIYWRrlhPliQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/blog-april-2020.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="NHS rainbow sheep, Mayfair Rock’s filly foal, Luttrell Lad loving his grub, A new form of G&T, Life’s too short for bad wine" border="0" data-original-height="1244" data-original-width="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qoIs1eVVCJQ/Xqrp3LIy6hI/AAAAAAAAAUU/in-zRiYJQhslOhhSA3D1EUIYWRrlhPliQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/blog-april-2020.png" title="April lockdown images" /></a></div>
We’ll all have our own personal memories of the crisis, and for me they will be triggered in future years by the five photographs. Without any doubt (subject of course to disasters!) I’m going to come out of the lockdown in a far healthier state than when I went into it. My wife and I are having an hour’s walk around the Cotswold hills every day, and the trudge back to our house is quite steep. We’ve both enjoyed watching the newborn lambs, and our local farmer amused the village by painting “NHS” on the heaviest lamb that had been born to date, and his mum.
<br />
<br />
Earlier in the month, our mare Mayfair Rock produced her first foal, and we’re all hoping that this lovely grey filly will go on to great things. She is by Gr.1-winning Havana Grey, trained by Karl Burke, and he very generously helped us with a free nomination to this stallion, who has been well supported by breeders.
<br />
<br />
It has been very interesting to see all the various forms of communication being adopted by the racing world, not least our network of trainers, studs and pre-training yards. Several of them have really risen to the challenge of keeping owners fully informed and in touch with their horses, and I particularly want to commend Claire Hart and Martin Keighley for the almost daily flow of super photos and videos. Claire is looking after Luttrell Lad, who was due to race at Stratford, but alas the meeting had to be cancelled due to the lockdown. He’s a horse we’re particularly looking forward to seeing out and he’ll run for Philip Hobbs in bumpers at the end of the summer or early in the autumn.
<br />
<br />
Many of us have been disappointed by and / or incredulous about the performance of politicians. There has often seemed to be a considerable gap between the rhetoric of what they blather on about and the reality on the ground. If that has been a frequent public criticism in the UK, it has been nothing compared to the reactions to the “Leader of the Western World”, President Trump. A new drink has even made its appearance – although one quickly expressly prohibited by all right-thinking people. No-one wants to consider a Gin & Trump made of disinfectant. Nothing is further from my mind – indeed, every Saturday my wife and I have been enjoying a top-quality wine tasting, the latest being a superb 2003 Château Léoville-Barton from St-Julien. This estate is owned by the admirable Anthony Barton, who represents the longest-standing vineyard ownership in Anglo-Irish hands. His philosophy has always been to produce top-quality Claret and sell it for a (relatively) reasonable sum. Superb.
<br />
<br />
Now back to the grim reality. As of the end of April there had been 165,000+ confirmed cases of coronavirus infections in the UK, and 26,000+ deaths in hospitals, care homes and the wider community. Apparently 1:3 who have been ill enough to be admitted to intensive care have died. It’s hard to comprehend the sadness of this, nor the amazing dedication of the NHS and the front line of care. The country has been rightly appreciative of the bravery of all these staff, and none of us will forget the accomplishment of Captain (now Honorary Colonel) Tom Moore who has raised £31m for NHS charities by walking 100 laps of his garden.
<br />
<br />
Doubtless there will be many commissions of enquiry into the preparedness of the country for dealing with this pandemic. Already several experts, with vastly more insight than I possess, have been highly critical. As one example, Richard Horton, the Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, has published a number of articles accusing ministers and their advisers of failing to scale up capacity for testing, contact tracing and intensive care, and adopting a laissez-faire response and a misguided strategy of “herd immunity”. The first paper on the existence of Covid-19 was published in The Lancet on 19th January, but the assessment within it was passed over by Whitehall. Horton’s withering accusation is that this has become “the biggest science policy failure in generations”.
<br />
<br />
There has been no racing in the UK since Taunton and Wetherby on 17th March, but very encouragingly the whole of racing has come together to work collaboratively in the Resumption of Racing Group, and it is looking increasingly likely that Flat racing will come back behind closed doors around the middle to end of May, with the return of NH racing provisionally announced for 1st July. The breadth and detail of work within this group has been impressive, as has its close liaison with government and, particularly, the Department of Culture, Media & Sport. The government has provided considerable sums of money to support businesses and many trainers have taken advantage of grants and loans. In addition the Horseracing Levy Board and the Racing Foundation have provided £22m of emergency funding to help sustain racing and its participants through the pandemic, particularly concentrating on the most vulnerable. This has been an excellent piece of self-help.
<br />
<br />
Unfortunately one major crack in the collaborative endeavour made its appearance when the frustration of trainers Ralph Beckett and Mark Johnston spilled over, with calls for the immediate departure of BHA Chief Executive, Nick Rust. The timing and tone of this outburst could not have been worse, as it is essential for racing to present a united front to government while also being sensitive to, and reflective of, public opinion. It would be potentially damaging for racing to be seen to be putting a mere sport ahead of public health and the needs of the population. Apart from this, the level of co-operation has been magnificent, although without any doubt deep divisions and factions remain within the sport. Once racing resumes, the various stakeholders will most certainly need to concentrate on an even more demanding plan – the Recovery of Racing. Achieving co-operation and consensus on that plan will be a huge challenge for the leadership of racing, which will be the theme for the next blog.
<br />
<br />
Normally the blog for 1st May would have been reflecting on the end of the NH season at Sandown, the pleasures of the Punchestown Festival and the excitement of the Guineas meeting coming up at Newmarket. Alas, not this year, but at least there is likely to be fine racing ahead, and who knows – we might see some of it in May. Stay safe and well.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/05/coming-out-of-lockdown-resumption-of.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-21381156627865101632020-04-01T00:00:00.000+01:002020-04-01T00:00:06.654+01:00Coping with the Covid-19 Crisis – Massive Shock to the Country, the Population and the Racing Ecosystem<br />
With eight years’ experience of writing the Owner’s Opinion blog, our 1st April edition normally writes itself. One strand is trapping the reader into an April fool (and you’d be surprised how many big names have succumbed), while the other is covering contentious issues from the Cheltenham Festival. This year, I suppose, the April fool would have been about owners offering to pay trainers their fees in toilet rolls; while I was itching to write about the dominance of top trainers at the Festival, not least the notable fact of 60% of the races (16 in all) being won by novices and the considerable advantage that these trainers have in being able to assess which horses are massively ahead of the handicapper. But the Prime Minister’s sombre announcement on Monday 23rd March that emergency measures were to be introduced to lock down the country quickly parked such irrelevancies.
<br />
<br />
As of the end of March, there have been 784,000 infections worldwide from the Covid-19 virus, resulting in 37,000 deaths. It took 67 days for the first 100,000 infections; 11 days for the second; four days for the third, and that miserable exponential climb is continuing. Some politicians, particularly President Trump, have been complacent in the extreme (at the end of January he commented that “We have it totally under control. It’s just one person coming in from China”, before expecting the US to be back to normal by Easter and even coming up with a mind-numbing comment that “People have died, who have never died before”). After a disappointingly slow and typically British response of “Keep calm and carry on”, during which the country wasted a vital three months of planning, testing and production of ventilators, the gravity of the situation has been fully embraced by the vast majority of the population through lockdown and social distancing. Sadly there have been 22,141 infections to date in the UK, resulting in 1,408 deaths, but this rate does appear to be declining slightly. We all pray that this trend continues, although the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jenny Harries, believes that it could be six months before all the current social distancing restrictions are lifted.
<br />
<br />
Is it really only just over a fortnight since we were cheering on Al Boum Photo in his thoroughly game back-to-back win in the Gold Cup? For virtually all of us, this will have been the most incredible few weeks of our lives. The lockdown has already had a profound impact on everyone, and the shutters have come down on almost every business sector. A whole plantation of money trees has been found, and an arsenal of fiscal bazookas launched: $2 trillion of funds in the US; €750 billion in the EU; and £330 billion in the UK. Central banks and governments have made it clear that “spend, spend, spend” is the order of the day and they will do “whatever it takes” to bail out otherwise viable businesses. We’ve had a national “clap session” for the NHS and 700,000 people have volunteered to help support them. This is definitely the UK at war – against a terrible virus.
<br />
<br />
It was inevitable, therefore, that racing would be abandoned. During the three days of 16th to 18th March we went from racing behind closed doors to total suspension. The same happened in Ireland on 25th March. Six Nations rugby was cancelled; the Dubai World Cup postponed to 2021; the Tokyo Olympics put back to July next year; and we won’t be cheering on the winners of the trio of Grand Nationals at Fairyhouse, Aintree or Ayr. The BHA handled the situation well and avoided the reputational damage which would have ensued if racing had struggled to carry on at a time of national emergency. As ever there were a number of strong counter-arguments, particularly from former BHA Chairman Peter Savill who felt that racing had missed a huge opportunity to engage a new audience and significantly expand betting turnover, while Mark Johnston felt that it was a “grave mistake to suspend racing”.
<br />
<br />
The £4bn industry of racing employs 6,500 racing staff, looks after 14,000 racehorses and directly supports a huge ecosystem of full-time and self-employed staff. The seismic shock of lockdown is still rippling through the industry and no-one can predict the damage that will be done to racecourses, trainers, bookmakers, sales houses, breeders, consignors, stable staff, jockeys, valets, bloodstock agents, farriers, equine physiotherapists, specialist vets, feed suppliers …. and of course owners, who for the most part will continue to pay out training or keep fees even though there is no prospect of seeing their horses out on the track in the immediate future. Encouragingly, though, there has been a massive collaborative effort from all the stakeholders in racing with a constant stream of advice and a multi-workstream “industry plan” focused on racing’s resumption. Racing seems to work best in adversity, and full marks to all the groups who have rallied round.
<br />
<br />
At a personal level I’m close to Martin Keighley’s yard and with the active support of key owners we created and implemented a business continuity plan that is now fully operational around two phases. The first covers the period from 1st April to 31st May, when the majority of horses will have been turned out into the paddocks and only a very small number being kept in training and “ticking over” so that if racing does resume they can take part at summer jumps meetings. The second phase is from 1st June to 31st August when hopefully most horses will return to full training and, most importantly, the full team will come back into normal employment after two months being furloughed under the government’s emergency funding measures. Every single employee, owner and supplier was briefed on the plan within 48 hours of its creation and there has been a hugely positive response – not least from Martin’s owners who have been tremendously supportive.
<br />
<br />
In some ways, although it has been a huge challenge for National Hunt yards – not least because such plans have led to a 50% reduction in income – it is more straightforward for them than for training colleagues on the Flat, all of whom were focused on getting their horses out on the track in April / May from the traditional start of the season with the Lincoln at Doncaster on Saturday 28th March. Do these trainers continue, or stand their horses down while awaiting more clarity on when racing will resume? The impact on the Racing Pattern cannot yet really be evaluated – what will happen to the Classics, and will Royal Ascot take place?
<br />
<br />
Very detailed planning has been taking place on the potential resumption of racing, although it is most unlikely to restart until the viral infection rate has begun to decline significantly. Apparently the plans include racing operating behind closed doors through regional hubs in the North, Midlands and South of the country with consecutive fixtures taking place at these tracks over, say, a week at a time, and it would be easy to imagine a considerable number of maiden two-year-old races and jumpers’ bumpers being held. These plans are designed to ensure minimal impact on the NHS, and there will be reduced field sizes and only the most experienced jockeys participating, to reduce the risk of injury. Essential racing staff and jockeys would stay at hotels (so it could be that the racecourses selected would be those with such facilities either on site or nearby) and the horses would be transported to each track daily.
<br />
<br />
The government has been encouraging the industry to develop such “self-help plans” so that racing is ready to return at the earliest possibility. Although there have been no guidelines on other plans, it is to be hoped that these will emerge soon, particularly on racing-specific financial support. In particular, the Levy Board sits on reserves of over £45m, and the Racing Foundation a further £82m, which could help considerably. In the meantime all the emergency financial measures introduced by the chancellor Rishi Sunak (who as the member for Richmond is well aware of racing’s requirements, not least in Middleham) have been seized on by trainers, racecourses, contract and self-employed staff, and also the BHA who have furloughed 200 of their 260 staff, saving £1m a month.
<br />
<br />
A crisis of epic proportions! It is to be hoped that most of us will emerge relatively unscathed, and the number one priority clearly must be the health and welfare of the population of the country. Survival is paramount, before we all turn our attention to restoring the country’s economy. The effects of the crisis are bound to be felt for many years to come, and the racing industry will be buffeted in the same way as most other business sectors. Let’s hope there aren’t too many casualties. Unfortunately the industry was not in good financial shape going into the crisis, and it’s hard to imagine it will come out of it without there being significant damage. In the short term – stay safe and stay at home.
<br />
<br />
At a personal level we will all be trying to find solace and ways of surviving the challenges of social distancing and isolation. Those who know me well are aware of my enthusiasm and passion for fine wine. My wife and I have introduced a weekend wine tasting of the very finest in our cellar. Last Saturday we savoured the delights of a 1999 Maximin Grunhauser Abtsberg Riesling Auslese, Cask Nr. 165, Von Schubert. It was sublime and awe-inspiring. They always say that you shouldn’t waste a crisis – and we certainly don’t intend to, on the vinous front. May you find similar pleasures.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/04/coping-with-covid-19-crisis-massive.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-34674095332213381112020-03-01T00:00:00.000+00:002020-03-01T00:00:10.442+00:00Why Cheltenham Should be a Five-Day Festival – Even Though My Knees, Liver and Wallet will Struggle to Cope<br />
When you’re in the stands at Prestbury Park and look across to Cleeve Hill, you’ll see the radio masts at the top. Travel a few miles beyond them in a straight line and you’ll get to my house. I sometimes say (though it isn’t strictly true) that if you slip the hand-brake on my car, it’s downhill all the way to the members’ car park. I’m here primarily because I adore Cheltenham Races and the Cotswolds. So do most of my friends, many of whom I am going to antagonise with this blog, so apologies in advance.
<br />
<br />
Here is my prescription for a proposed new Festival – make it five days; have the Gold Cup as the centrepiece on the Saturday; reduce the number of races to six per day; frame extremely valuable handicaps to end each day; ensure that these races enable grass-roots owners to have runners; and set a target for 300,000+ attendees.
<br />
<br />
In an ideal world, my personal preference would have been for a two-day, concentrated event – a National Hunt Breeders’ Cup meeting, or something similar to the superb Dublin Festival of Racing at Leopardstown in February. Putting all the top races together in a two-day extravaganza would be fabulous, but there is clearly no chance whatsoever of that occurring. Cheltenham over the years has quite rightly made the event bigger and broadened its appeal. All the arguments against this on the basis of dilution appear pretty weak, and really we have to regard the Festival as one of British Racing’s most valuable assets. Let’s make it bigger and better, as soon as possible.
<br />
<br />
The starting point is to do with the bigger picture of British Racing, which seems to be in decline in terms of ownership and racecourse attendance. Owner numbers have been on a steady downward trajectory throughout most of the past decade, and despite the ambitious goal of seven million racecourse attendances by 2020 – set as a key target of racing’s Strategy for Growth – the reality is unfortunately that numbers have dropped, to 5.62 million last year, from 6.13 million in 2015. There are doubtless quite a few structural factors behind this, and it is likely to be impossible to reverse these declines without significant change on a broad but targeted front. Attracting new racegoers into the sport is absolutely essential, and the demand appears to be strong for festivals and marquee days, which is something that the racecourse groups can’t afford to ignore. Without going into too much detail, why doesn’t racing incorporate a programme of top-quality Saturday events throughout the year, designed to appeal to this demand. One of the arguments will always be that it would clash with football or other sporting events but, for starters, how about a sequence of even bigger racedays for the Aintree Grand National, Epsom Derby, York’s Melbourne Cup (aka the Ebor), Ascot’s Champions’ Day, Haydock’s Betfair meeting and, of course, Cheltenham and The Festival (which I’ve noticed is now trademarked, with by-lines such as <i>The Best Spectacle in Sport and In March, the Only Place to Be</i>.
<br />
<br />
From the ownership standpoint, all roads lead to Cheltenham. It’s incredible that for this year’s Festival there are 928 entries for the 10 handicaps alone, including 156 for the Martin Pipe, 148 for the Coral Cup, 99 for the County Hurdle and 96 for a race that I can’t even remember what it’s now called – the Plate. All owners, and particularly those at the grass-roots level, want to be part of the Festival. For trainers it is a symbol of success to have runners, never mind winners, and for staff it is hugely motivating to lead up the horses in the famous Cheltenham amphitheatre. The ideal would be to frame races to enable broader participation, and it would be terrific if every day there were hugely valuable handicaps that put significant winnings into the hands of lesser trainers and owners. It wouldn’t be difficult to design races to facilitate that. Indeed, I’ll be at the forefront of a campaign for a syndicate series that has its final at the Festival. These types of races could also be linked in with nationwide qualifiers that would spread the wealth and increase field sizes at the lesser tracks.
<br />
<br />
Many will characterise the expansion of the Festival as commercial greed, designed to “milk” the racegoer and punter. There are already lots of events and sideshows around the Festival that a lot of people dislike. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea to participate in The Park, which is, apparently, “a totally unique area ….. offering an alternative experience ….. the Insta-worthy place to be” (whatever this might mean). But we shouldn’t belittle the marketing talent that is going into the Festival, and the considerable contribution made by Jockey Club Racecourses to prize-money as a result. In 2010 this was £13m per year, and by the end of the decade it has climbed to £27.1m. Hats off to JCR!
<br />
<br />
Over to Martin St. Quinton, the new Chairman of Cheltenham, not only to grab this commercial opportunity with both hands but to bring in a broader audience of racegoers, especially when the Gold Cup is on a Saturday. If a few of the traditional fans reduce their attendance or even drop by the wayside, so be it. As one of them, I’m sure I’ll adapt, even if the physical demands are becoming more onerous with age. But doubtless the Cheltenham roar at the beginning of each day will make attendance worthwhile …. and when one of my horses wins the Syndicate Final on the Saturday of Cheltenham, I’ll be in seventh heaven. Bring it on!
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/03/why-cheltenham-should-be-five-day.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-7954523895497505162020-02-01T00:00:00.000+00:002020-02-01T00:00:17.185+00:00A Whinge on Racecourse Access Roads, Car Parks and Car Park Attendants – The Power of the First Impression<br />
Over the years since I started The Owner’s Opinion blog, the pendulum has swung between quite robust, strategic articles and highly practical and more tactical offerings. Today’s blog is firmly in the latter category.<br />
<br />
Psychologists know that the power of the first and last impressions have significantly higher impact than what goes on between them. I’m sure that this applies equally to racecourses, and we all know that there are a number of racecourses in the country that create a magnificent first impression but, alas, there are others that fail miserably. I don’t particularly like to “name and shame”, so I’ll sidestep that, but racecourses I am particularly impressed by include Newbury, the Rowley Mile course at Newmarket and my favourite track in the country, York, as far as large tracks are concerned, whereas unfortunately most of the smaller tracks are somewhat challenged, although that is not an excuse for some of the unimpressive incidents that are all too frequent. I’m not going to mention any specific courses, but you may be able to recognise some of them. Here is my whinge.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Lack of signage:</b> the locals may know the area but visiting owners often do not. Navigating your way through towns is never easy, and with many racecourses located out in the countryside it is often difficult to work out the correct way to approach them. When you eventually locate them, often the signage for Owners & Trainers car parks are too small and badly positioned.</li>
<li><b>Racecourse access road: </b> why are so many too narrow, potholed and with rough, inadequate surfacing? That isn’t just the minor tracks – it is the case at some of the biggest courses in the country. It is sometimes unclear whether they are two-lane roads, so it is left to drivers to decide. Sometimes you find that two-lane roads become one-way only at various times, though nothing explains what triggers that.</li>
<li><b>Entrance to the car park: </b> how many times have you encountered the custodian of the car park glaring at you for some unknown and unintended breach of procedure? While a few breezily wave you through on display of your O&T car park badge or ROA PASS card, others seem determined to block the entrance and keep you out, regardless of your entitlement to be there. It is not much of a first impression if the verbals / non-verbals are “You can’t come in”, or “You can’t park here”, or “You can come in, but can only park in that big puddle over there”, or, of course, “Anywhere you like, in the mud”.</li>
<li><b>The car park surface:</b> if I was going for a normal distribution of surfacing, I would say that 20% is lamentably bad; 20% a combination of grass, gravel and mud; 20% Ok apart from when it’s raining (which is hardly uncommon in this country, particularly this winter); 20% quite acceptable and you can park on it and walk over it without getting covered in mud; and 20% superb, as it is hard standing and properly laid out.</li>
<li><b>Signage to Owners & Trainers: </b> sometimes good but often non-existent. My worst experience was going to a minor NH course when I followed the signs to the racecourse car park, only to be told that I’d come to the wrong car park and should have gone to another one, which of course hadn’t been signed at all. The wrong car park did however have an O&T entrance, but when I went there, they wouldn’t allow me in, as apparently I needed to go to the “other one” across the course. They wouldn’t let me through to go to the unsigned, correct one. I had to go back to the car, drive round and find the unsigned correct one and go through the whole process again. They then wouldn’t accept my wife as an owner at the O&T entrance, and the usual embarrassment started of proving who you were. The staff at O&T had obviously been through the same charm school as the car park attendants. The training had certainly been effective – it was consistently dreadful, rude behaviour.</li>
</ul>
The famous bloodstock agent, David Redvers, on his web site, has something called Redvers’ Rant. I’m obviously launching a new series to rival that called Hughes’s Horrors. Maybe I’ve just reached the age of Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave. If you hear someone ambling round the course muttering, “I just don’t believe it”, you’ll know it’s either David, Victor or me.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/02/a-whinge-on-racecourse-access-roads-car.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-35519975709985122372020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:002020-01-01T00:00:27.762+00:00The New Year’s Resolution for the Racehorse Owners Association Should Be to Publish the Long-Awaited Industry Ownership Strategy. Then Come Up with Ways to Incentivise Owners to Increase their Involvement.<br />
For the last two years I have been pressing the ROA to produce and publish the Industry Ownership Strategy for which they received £1.65m of funding from the Racing Foundation. There has still been no sign of it, and I’m just hoping that the powers-that-be in Holborn have this output high up their list of New Year’s resolutions.<br />
<br />
While they dilly and dally, ownership is in decline. Indeed, sole ownership has been declining for ten years, while the age profile of owners has been only increasing. As the prime investing stakeholder in the sport, it is absolutely vital that new owners are brought into the game, while retaining the current ones. At the heart of the Industry Ownership Strategy there has to be a commitment to promoting shared ownership through syndicates, and that needs both resources to run national marketing campaigns and the creation of incentives designed to prompt owners to increase their involvement.<br />
<br />
There has been a lot of discussion during 2019 about how to deal with the increasing numbers of owners within the facilities of the racecourses. As syndicates increase in number and in size, a much greater strain has been placed on O&T facilities. Racecourses only really have two options available: they can increase provision and / or restrict access. It is quite likely during 2020 that racecourses, individually or collectively, will adopt one of two solutions. Either they will introduce a tiering of owner privileges (rather like First Class and Business Class lounges on airlines) or they will start to offer a “package” of benefits whereby, for example, a syndicate can trade off free lunches for additional badges.<br />
<br />
I’m sure a number of these blogs will be devoted to this subject because it has potential for unintended consequences. For example, racecourses could be tempted to treat owners as first-class or second-class citizens with sole owners “up in first class” and syndicates and partnerships “down the back of the plane”.<br />
<br />
What is really needed is a much more thoughtful approach which actually incentivises owners to increase their involvement in order to access different tiers of benefits, which I believe is the model used in Australia. Basically the more horses / shares in horses you own (and the greater your economic contribution to racing), the greater the benefits that you enjoy. It also has to be emphasised that, at the moment, racing has no real insight into that economic contribution. So, for example, there are many syndicate owners who have multiple shares in horses but there is no way for racing to pick that up and respond to them as to more valuable sole owners. It is essential in an ownership strategy that this capability is developed and applied across the whole ownership base, and that requires a different registration process, ownership IDs and technology platforms to support it. However, none of that process / technology is particularly innovative, and has been in use in the retail and airline sectors for thirty years or more. Racing is well behind the wave on this, but the good news is that none of the systems required are particularly complex and should not be expensive to introduce.<br />
<br />
At the same time, such a registration process would remove the potential abuses such as those encountered by one of our owners through his involvement in the Supreme Racing Club. Ged Shields recently had a letter published on the subject in the <i>Racing Post</i>, and it is worth reproducing it in full below:<br />
<br />
<div style="padding: 0 50px 20px 50px;">
“As one of the many victims of the Supreme Horse Racing overselling scandal I think its long overdue that the racing authorities in the UK and Ireland introduce an owners’ registration system that is fit for purpose. The current approach is hopelessly inadequate. Obviously.<br />
<br />
Since the scandal broke, we’ve heard the BHA and ROA and other bodies making the case for syndicate operators to sign up to strengthened codes of conduct and suggesting some sort of licensing scheme may be the answer. The blunt truth is that neither suggestion would have prevented the Supreme situation.<br />
<br />
What we need is a transparent online share register that allows owners, no matter what size of share, to check their share has been registered and the combined ownership shares for each horse. So, for example, John Smith can see he has been registered for 5% in Horse A , 10% in Horse B etc and then when he clicks on Horse A he can see his 5% and the % shares other owners have in the same horse. He doesn’t need to know the names of the other owners so GDPR shouldn’t be an issue. He just needs to see his share has been registered accurately and that the combined shares in the horse don’t add up to more than 100%. This kind of online platform would allow owners themselves to police the share register of the horses they are involved in and would have prevented the overselling undertaken by Supreme Horse Racing. It would represent a huge improvement on the current system.<br />
<br />
As racehorse owners we invest thousands in the sport and deserve a registration system that works much harder to protect our investment. This needs to become a top priority for the racing authorities in the UK and Ireland and there is no sensible reason why it should not be implemented in a matter of months. I hope for once they will act quickly.”</div>
All of this shows the urgent need for an Industry Ownership Strategy that is genuinely innovative, and backed up by detailed operational plans required to introduce these much-needed changes. It has taken the ROA almost two years to produce very little, and yet a number of owners with whom I am regularly in contact could readily create the framework of the strategy during the course of a long dinner and a few bottles of fine wine. And British Racing would have received a lot of change from its £1.65m. Indeed, my view is that unless there is progress quickly, this strategic initiative should be taken away from the ROA and put in the hands of a new industry leadership group with the insights, motivation and skills to do something about it. In short, ROA – get on with it or move out of the way.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2020/01/the-new-years-resolution-for-racehorse.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-52215644082565260302019-12-01T00:00:00.000+00:002019-12-01T00:00:30.038+00:00Corruption and / or Contempt for Owners and / or Incompetence? The Worrying Stories of Phoenix Thoroughbreds and the Supreme Racing Club, and What Changes will the BHA Have to Make?<br />
Two years ago, in Autumn 2017, I wrote a lengthy, four-part blog series on <i>Trust, Transparency and Integrity in Racing</i>. My concerns for some time had centred around unacknowledged risk and vulnerability in racing, particularly to do with the bloodstock industry and sales house practices; welfare of racehorses post-retirement; and the relatively unregulated syndication and racing clubs sector. Two years on and, perhaps not unsurprisingly in the glacial world of racing decision-making, not a lot has happened; although, to be fair, at least there has been a report into the bloodstock industry, and equine welfare is currently under greater scrutiny. To the cynical observer, however, it does seem as though racing only really responds to crises, incidents and the proverbial hitting the fan. It has been well and truly splattered this Autumn!
<br />
<br />
Some of the journalists at the <i>Racing Post</i>, particularly Peter Scargill, Scott Burton, David Jennings and Tom Peacock, have been digging into the Phoenix Thoroughbreds accusations, and it really does look a sorry mess. The 56-year-old founder, Amer Abdulaziz Salman, hit the global racing industry like a tidal wave with apparently limitless funds to invest in the best bloodstock on the planet. He made great play that Dubai-based Phoenix Fund Investments Limited and Phoenix Thoroughbreds 2017 were being launched as “the world’s first regulated thoroughbred fund”. Excellent, you might conclude, until discovering that the funds were never regulated and are now in liquidation. In the meantime, Phoenix acquired 300 horses and 27 trainers, as well as bagging Gr.1s with horses such as Dream Tree, Loving Gaby, Advertise, Signora Cabello and Gronkowski, who I believe was being aimed at the inaugural $20m Saudi Cup in February. Undoubtedly, elite racing has some big pots …. but also some big crooks. There are accusations that Abdulaziz was a money-launderer and had stolen €100m from the now collapsed Ponzi scheme, One Coin, which was a scam in fake online crypto-currency. A thief from a thief! It also seems he had form in this area, having defaulted on payments for horses in the US in 2010 via bogus investment companies.
<br />
<br />
This sounds like an airport thriller, doesn’t it? Don’t you find it incredible that Abdulaziz’s previous history had not followed him, and that the regulators around the world hadn’t picked up on it? Or is the racing world so gullible, and so ready to accept anyone’s cash, that they choose not to raise any of the key questions? Phoenix Thoroughbreds are / were active in the UK and doubtless their demise will have a significantly detrimental impact on trainers and the sport. It’s hard not to conclude that all of this is a combination of contempt and corruption.
<br />
<br />
Now on to the Supreme Racing Club. A friend and fellow owner is involved in Kemboy and SRC, and I felt sorry for him as the sorry shambles unfolded. I’ve even had jokey emails along the lines of “everyone has a friend in Kemboy”, because at the heart of the matter is the accusation that SRC over-sold shares in their 29 horses and that they had no proper record of who owned what. It was founded in 2011 by Steve Massey and Jim Balfrey, and quickly became one of Ireland’s largest National Hunt syndicators, with over 500 members. Horse Racing Ireland began an investigation, but SRC refused (or was unable to) to provide them with the necessary information on ownership details and shareholding allocations, so after a period of time, HRI had no choice but to void the registration of horse ownership and freeze their accounts. The upshot of course was that the horses could no longer race, in Ireland or elsewhere, and unfortunately that owners couldn’t receive prize-money payments that they were due, not least because no-one appears to know who has the full right of title to the various shares in the 29 horses, or the cash balances. On this one, I don’t know whether it is primarily a question of incompetence or whether there is an element of dishonesty as well. Encouragingly, it now appears to be sorting itself out, and there will be a special cheer from me if Kemboy runs at the Leopardstown Winter Festival en route to winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
<br />
<br />
What a mess, and what damage to racing’s image! There will be many in the outside world, as well as within the sport, who will see this as just confirming their worst fears that there are too many scams and rip-offs, with rogues and vagabond masquerading as “managers” of other people’s money, only to steal it. The BHA has announced that, as a matter of urgency, it is examining the Phoenix Thoroughbreds situation, but it is hard not to draw the conclusion that they have been asleep on the job. What is the point of having a regulator which doesn’t regulate?
<br />
<br />
When my wife and I set up Owners for Owners, we made a huge point about being fully transparent and running OfO as a “not for profit” operation. Nothing has changed in our model, but as I now know a lot more about syndication, I can line up the industry like skittles from highly ethical at one end of the scale to unethical and unlawful at the other end. On regular occasions in this blog I’ve argued for substantial tightening of regulation of the syndicate industry, and for there to be a much stronger code of conduct with far more explicit indications of good / acceptable practice vs. the bad / unacceptable. Since 2018, I have also argued that shared ownership should be covered in detail within the Industry Ownership Strategy that is being developed by the Racehorse Owners Association. However, despite having received £1.65m to develop this, no such strategy has yet seen the light of day, even though they have been working on it for two years.
<br />
<br />
Anyone involved in buying, training and racing horses knows that there is a substantial cost involved. Even with a moderate animal kept for 3-4 years, the owners will quickly find that the outlay is not far short of £100,000. In the financial services industry, no-one would be allowed to offer “investments” of this magnitude without there being proper regulation. Surely the time has come for the BHA to review radically the current arrangements and put in place much stricter frameworks designed to secure the necessary trust and integrity. Without that, the industry is going to find it increasingly difficult to attract and retain owners, who are the life-blood of the sport.
<br />
<br />
I hope I’m not writing this again in two years’ time – but I fear I will be.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/12/corruption-and-or-contempt-for-owners.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-21431775359014207482019-11-01T00:00:00.000+00:002019-11-01T00:00:22.805+00:00The Owners for Owners Vision of an Ownership Strategy – Without a £1.65m Tab!<br />
In the spring and summer of 2018 I read about the Racehorse Owners’ Association’s leadership role in the creation of a “new ownership strategy for British racing”. Excellent, I thought – just what the industry needs, and I was keen to have a look at it. I sent emails off to the ROA requesting a copy, but received nothing in return. Eventually I decided to up the ante and write to all the top leaders in racing – BHA, GBR, RCA, NTF, Horsemen’s Group and, of course, the ROA. Doubtless I ruffled a few feathers and I received a very emollient note back from Nick Rust, the CEO of the BHA. Collaboration and communication were duly emphasised, and not surprisingly I was placated and waited to see the strategy. I have continued to wait for the last 15 months, but so far nothing formal has appeared, despite the ROA receiving £1.65m from the Racing Foundation to produce their magnum opus. Finally, in frustration, I decided to launch my own twitter campaign, with one tweet a day throughout October outlining my own thoughts on a suitable blueprint for ownership. Indeed, if you really wanted to see these tweets you could just scroll down the twitter box on the home page on my web site, <b><a href="http://www.ownersforowners.co.uk/">www.ownersforowners.co.uk</a></b>. I suspect you’ll have better things to do! The twitter exercise and all the various comments associated with it led me to produce the diagram below.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YqphH3hU1qA/XbrSD5fHNlI/AAAAAAAAAS4/OmeYy8Ri89EXugMJMdBAr18W0b-aaX1sACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/20-20-vision-diagram.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="624" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YqphH3hU1qA/XbrSD5fHNlI/AAAAAAAAAS4/OmeYy8Ri89EXugMJMdBAr18W0b-aaX1sACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/20-20-vision-diagram.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Apparently there is going to be a round of communication about the ownership strategy throughout the autumn. If so, I’m going to be very interested to see whether the ROA’s blueprint is as comprehensive as mine. At the moment they appear to be playing around at the edges of ownership with lots of “mini-initiatives”. I learnt a long time ago that you can have strategies with a small s and Strategy with a big S. My approach is to go for a big, bold vision, whereas it looks as though the ROA – despite the expensive involvement of the Portas consultancy – are lost in the minutiae of the strategic margins. Surely it is time to put a big strategy centre stage, and actually do something significant. Anyway, I’ve made my contribution and it certainly doesn’t come with a £1.65m price tag. Even if you don’t agree with what I’ve outlined, the input can hardly be better value for money as I’m not charging anyone anything. I do hope that the ROA strategy eventually surfaces - “hope springs eternal”!
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/11/the-owners-for-owners-vision-of.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-5264380119460687852019-10-01T12:49:00.000+01:002019-10-01T12:49:02.155+01:00“Icebergs Ahoy!”, but are the Officers on the Bridge of the Titanic Looking Through the Wrong End of the Telescope? More Views on the Ownership Strategy.<br />
Just back from a super, relaxing holiday in the relatively isolated north-west of Tenerife. If you like golf, do go and stay at the Hacienda del Conde and play golf at the Seve Ballesteros course at Buenavista. While there, I read a bit about the island and I certainly wasn’t aware that Horatio Nelson didn’t just lose a sea battle off Santa Cruz, but it is also where he lost his arm. Apparently it was a battle he should never have lost – it was all down to complacency, not marshalling his resources properly, incomplete information and the wrong analysis of the situation. A bit like British racing, as you’ll see in this blog.
<br />
<br />
I kept my eye on a number of racing topics (I know, I should get out on the golf course more), and once again the strategic snail of the ownership strategy caught my attention, largely through an article in the Racing Post written by Jonathan Harding. For over a year I’ve been frustrated about the lack of clarity and progress on this strategy even though, apparently, the budget for it is now £1.66m, with the Levy Board alone contributing £790,000. The only way to gauge whether we’re getting value for money from this substantial investment will be the outputs from the study, and its impact on the attraction of new owners into the sport while retaining current ones. A coherent strategic plan still hasn’t been issued, and it does look as though the ROA is just tinkering around with the Titanic’s deckchairs. Where is the over-arching strategic vision? What are the major strategic priorities being addressed? What are the strategic goals and specific objectives that can be measured over a 1 / 3 / 5 / 10-year time horizon? What are the detailed and targeted initiatives to be deployed, and what are the resource implications for the industry? None of these questions have been properly addressed. Apparently there will be a communication exercise in the autumn and nothing would give me greater pleasure than putting ticks in all the boxes, and seeing the Titanic steer away from the icebergs unscathed.
<br />
<br />
Most worryingly, the Racing Post article stated that the strategy is all about “evolution not revolution”. The ROA has prioritised retaining owners over actively recruiting them, and that sort of one-eyed strategy appears to be gross neglect. Also, they have chosen to treat prize-money as a separate issue, and again that is flabbergasting. Just keep moving those deckchairs around …..
<br />
<br />
It’s not as though the icebergs aren’t big, prominent, ugly and frightening:<br />
<ul>
<li>Sole owners are in significant decline, down from around 7,000 to 5,000 in the last ten years.</li>
<li>There are now more owners aged over 80 than under 40.</li>
<li>The returns to owners are dreadful, with 73% of those owners receiving less than £2,500 per year, due to both the quantum of prize-money and its allocation. It is far too concentrated at the top tier of the sport, which benefits hugely anyway from ongoing stud value.</li>
<li>The betting industry is hurting. For example, William Hill’s profits are down 33% with 700 betting shops likely to close by the end of the year.</li>
<li>Racecourses are increasingly forecasting “significant risk of falling income” and almost inevitably reduced prize-money as a result. Newbury, which already has woeful prize-money for the quality of its racing, issued a note to that effect.</li>
<li>While Logician put in a superb performance in the St Leger (for a £700,000 pot, the second-most valuable British Classic after the Derby), throughout the festival there were many under-subscribed races, which wasn’t surprising in view of the poor prize-money. Day 1 had a meagre £149k and the last two races on Leger day were 0-110 handicaps with prize-money between £12,450 and £15,562, whereas similar races at the York Ebor festival were worth £70k. Owners and trainers are voting with their feet / hooves. Those two races at Doncaster had three and two runners respectively.</li>
</ul>
And yet the ownership strategy isn’t examining initiatives to bring new owners into the game, nor to boost the prize-money to sustain it. This beggars belief.
<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, of course, it is very different elsewhere in the world. The new Saudi Cup, to be staged on 29th February 2020 at the King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh will be the richest ever race, at US$20m. Even the undercard has US$7m of prize-money. The Times has a view that we are now going to see a “high-rollers’ triple crown”, with trainers targeting this race along with the Pegasus in the US, worth £7.4m, and the Dubai World Cup at £9.9m.
<br />
<br />
Oh, to be a high-roller operating at the platinum end of racing, whether globally or in the UK. For them, life is rich and rosy, and indeed the ROA’s magazine, Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder, reinforces that view with all the top trainers, horses breeders and owners being feted and now has pages of over-priced “fashion” drivel as well. It would be a nice magazine to read in the lounges of the Titanic, maybe alongside a copy of the ROA’s ownership strategy, when it finally makes its appearance.
<br />
<br />
Icebergs ahoy! Do we have any lifeboats?
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/10/icebergs-ahoy-but-are-officers-on.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-33694813796918645102019-09-01T00:00:00.000+01:002019-09-01T00:00:01.276+01:00How Many “Bad Apples” Are There in the Bloodstock Orchard, and Will They Now be Eradicated?<br />
Back in the autumn of 2017, I wrote several blogs about integrity and corruption in racing, which included the bloodstock supply chain and sales houses. As a result of this I was invited to take part in the investigation instigated by the BHA and led by former senior policeman Justin Felice. I met up with him and colleagues on a couple of occasions and shared with them my own experiences encountered in buying racehorses over a 15-year period. Early in August, key stakeholders in racing met for a first review of his report, which was subsequently leaked by the Racing Post. Encouragingly, many of the recommendations I made to the study have been incorporated in the report, though I must emphasise that I haven’t yet read it myself, so this blog is based on the leaks. Further stakeholder discussions are taking place through September, and as soon as I’m able to obtain a copy of the full report I’ll do another blog on the subject.
<br />
<br />
Full credit should be given to the BHA for being prepared to launch this study. They came in for a fair bit of criticism and it is true to say that there are a few vested interests who were reluctant to acknowledge that major changes are needed. Some agents, trainers, managers of studs, bloodstock vendors and syndicators are guilty of “improper practices” which, if you are generous, you would say are unscrupulous and dishonest but if not you would say are criminal breaches of their fiduciary duties towards the purchasers of bloodstock, namely owners.
<br />
<br />
Felice is damning in his analysis of the industry and, quite rightly, calls for “transformational changes”. Although there is a code of practice dating back to 2004, subsequently amended in 2009, there hasn’t been a single recorded complaint in 15 years, which only encourages a number of resisters of change to remain in a state of denial over the corruption that occurs on a significant scale. Felice acknowledges this and believes that there is omerta – a culture of silence and of impunity. Bad, and even illegal, behaviour has long been tolerated by the industry. This isn’t some sort of minor, grubby, “Del Boy”-type misdemeanour; it is endemic behaviour up to and including the elite of breeders and agents who have shamelessly ramped prices and ripped off naïve and gullible owners. Addressing this behaviour is long overdue, and the real test of successful implementation of the Felice report will be the sharpness of the teeth of enforcement practices, the number of complaints that now surface and, in time, the banning and / or criminal prosecution of some of the culprits.
<br />
<br />
Many of the “improper practices” are widely known, and include:<br />
<ul>
<li>Agents demanding a percentage of the sale price as totally unwarranted “luck money” from vendors. They pocket this for themselves and / or share it with the trainer. The owner knows nothing about it.</li>
<li>Dual representation, where the agent is acting for both purchaser and vendor, and charges a commission to both parties. Although representing both sides of the same transaction, at least one of the parties is unaware of the fact.</li>
<li>Secret profiteering, which is when the sales process is rigged through conspiratorial pre-agreed bidding up of a horse’s price. Vendors and agents conspire to inflate the price artificially above a pre-agreed amount and then split the difference between themselves.</li>
<li>Running up a price where the vendor bids against a buyer, without their knowledge, to obtain a higher value for their horse.</li>
</ul>
Anyone who is acting as an “agent” for a principal, e.g. an owner, must act in the principal’s best interests, otherwise they will be in breach of agency law and legislation such as the Criminal Law Act 1977, Fraud Act 2006 and Bribery Act 2010. In the light of the extensive use of the four “improper practices” described above, it is staggering that there haven’t been any prosecutions, but Felice is well aware that collusion and coercion in the bloodstock supply chain means that there is a huge reluctance to act and, indeed, a fear that by coming forward, individuals will be victimised by the powerful players who dominate at the sales.
It is encouraging, therefore, that “transformational and once in a generation” changes are being proposed, inter alia:
<br />
<ol>
<li>The BHA to be given jurisdiction over the currently unregulated bloodstock sector.</li>
<li>The industry to operate under a proper, tougher Code of Conduct.</li>
<li>Agents to be licensed. Those operating under such a licence will have to accept regulatory access to bank accounts if an investigation is taking place.</li>
<li>Breach of the licence will lead to an agent losing it, together with bans and removal of access to the sales.</li>
<li>Furthermore, breaches of the Rules of Racing – conduct prejudicial to horseracing – to be enforced on similar lines to the Financial Conduct Authority.</li>
<li>Payment of luck money over, say, £250 to be deemed to be an inducement, and therefore criminal.</li>
<li>Stop vendors bidding on their own horses beyond the reserves that they themselves have set. When a vendor bids beyond that reserve, the auctioneer to be required to announce it as a vendor bid.</li>
<li>Binding agreements introduced between the BHA and sales houses to enable information sharing.</li>
<li>Make it clear who is selling the horse. Sales houses to log and make public the full beneficial ownership of every horse due to be sold.</li>
<li>Harmonisation of these changes to occur in Ireland and, in time, other jurisdictions such as France.</li>
</ol>
It will be interesting to see the progress made once consultation with stakeholders has been completed, and whether the industry is prepared to put its bloodstock sales houses properly in order. Zero tolerance of corrupt practices is required. Without it, the already fragile ownership base is likely to contract further and profound damage be done to racing’s integrity and reputation. At least it is encouraging that the study was completed and that there is a readiness on the part of the BHA to publish it and act on it.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/09/how-many-bad-apples-are-there-in.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-11454309454737561112019-08-01T00:00:00.000+01:002019-08-01T00:00:09.835+01:00New Brooms in the Leadership Cupboard, but Will We See Any Sweeping Changes?<br />
When you look at the quality of racing at Ascot on King George day and now Glorious Goodwood, it’s very easy to feel that all is just fine and dandy in the racing stable. It isn’t, of course, and this blog flags up a few priorities for the new leaders who have recently stepped into various roles in racing and at Westminster.<br />
<br />
But first, the racing. I was lucky enough to see Grundy beat Bustino in the King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in the 1970s, and for my money Enable’s win, beating Crystal Ocean, is one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. She has now won her last 11 races, £708,875 last Saturday and a total of £9,141,226 during her career so far. Last Sunday Karl Burke’s super filly Laurens got back on the Gr.1 trail again, winning the Prix Rothschild in Deauville. That was her sixth Gr.1 and she has now bagged £1,704,500. Then on the first day of Glorious Goodwood, my favourite horse in training, Stradivarius, added another £283,000 on to his winning tally which is now well over £2m, and of course there is probably going to be another million to come from the Weatherbys Hamilton £1m Bonus.<br />
<br />
Wouldn’t you like to be a trainer?? The answer to that question is “absolutely not”, as it is such a tough, stressful and economically precarious way to earn a living, as the current Flat trainer statistics show. So far, 521 trainers have had runners on the Flat this season in the UK; 11 have won £1m+, 22 £½m+, and 109 in total £100k+. Now for the killer stats though – 412 (79%) have won less than £100k in total prize-money earnings; 227 (44%) less than £10k; 170 (33%) less than £5k; and 87 (17%) less than £1,000. The trainer winning percentage is 10%, so 79% of all the trainers in the country who have raced on the Flat so far have earned less than £10k. At the same time, when you consider the small amount that goes into pool money for stable staff, the returns to the vast majority of the training ranks and their staff is derisory. I genuinely believe that the greatest strategic risk to British racing is that the base of the racing pyramid crumbles.<br />
<br />
Weatherbys Hamilton, if only you’d spent your £1m on a “Proud to Support Grass Roots Trainers and Stable Staff Stakes” series, I’d willingly switch my insurance to you. Imagine the impact of 100 races at £10k each, going into the grass roots. The impact of that would have been immeasurable compared to handing over all the money to an elite owner who doesn’t need it and wasn’t seeking it.<br />
<br />
Who are the new broom leaders, then, and what should their priorities be? In the blog on 1st June I mentioned Annamarie Phelps, the new chair of the BHA. We also have a new CEO of the Racecourse Association, David Armstrong; Delia Bushell is taking over from Simon Bazalgette at the Jockey Club; and Rebecca Pow MP will be supervising horse racing and gambling as the new parliamentary undersecretary of state for arts, heritage and tourism at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. There are some big questions and challenging dilemmas that these individuals will need to address.<br />
<br />
Some of the top priorities (not comprehensive and not in order of importance necessarily) should be:<br />
<br />
<b>#1: Funding and finances.</b> The 1st June blog summarised the £115m of extra funding for racing that could easily be secured. Steve Harman, Annamarie Phelps’ predecessor, discussed with the government the £50m a year that could come from self-help opportunities and £65m from levy development work. I still believe that Steve’s “call to arms” for the BHA to address this as an urgent priority is right. Getting close to government is obviously a prime enabler and I hope that the right relationship is established with Ms. Pow.<br />
<br />
<b>
#2: Media rights income.</b> It looks as though racing is going to lose £40-60m in media rights income and, apparently, each betting shop that closes results in the sport losing £30,000. Unfortunately there is woefully inadequate transparency on this income, which has been an ongoing source of tension with the Horsemen’s Group. I can’t vouch for the figures, but it is believed that £940 of income is generated per runner, per race, with the racecourses taking most of the media rights and only a third going into prize-money. That has incensed the NTF president-designate, Ralph Beckett, who has been nothing if not vociferous with phrases such as “owners and trainers provide the show; tracks just put it on” and “racecourses and the bookies will drive the grass roots out of business”.<br />
<br />
<b>
#3: Fixtures and racegoers.</b> The key dilemma, at a time of declining racecourse attendance, owners and horses, is whether fixtures and the race programme should contract or expand. There has been a token reduction from 1,511 meetings in 2019 to 1,491 for 2020. David Armstrong is leading an “economic modelling project” to assess ways of squaring this particular circle. We wish him well on that one. The other big challenge is clearly with attendances, which have now fallen for three years running. The Strategy for Growth goal set three years ago was to have attendances at seven million by 2020. It was 5.77m in 2018, the average crowd per fixture is 4,000 but the median is only 1,567 and a paltry 806 on the all-weather. Thinking caps on, with this one.<br />
<br />
<b>
#4: Welfare and integrity.</b> Racing can hold its head high on most of the welfare front, and with the right positioning and presentation to government the level of risk (with one notable exception) is quite low. Our sport has a strong and steady licence to operate from the population at large. Integrity though is much more of an issue. I’ve often said that an investigative journalist with a hidden camera could trigger a catastrophe in our sport if three areas were closely examined: the corruption at bloodstock sales; the fate of many racehorses when they retire; and the lack of regulation of syndicates and racing clubs. A report will appear in September examining the first of these. Some potatoes are getting hotter!<br />
<br />
I wish all the individuals mentioned the very best of success. While their in-trays are full to overflowing, positive progress on a small number of key priorities could have a huge impact on the sport. Be lucky.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/08/new-brooms-in-leadership-cupboard-but.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-84099992315055159082019-07-01T00:00:00.000+01:002019-07-01T00:00:02.032+01:00Why it’s Time for British Racing to Develop a UK-Wide Syndicate Strategy to Grow and Retain Owners for the Sport<br />
In the last blog, a number of priorities were flagged up for the new Chair of the BHA, Annamarie Phelps, who took up the leadership position on 1st June. I’m sure by now she’s only too aware of the big challenges facing racing and the key questions that need to be raised, and then answered. So for example, what are the major sources of funds that will guarantee the viability of the sport (the last blog echoed Steve Harman’s call for action with regard to the next stage of Levy development); does the expansion of the race programme continue (as the new CEO of the Racecourse Association advocates), or is it reduced (as the Horsemen’s Group would probably prefer); what are the priorities and funding implications of the new ownership strategy being developed by the Racehorse Owners Association; what are the ethical and integrity issues that need to be addressed as part of risk mitigation for the sport; and how are the problems of recruitment, retention and welfare of racing staff to be resolved? Doubtless there are also many other pressing concerns for Annamarie’s first 100 days.<br />
<br />
All those questions are relevant for someone taking a top-down perspective on racing. Obviously in Owners for Owners we’re immersed in the day-to-day of grass-roots owning and syndication. However, in this blog we’re trying to make the link between the top-down and bottom-up perspectives in the context of syndication.<br />
<br />
We’re members of the Racehorse Syndicates Association, which is actively promoting ongoing improvements in the ownership experience so that syndicate members are attracted into the game and retained within it. As part of that promotion, several important and little-appreciated facts are being publicised. It should be said that the numbers are only estimates, as absolutely no-one anywhere in racing has accurate facts and data on the importance and contribution of syndication to British Racing …. and that says everything, doesn’t it!<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Insight 1:</b> there are 2,500 syndicate organisers in the UK. Assuming ten owners on average per syndicate, that is 25,000 owners. They are the unknown stakeholders of British Racing.</li>
<li><b>Insight 2:</b> the total number of horses owned by syndicate organisers in the UK is estimated to be 5,000. Assume that the expenditure with trainers, vets, jockeys etc. is £20,000 per year, that is £100m contribution to the racehorse training industry.</li>
<li><b>Insight 3:</b> if we assume that the syndicate organisers replace these horses every other year, and the average bloodstock price is £30,000, then the income for the bloodstock industry is £75m.</li>
<li><b>Insight 4:</b> the running of syndicate horses clearly makes an important contribution to competitive racing, betting turnover, levy and media rights. We have no knowledge of the quantum of this, but let’s estimate that it is £25m.</li>
<li><b>Insight 5:</b> if 2,500 syndicate organisers and the 25,000 owners is correct, and these owners visit racecourses once a month, spending £50 on each visit, then that is a £30m income for racecourses across the country from syndicates.</li>
<li><b>Total annual contribution to British Racing from syndication is £230m.</b></li>
</ul>
<br />
At the moment, British Racing has no strategy focused on this important sector. As already mentioned, it has no meaningful data. It has little knowledge of the syndicate members, nor their needs and requirements. Faced with what is in effect a “black hole”, there must be a considerable opportunity to grow significantly the syndication of racehorses in the sport. In the past there have been one or two rather trivial attempts to promote syndication, of which a good example is the flawed “In the Paddock” web site that doesn’t even work properly. It all looks very amateurish and half-hearted.<br />
<br />
Everyone in racing surely buys into the expansion of syndication. However, to do that there are a few much wider issues that need to be addressed, as highlighted in the diagram below. The left pyramid shows that there is an over-concentration of money at the top, while the grass-roots foundation, which is where the vast majority of syndicates are operating, is crumbling, with many trainers and owners struggling financially. One solution would be to change the ratio of prize-money between the top and the bottom of the pyramid. As a timely example, although we adore Royal Ascot as an event with all its pomp and circumstance, it embodies the elitist nature of the sport. That is not an argument to change Royal Ascot, but we believe that far too much money is concentrated into the top races, and therefore goes to the top owners, trainers and breeders. We need more money for the grass roots. In the right hand diagram, the point is also emphasised that any realignment of prize-money should flow to the races that are the most competitive and generate the greatest betting levy. I wonder whether that data is readily available ….. or is it another black hole?<br />
<br />
On a personal note, we’re involved with the RSA in the launch of the first-ever Syndicate Sunday at Stratford-on-Avon Racecourse on Sunday 21st July, and hoping it will be really well supported by trainers and syndicators across the country. We’re determined to celebrate the success of syndication ….. and raise a glass to its expansion.
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="font-size: 1.4em; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-top: 25px;">
Fundamentally Changing the Ownership & Prize-Money Pyramid</div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZkkcUrxH4M/XRIpLF_5NLI/AAAAAAAAARY/uuWca-D6OpI0LtnlefxogEmidF03JpcnACLcBGAs/s1600/pyramid-diagram-630w.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="630" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZkkcUrxH4M/XRIpLF_5NLI/AAAAAAAAARY/uuWca-D6OpI0LtnlefxogEmidF03JpcnACLcBGAs/s1600/pyramid-diagram-630w.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/07/why-its-time-for-british-racing-to.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-43677769502992592642019-06-01T00:00:00.000+01:002019-06-01T00:00:01.896+01:00Welcome to Annamarie Phelps, New Chair of the BHA. Top of the In-Tray – Finances, Funding and the Levy. Oh Yes, and Racing’s Leadership Behaviour and the Need to Curtail the In-Fighting.<br />
Annamarie Phelps commences her new role today as Chair of the BHA. I’m sure everyone in British Racing wishes her well and is hoping for a really successful new phase for British Racing under her stewardship. She is a former Olympic rower, current Vice-Chair of the British Olympic Association, and replaces the temporary incumbent, Athol Duncan. She is a recognised UK sports figurehead and, when she was appointed, the BHA underlined her main expertise “in dealing with complex political, regulatory and multi-stakeholder projects and initiatives” through her “impressive leadership skills and astute grasp of the issues facing major sports, including their engagement with government”.<br />
<br />
I’m sure she doesn’t need me to teach her anything about leadership, but I’ve never forgotten the chairman of a major pharmaceutical company who raised his left hand in front of me one day in my consulting career and explained that you never need more than five fingers to prioritise the key strategies for any business. His view was that the challenge in a new chair’s first 100 days was to identify the three critical strategies that would really make a difference to the organisation, and then to drive them forward through the two main enablers of leadership and any necessary changes to the operating model. Rather menacingly, he then raised his right hand and said that over the 100 days you always discover the five leaders who are the blockers, robber barons and doom merchants. Indeed, I can still remember one hapless individual at this chairman’s leadership conference who, during a plenary discussion, announced that there was no way he was going to support a particular initiative: “over my dead body”. The chairman gave him a withering look and proclaimed, “It can be arranged!” <br />
<br />
So I’ll be very interested indeed to follow the impact of the new chair during this initial 100-day period. I’ll be even more interested to find out whether any changes occur in the leadership of our sport. Unfortunately over the last 12 months there has been a shocking outbreak of in-fighting and negative behaviour within the top echelons. Although the chair of the BHA has limited authority over most of the stakeholder groups, there is certainly a need to knock a number of heads together and focus on the key priorities and opportunities.<br />
<br />
Two very interesting articles appeared recently in the Racing Post, one by the former chairman of the BHA, Steve Harman, entitled <i>Time to talk up racing’s future and kick on with levy development</i>, and the second from trainer Jamie Osborne, <i>Funding farce underlines urgent need for racing to conduct a radical re-think</i>. Steve’s article was both optimistic and a notable call for action with regard to the next stage of levy development, while Jamie advocated the need to “stop the blame game and start thinking radically”. I’m sure both were designed to coincide with the arrival of the new BHA chair.<br />
<br />
Steve’s article was persuasive and compelling. While some pundits in racing have dwelt on the “black hole” of the cut in FOBT stakes and its impact on media rights, his focus was on the need for racing to concentrate on £115m of funding that can readily be secured through self-help opportunities exceeding £50m per year and levy development worth a further £65m+. It certainly convinced me, and is definitely one of the fingers on the strategy hand. It is worth examining in more detail.<br />
<br />
Without doubt, one of Steve’s most important contributions as BHA chair was the development of excellent relationships with the many politicians who are now key advocates of racing, both inside and close to Westminster. These include prime ministerial candidate Matt Hancock; Jeremy Wright, his successor as culture secretary; Mims Davies, Sports Minister; former Sports Minister Tracy Crouch; Helen Grant, Vice-Chair of the Conservative Party; and George Freeman, ex-Head of the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit. In particular, Matt Hancock had assured Steve that racing would not suffer as a result of FOBT changes, and gave a strong commitment to examine further levy development once the FOBT changes had bedded in. However, and crucially, to trigger the next stage of that development there were conditions that had to be met. In particular racing had to show self-help in a number of designated areas: building a strong global Tote, making further progress in industry recruitment and retention, further developing the equine welfare and staff welfare agenda, improving the balance of British-bred horses, pooling media rights, growing participation in the sport and meeting good governance standards.<br />
<br />
Throughout Steve’s piece there was frustration that racing isn’t delivering on what is required to trigger further developments to the levy. It is almost as if racing doesn’t believe that Westminster will keep its word and ensure that racing doesn’t suffer financially from the changes made to FOBT stakes. The need for speed and leadership came through strongly if racing is not to stumble into a crisis of its own creation: “ …. we should be talking opportunities and growth. This industry has proved what it can do regarding levy reform. Racing needs to articulate a compelling message about growth and jobs, with great campaigning supported by quiet lobbying with our influencers.” Furthermore, “The clock has been ticking. Jobs in this industry depend on this. Anyone doubting the promises, prospects or scale of levy development needs to be corrected.”<br />
<br />
Jamie Osborne’s concern was the lack of transparency and finger-pointing between racecourses, bookmakers, owners, horsemen and regulators. Without any doubt the financials of racing are far too opaque, and opening them up to scrutiny in a more coherent manner would be one heading in the operating model of a new racing strategy. Jamie also argued for “a radical re-think on the balance of commercial power”, which is code, I’m assuming, for scrutiny of the amount of money taken out of the sport by bookmakers and racecourses, leaving so many at the grass roots of the industry impoverished. The key message was that our funding model isn’t working well and there is a tremendous need to make the “revenue pie” bigger - another initiative for the strategy hand.<br />
<br />
In the next blog I’ll examine a number of other priorities for British Racing, as well as the constraints that may severely limit the new chair’s freedom to act. This will also examine how the commercial value of racing is created, and the tensions that now exist in the way in which it is apportioned – definitely subjects for the left hand of strategy.<br />
<br />
So as one former rower (indeed, having won the Mays bumping races at Cambridge and rowed for the Varsity) to another, I wish Annamarie well.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/06/welcome-to-annamarie-phelps-new-chair.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-46286208094833589272019-05-01T09:44:00.000+01:002019-05-01T09:44:59.738+01:00A Few Thoughts on the National Hunt Season and also the Need to Change the Novice Chase Programme<br />
Owners for Owners will have its first ever runner in <b>Acey Milan</b> at the Punchestown Festival on either Thursday or Saturday, provided that we aren’t balloted out. Bearing in mind that in one of the races Willie Mullins has 17 entries, I’m hoping there will be mass defections and we can kick off a new season and / or end the old one with a cracking performance. After a stellar bumper year, our horse unfortunately like a few others had a very bad chest infection this season and we haven’t really been able to build momentum and get back on track. No matter what happens in Ireland, he still looks a lovely prospect for staying races, particularly on soft / heavy ground, from October onwards.<br />
<br />
While we weren’t able to scale the heights of the previous year, we still had more than 10 wins with horses including <b>Acey Milan</b>, <b>Dr Dunraven</b>, <b>Lord Condi</b>, <b>Melekhov</b>, <b>Scented Lily</b> and <b>Sojourn</b>. Another horse I’m associated with, <b>Nobby</b>, put in a couple of excellent runs including almost winning the Listed bumper at Newbury for us for the second year in a row. On the Flat, <b>Sunday Prospect</b> won as well, and has now been sold to race in France.<br />
<br />
Looking to the future, we’ve increased our involvement in NH foals and yearlings, as it is proving increasingly difficult to buy ex-point-to-pointers with form for anything other than prodigious prices. We’ll be continuing with this policy, as we have had more success, at a higher level, with youngsters that we’ve brought through and developed from foal days rather than buying the finished article. It has also provided great pleasure for us, our co-owners and their families. We’ve decided to go one step further on the Flat, having set up the first ever Owners for Owners breeding partnership with <b>Mayfair Rock</b>, who we are hoping is now in foal to the former Karl Burke trained super sprinter, Havana Grey. We saw her at Whitsbury Manor Stud recently and couldn’t be more pleased with the way she has let herself down and relaxed into her new role.<br />
<br />
As for the season that has just finished, all credit has to go to <b>Altior</b> for his record-breaking 19th consecutive win. <b>Richard Johnson</b> had 200+ winners up for the season and was duly crowned Champion Jockey again. As I always say about Richard, he’s a champion person as well as champion jockey, and a tremendous ambassador for the jumps game. <b>Bryony Frost</b>, who rode one of the horses we were associated with during the season, became Champion Conditional Jockey and her lyrical way of speaking has engaged everyone. She really is another great asset for our sport. The hour at the Cheltenham Festival when <b>Paisley Park</b> won the Stayers’ Hurdle, immediately following Frodon in the Ryanair, was one of the best moments I’ve experienced on the racecourse. The atmosphere was electric and for everyone connected with the horses it was a joy to behold. Our friend and agent Gerry Hogan had purchased Paisley Park as a youngster, and it was excellent to see him have a winner at the highest level. He’s one of the most honest and genuine agents you’ll ever come across – thoroughly recommended to anyone wanting to buy an NH prospect. He is also a grand fella.<br />
<br />
The jumps season, however, certainly didn’t lack for controversy, what with the equine flu disruption, trainer boycotts of ARC racecourses, not to mention the frustration of unseasonably fast ground for most of the winter, which made it very hard to plan a race programme for the horses. There were also a few silly and embarrassing incidents, not least caused by BHA interference in activities that should be left to the grass-roots trainers and stewards to sort out. It is definitely time for the BHA to rise above that, and bring all the key parties in racing together for another round of strategy creation so that the sport can deal with the potential £60 million black hole emerging from the loss of media rights payments due to the likely closure of betting shops as FOBT stakes are compulsorily reduced to £2. Hopefully the strategy will be developed with purposeful, collaborative intent by all the key stakeholders – BHA, RCA, Horsemen’s Group etc. – as the last thing we want to see in racing is public falling-out and parties resorting to direct action such as the Ralph Beckett-led boycott of races. While it may have achieved its short-term purpose, it was terrible PR for the sport, particularly in the eyes of government.<br />
<br />
It won’t surprise the reader of this blog that I’ve got my own ideas about the required strategy for British Racing and the priorities within that. I’ll leave the content, though, till another day. One element of that is the way the race programme is formulated. As this blog has primarily been about National Hunt, one major change that I’d like to see is a complete rationalisation of novices’ and beginners’ chases, with a dramatic reduction in number and frequency, and with them organised into a series rather than single, stand-alone events. At the moment far too many of them are unexciting races between a couple of horses from a couple of top yards, and absorb far too much prize-money.<br />
<br />
That’s it for this month. Bag packed and off to Punchestown!
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/05/a-few-thoughts-on-national-hunt-season.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-35421891396173459712019-04-01T00:00:00.000+01:002019-04-01T00:00:02.162+01:00Cheltenham Festival, Welfare Issues and the BHA – Time for Peace to Break Out in Our Sport<br />
Oh dear, the mayhem of May-hem. What a period we’re going through. There’s been a calamitous loss of authority and leadership; no shortage of anger and alienation; a nationwide sense of disillusionment, with partisan groups feeling abandoned or betrayed; a permanent stand-off between experts, technocrats and bureaucrats vs. the populus and the professionals. And that’s just British Racing, never mind parliament.<br />
<br />
Hard on the heels of Bombardier Beckett hurling the grenades out of the trainer trenches over prize-money, the Cheltenham Festival, and particularly the National Hunt Challenge Cup Amateur Riders’ Novices’ Chase over 3m 7½f, triggered an explosion of incendiary comments, letters and articles revolving around the need for “trainers to take back control” over welfare issues. Before dealing with that though, let’s at least celebrate the joy of this year’s Festival, and particularly one of the most emotional and uplifting hours that I’ve ever experienced in jumps racing when Bryony Frost won the Ryanair on Frodon and then the wonderful Andrew Gemmell’s horse Paisley Park won the Stayers’ Championship under a jockey who we regularly use, Aidan Coleman, for Emma Lavelle. The Thursday of the Festival is normally a quieter day sandwiched between the Champion Chase and Gold Cup, but this year was quite extraordinary. Racing could do far worse than create a whole series of videos around these two races and all the personalities involved, because they demonstrate how uplifting and joyous National Hunt racing can be. The “antis” of our sport, particularly Animal Aid, managed to raise 105,000 signatures in their petition to government, and that scared the living daylights out of the BHA. Just imagine how many supporters of NH racing would sign up to a campaign <b>#IloveJumpsRacing</b>, if such a mechanism existed, with links to the happy scenes from the Festival. Indeed, a key message is the need for racing to stand proud and promote itself to the British public. We have nothing to hide and are making a huge contribution to the happiness of the nation and its economy. On that note, I saw an interesting piece that the Festival contributes at least £100m to the local region, in which I live. Bravo!<br />
<br />
I watched the National Hunt Chase with a group of friends, and we were all uncomfortable with what we witnessed this year. Eighteen horses took part: one unseated rider, five were pulled up, eight fell, there were four finishers and one of the fallers, the favourite Ballyward, died. In four of the last five runnings there have been fatalities. This race was one of carnage, and with far too much whip-flailing. Immediately after the race, three jockeys – Rob James, Noel McParlan and Declan Lavery – picked up a total of 37 days’ suspension. No horseman could or should have tolerated what happened in this race, and it was right to ban these riders. However the stewards made a fundamental mistake by concentrating on Declan Lavery, finishing third on Jerrysback and “continuing to ride when it appeared to be contrary to the horse’s welfare”. This opened the contentious debate about jockeys trying to achieve the best possible placing for their horses vs. the welfare issues associated with the race itself.<br />
<br />
A torrent of invective then followed, which I actually found more unpleasant than the incident. Henry Daly ranted away about the BHA being “sorely misguided and misrepresentative of our great sport”, and that trainers should “take our lives and profession into our own hands rather than being led like lambs to the slaughter”. Tony McCoy accused the BHA of “bringing racing into disrepute”, and a wide-ranging, highly critical letter from Mick Channon, Henrietta Knight and Charles Egerton also argued for the need for professionals to “take back control” and consider a vote of no confidence in the BHA. The Irish trainer and commentator Ted Walsh hardly helped the situation by saying that if you didn’t like the reality of jumps racing, then you should “go and watch Peppa Pig”.<br />
<br />
It didn’t take long for Lavery to appeal against his suspension, and a Disciplinary Panel soon quashed the sentence, making clear that “ …. the requirement of the rules to pull up tired horses has primacy over the requirement to achieve the best possible placing, and that it is no justification to continue on a horse to finish placed in a race if doing so would be contrary to the horse’s welfare.” While I’m sure we all agree with that decision, unfortunately it is of course a potential cheat’s charter, as it gives licence to a rider to stop a horse and then claim that it was on welfare grounds. Only a matter of time before that happens.<br />
<br />
Two issues have surfaced from this whole disagreement. The first is about the role of amateurs at the Festival. Personally I agree with one of our trainers, Anthony Honeyball, that no-one would frame a race such as the National Hunt Challenge Cup. It feels as though it’s time to change the nature of that race, and either restrict it to professionals or at least put in place stricter eligibility criteria for both riders and horses. It no longer feels like a race worthy of the Festival. On a much broader note, is it also time to disallow the use of the whip by conditionals and amateurs for the vast majority, if not all, their races? This feels like an own goal for racing at a time when the whipping of horses has never been more contentious, particularly with Members of Parliament. I’ve resisted the temptation to draw a parallel with the use of Whips at Westminster.<br />
<br />
The second issue is clearly to do with the breakdown in relationships between the BHA, trainers and grassroots racing. John Gosden and Philip Freedman have called for common sense and unity to prevail, and for bridges to be built as quickly as possible between the stakeholders of British racing. They are absolutely right to argue for warring factions to come together behind closed doors and resolve their differences. Public ranting and raving does terrible damage to the sport, and is hardly a persuasive lever with government. It may not be popular but we have to acknowledge that the All-Party Racing Group at Westminster is focused almost entirely on equine welfare and no matter what backwoods trainers may think, we cannot turn back the clock on this. The real danger is that the BHA loses the stewardship of welfare and for it to be handed to another, independent group. Doubtless in an attempt to head this off, the BHA has just announced that a new Horse Welfare Board is coming into operation, chaired by Barry Johnson, former President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. A key remit of this Board is to create a new welfare strategy covering the whole industry. Much needed!<br />
<br />
Two blogs on the trot have had to deal with trainer rants. I hope there won’t be a third one. Racing must rediscover the core competence of coalition-building …. even if parliament fails completely in its attempts to do so over Brexit. Peace needs to break out in racing, or we’ll have our own Brexit on our hands.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/04/cheltenham-festival-welfare-issues-and.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-69220591306603164662019-03-01T00:00:00.000+00:002019-03-01T00:00:16.291+00:00Harold Macmillan Said that Governments were Brought Down by “Events, dear boy, events”. Racing has had Two Big Events in February – Fast and Furious Response to Equine Flu and Now The Beckett Boycott Against ARC. Are They Appropriate Responses or Over-Reactions?<br />
If I ever take part in a pub quiz on racing (which is extremely unlikely), at least I’d be able to ask the question which was “Which National Hunt horse won the first race back after the great equine flu epidemic – which didn’t happen – of February 2019?” Easy, really – it was our horse Acey Milan, who won over an inadequate trip at Plumpton on 13th February. Well done, Ace!<br />
<br />
Either side of the weekend of 9th and 10th February, British racing had introduced a six-day lockdown of 174 yards following the discovery of a US strain of equine flu at the yard of Donald McCain in Cheshire. A fast and furious wave of biosecurity activity took place as thousands of horses were tested for this highly contagious virus. No racing took place in the UK; yards were disinfected, either through low-tech spraying or high-tech fogging machines; horse movements were curtailed; and an enormous range of views expressed. A number of trainers, such as Charlie Mann, Nigel Twiston-Davies and Nick Williams, became very hot under the collar, saying that it was a “massive over-reaction” by the BHA and not even the vets seemed able to agree on the appropriateness of the lockdown and various measures. The Veterinary Committee of the BHA played a straight bat and were highly supportive, whereas some of the grass-roots practitioners such as Peter Ramzan of Rossdales in Newmarket and Ben Brain, the UK’s foremost wind surgeon, were very sceptical. After six days and a huge amount of coverage in the media, racing resumed and fortunately only a total of ten racehorses tested positive. Normal service was resumed – other than for the trainers who had not had their animals vaccinated in the past six months. This caused some resentment, as it meant that some top-class horses missed their Cheltenham preparatory races, and because there was no grace period, the BHA had in effect changed the vaccination rule overnight. In their defence, they had issued an “advisory” notice about vaccination earlier.<br />
<br />
My personal view is that one of the BHA’s primary objectives is properly to protect racing’s future, and one key element of that has to be equine welfare. The horse must genuinely come first. Without the extensive testing of horses in the lockdown period, it would have been impossible to gauge whether the UK was on the verge of an epidemic; fortunately that was not the case, but imagine the public outcry if we had been. It may well be that a very small number of horses always get equine flu, but it goes undetected or unreported. The whole episode certainly demonstrated that “racing matters” in the eyes of the public, and not just for racegoers and punters. A lot of column inches were dedicated to the equine flu cases in all the newspapers, as well as extensive reporting on TV. The general consensus seemed to be that temporary inconvenience through the lockdown was far better than having an epidemic on your hands. The BHA took the right steps to contain it even if, with hindsight, it might have contained itself.<br />
<br />
And then at the end of February another “event” broke out, this time a major row over prize-money as a result of ARC’s precipitate decision to cut its prize-money allocation by £2.7m while, through its actions, excluding itself from accessing a further £4.5m from the Levy Board through the Appearance Money Scheme. The last time there had been a boycott of racing was at Worcester a few years ago, when trainers withdrew all their horses with the exception of one, who had a walk-over for Nigel Twiston-Davies who then allocated the prize-money between all other trainers in the “race”. This time the President-Elect of the National Trainers’ Federation, Ralph Beckett, orchestrated an aggressive response to ARC with the withdrawal of horses in a couple of novice races at Lingfield before proposing a second wave attack with trainers being persuaded not to make entries at Fontwell, Lingfield, Newcastle and Southwell next week. Anyone who saw Ralph being interviewed by Nick Luck last Sunday could not have failed to be impressed by his cogent attack on ARC and his barely concealed anger. It was definitely a case of Bombardier Beckett in the trenches with the pins out of the grenades, ready, willing and able to go over the top on behalf of racing, and particularly the grass-roots owner.<br />
<br />
I have every sympathy with the stance being taken by the NTF and indeed had instructed all the Owners for Owners trainers not to enter our horses in any races where the total prize-money is less than £4,000, unless there is a compelling reason to do so. I’ve just ensured that our horse Sojourn is withdrawn from Fontwell next week and will race at Wincanton instead, while Melekhov also won’t go to Fontwell but be switched to Taunton. When these decisions were made, the prize-money was over 50% higher at the non-ARC tracks. Since then, ARC has made what appears to be a “concession” by temporarily reassigning prize-money from more valuable races to those of lower grade, thereby unlocking levy funding. This doesn’t strike me as much of a concession, as no new money is being found; it’s just a different way of slicing the prize-money cake.<br />
<br />
Direct action, boycotts, aggressive attacks on fellow stakeholders isn’t really the way to manage British Racing, and it’s really necessary for the current tripartite structure to contain the aggression and re-channel it on to problem-solving and solutions. The macro-economic reality is that while no-one knows the precise figures, the government’s decision to reduce the stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals to £2 is guaranteed to lead to the closure of a substantial number of betting shops thereby significantly reducing levy yields and media rights payments. Some commentators believe that £40-60m of annual income could be lost, which puts the ARC reductions into perspective. Racing, as a matter of urgency, needs to create a strategic plan of how it is going to boost income from the middle of this year onwards, or a lot more grenades are going to be thrown around.<br />
<br />
Harold Macmillan would surely have identified with the way that “events” can blow up in your face, just like grenades.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/03/harold-macmillan-said-that-governments.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-89772793986407157152019-02-01T00:00:00.000+00:002019-02-01T00:00:03.332+00:00Worrying Trends in Racecourse Attendance in the UK. Time for Soul Searching, Re-think and Renewal?<br />
Off to Dublin at the weekend for the sensational Festival at Leopardstown. This was a highlight of the racing year for me in 2018 and I enjoyed it even more than Cheltenham, Aintree and the York Ebor meeting. Every race was exciting, field sizes huge, prize-money massive, but what really made the difference was the animated, knowledgeable and passionate crowd, which was a joy to behold. There seemed to be a huge buzz in Ireland, probably helped by the sensational victory against France in the rugby. This year it’s England’s turn to raise the excitement levels. I’ll be watching the end of the game in a super wine bar, The Grange in Foxrock, and the atmosphere is bound to be electric. Bring it on, and may my liver survive! It could be detox next week.<br />
<br />
There have been other passionate racing moments over the last month. The story of Andrew Gemmell, owner of the new Stayers’ Hurdle favourite Paisley Park, and his love of racing despite being blind from birth, was uplifting. Emma Lavelle is a popular mid-tier trainer and everyone I know would be delighted to see her win at the Festival. My pleasure was heightened by the fact that the horse was bought by our good friend and agent, Gerry Hogan, who has been involved in many of our NH purchases. It’s a tough life for the majority of trainers, and it’s lovely to see the lesser lights win big races. I’m sure that’s one of the reasons why a lot of people will be rooting for Presenting Percy in the Gold Cup, and for Phi Kirby’s stable, star Lady Buttons, when she takes on Altior in the Champion Chase. I’ll also be cheering on the trio of Dunvegan, Articulum and Derrinross at Leopardstown as they all come from small yards.<br />
<br />
Racing without passion, emotion, rousing stories, cherished horses and animated crowds is a soulless experience. Unfortunately there are far too many racecourses and racedays which only provide joyless fare. Over the winter I’ve been to all the all-weather tracks to watch moderate horses fight it out in the cold and dark. Truly dismal. Indeed I had an unwelcome “first” at Southwell a week ago when I stood in the paddock as the only owner present for my race. Clearly all the other owners had given up hope. The horse disappointed and I left almost immediately, having been on the track for less than 20 minutes. Driving home, I reflected that I would be embarrassed to take a new owner there, as I can’t believe they would stay in the game for very long. Southwell have actually improved the facilities for owners recently, and their O&T bar is a most pleasant and cosy room, but surely what really matters is the total raceday experience that lifts the spirits rather than depressing them. I’m afraid winter all-weather racing, and for that matter many other turf days, completely fails to do that.<br />
<br />
So when the raceday attendance figures for 2018 were published recently, they weren’t a total surprise. Back in 2015 the BHA published growth targets for racing against a 2014 baseline, one of which was for racecourse attendances to reach seven million by 2020. They have however declined for each of the last three years, with the most recent total 5.77m, the lowest this century. Average crowds fell to 3,924, with the median figure a mere 1,567. Racing may still be the #2 sport behind football in spectator terms, but there is no escaping the reality that it looks as though racecourses are going to undershoot on their 2020 attendance goal by 1.25m. <br />
<br />
After these figures were published, social media was full of negative reactions and prescriptions: far too much dull and dreary racing; uncompetitive, small fields; weak product on too many racedays; high cost and over-charging; declining loyalty of local customers; expensive food; failure to provide modern facilities and easy access to the internet, etc. As an aside, I didn’t see any references to horse welfare and the use of the whip, a subject to which I will return and which has been blown completely out of proportion. At the moment racing is concentrating too much on too many of the wrong issues.<br />
<br />
There is one major encouraging trend which is that the big festivals and “marquee days” appear to be doing very well, and sometimes it’s easy to think everything in racing is rosy when you attend a big day at Cheltenham or Leopardstown. One obvious route for racecourses is to identify the fixtures that they can develop into mini-festivals. I’d even propose that the Racecourse Association develop that strategically and identify festival fixtures across the country for every week of the year.<br />
<br />
It’s not as though there hasn’t been a strategic approach to improving attendance. Back in 2015, “customer growth objectives” were developed, with racecourses committing to develop a stronger partnership with the then new broadcaster, ITV; the creation of a digital-led “Come Racing” campaign promoting a “kids go free” message; best practice guides for racecourses; RCA’s leadership of an “Insight = Growth” project with data warehousing and bespoke planning to attract new customers, secure earlier ticket sales and increase customer retention. To be fair, several aspects of this strategy have been quite successful, particularly improvement in advance ticket sales to over two million.<br />
<br />
However, there’s no escaping the conclusion that the overall strategic plan has failed to meet its objectives. There is now a new Chief Executive at the RCA and it’s time, again, to revive and renew the strategies and plans to boost attendance. My own plea is that strategy is not just a technocratic activity. It must contain initiatives that bring passion back into the sport, rather than just running it as a money-making, levy-generating, gambling-enhancing activity. We need strategy with soul.
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/02/worrying-trends-in-racecourse.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-13149517220853001822019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:002019-01-01T00:00:01.124+00:00Congratulations to Richard Johnson OBE, Some Terrific 6yos and Our Own Winners from 2018. Here’s To Many More in 2019<br />
The whole of racing must have been delighted on the announcement that Richard Johnson is to receive an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List. He is a terrific ambassador for our sport, a role model for all aspiring jockeys and one of the most genuine and nicest people you’ll ever meet. We have had more winners ridden by him than by any other jockey and it never ceases to amaze me how he can be unceasingly polite, friendly and positive to every owner, no matter how minor. He has ridden a couple of winners for our Racing Club at Martin Keighley’s and each time he has been kissed senseless while enduring endless selfies being taken with him. Top rider : top bloke.<br />
<br />
One of the real pleasures of being an owner is the way in which you get to know so many friends, their families and their wider racing network. I always try to follow the horses that our owners have with other trainers and it gave me real pleasure over Christmas to see the successes of John Finch with Doitforthevillage at Paul Henderson’s, Jamie Wadge and Shaun Beach with Suggestion at Phil Kirby’s and then Ged Shields with Kemboy and Willie Mullins. As always in racing, so many stories around these various horses: Paul Henderson is a maestro at sourcing reasonably-priced horses in Ireland, getting them on to the right mark and then reaping the rewards; Phil and Pippa Kirby, from their base near Bedale, are steadily climbing through the ranks and it was wonderful to watch their star mare, Lady Buttons, win for the 11th time at Doncaster last Saturday. All grass-roots yards need a stable star, and they have got one with her.<br />
<br />
And then of course, Kemboy – only a 6yo but he romped home in the Savills Chase with his emphatic victory shortening his odds for the Cheltenham Gold Cup from 40/1 to 6/1. Ged and Brenda Shields had arranged a super weekend for themselves at Newbury when Kemboy was due to run in the Ladbrokes Trophy, and were devastated when the stormy weather and rough crossing for the ferry forced the horse to miss the race. I phoned Ged just after the race at Leopardstown and he was absolutely thrilled, and kept saying a single word: “Wow!” Delighted for all the connections in the syndicate, organised by Supreme Racing. If Kemboy makes it to the Cheltenham Festival in either the Gold Cup or the Ryanair, it would be the highlight of the week for me – unless one of our own horses manages to get there.<br />
<br />
Two other 6yos made a big impact as well over Christmas: Clan Des Obeaux, under a magnificent ride from young Harry Cobden, duly won the King George VI Chase at Kempton and looks a real star; and then when my wife and I were at Chepstow we enjoyed watching Elegant Escape win the Welsh Grand National, having come 2nd in the Ladbrokes Trophy (the race Kemboy should have won) at Newbury. We had a chat with Tom O’Brien just before the race, then another one when he came back. He was ecstatic and it’s a real pleasure to watch Tom winning races such as this, particularly as he’s having his best-ever season. He has also ridden many winners for us and is one of the most sympathetic riders around – a real horseman.<br />
<br />
A year ago today, Acey Milan won the 4yo Listed Bumper at Cheltenham for us, and that kicked off the year in the best possible way. Six other horses won through the year: Dr Dunraven and Lord Condi (Martin Keighley), Melekhov (Philip Hobbs), Scented Lily (Charlie Longsdon), Sojourn (Anthony Honeyball) and Sunday Prospect (Karl Burke). Another horse in which I have an involvement, Nobby (Alan King) also won twice, including my first-ever win at a Point-to-Point, namely the Barbary Castle International. We were lucky enough to visit his breeder, Ray Bailey, fairly soon after Nobby was born, and fell in love with him straight away. Before you ask, he’s named after Nobby Styles, the footballer.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JGnsPiuD2Qg/XCoyytmm7zI/AAAAAAAAAPk/aTZy2WOyVQks5VHdpuzuJc2BIlVoNiG4gCLcBGAs/s1600/7-winners2018.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="612" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JGnsPiuD2Qg/XCoyytmm7zI/AAAAAAAAAPk/aTZy2WOyVQks5VHdpuzuJc2BIlVoNiG4gCLcBGAs/s1600/7-winners2018.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Winners Galore in 2018 …. Hoping for More in 2019</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nD263rxcuS0/XCozPXBVZOI/AAAAAAAAAPs/TMwfjMVU1-oOVOz40eOLHucnIQS6mDIcQCLcBGAs/s1600/Foals-2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="384" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nD263rxcuS0/XCozPXBVZOI/AAAAAAAAAPs/TMwfjMVU1-oOVOz40eOLHucnIQS6mDIcQCLcBGAs/s1600/Foals-2018.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>The New Foals – Stars for 2021+</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There is something adorable about foals. Not only are they such beautiful creatures, but it is the sense of renewal as young horses enter your life to replace those who have retired and moved on. We managed to buy three this year, and they are loving their life in the Condicote paddocks at Martin’s yard. Most of the shares in these foals are now taken, but there are still a few left so if you would like to be involved in “future stars”, please let me know. For many grass-roots National Hunt owners this is one of the few ways of getting involved at a reasonable price, with the enormous hikes in sales prices of the established stallions. Indeed, just before Christmas I noticed that Envoy Allen had won for his unusual NH owners, Cheveley Park Stud, for Gordon Elliott (cost a cool £400,000 at Cheltenham’s February sale) and while at Chepstow I watched Ask For Glory winning his bumper on debut (a mere £280,000). The startling sums being paid never cease to amaze me.
<br />
<br />
From today I am switching to only one blog a month, but will continue to lobby for improvements in the total owner experience, not least because I’m going to promote the Racehorse Syndicates Association and help them with their press releases. Lots of improvements are still required if owners are going to be brought into the sport and retained.<br />
<br />
Finally, very best wishes for 2019: may it be happy, healthy and successful, with lots of winners if you’re an owner.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2019/01/congratulations-to-richard-johnson-obe.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4294907521318849097.post-7724227315501412062018-12-15T00:00:00.000+00:002018-12-15T00:00:09.954+00:00Season’s Greetings, Be Generous with your Presents ….. and Even Buy a Foal for Christmas<br />
While thinking about this blog I received two videos, both of which made me smile, but for completely different reasons. One was of Dilly Keane and Fascinating Aida exhorting everyone to enter into the Christmas spirit, but I’m afraid the language used in the second half of the song precludes my beaming it out. You may well be able to track it down though on the web, under Don’t be <i>a **** this Christmas</i> – perish the thought, although I do tend to be of the humbug persuasion.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QyGNDbo-cYA/XBPjRm5cTUI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/jEMzObCMdDwNT48Sk3HM3OYBjiIeySXRgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Christmas-2018-435w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="231" data-original-width="435" height="169" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QyGNDbo-cYA/XBPjRm5cTUI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/jEMzObCMdDwNT48Sk3HM3OYBjiIeySXRgCEwYBhgL/s320/Christmas-2018-435w.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="color: #7d2a32; text-align: center;">The Keighley Team in Fine Voice</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The second video I received, which I have no qualms about circulating, can be seen by clicking on the <b><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://youtu.be/Nw_-qWvTrcU">YouTube</a></span></b> link. As Chairman of the Martin Keighley yard I was almost roped into participating in this, which I’m glad I wasn’t, as it would either have gone viral or been banned. Anyway, all the Keighley team put on their Christmas best, entered into the spirit of it all and are delighted to wish you all a merry Christmas. My wife and I echo the sentiment and hope you have a great run through the festive season into 2019, and may you all have lots of winners. In case you were wondering about the horses’ participation in the sing-song, the animal concerned is the fabulous Champion Court, who is retired at the yard and an excellent schoolmaster for the youngsters, both human and equine. He is famously unflappable and didn’t mind all the endless takes and re-takes of the song. Happy Christmas, Champ.<br />
<br />
The main reason though for using this Christmassy theme is to encourage everyone to make the biggest contributions possible into the various Christmas boxes and funds for those in racing. Many stables are having their seasonal parties at the moment and all contributions are very warmly received. Some trainers put the money into the pot to help pay for the events, while others give a cash bonus. In Owners for Owners our policy has always been to make a payment for each member in each horse, and we have done that as usual for Karl Burke, Philip Hobbs, Anthony Honeyball, Martin Keighley and Charlie Longsdon. Over the years we’ve got to know many of the staff who have ridden our horses and it never ceases to amaze us how kind, considerate and conscientious stable staff are. Just think about all the early starts and riding out in atrocious weather, often on fractious horses, and it is really humbling. They are the bedrock of British racing. Many thanks to all of them.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N_AxM_ax_iY/XBPlUJCwiJI/AAAAAAAAAPY/bjOVUwKSAOke0ysRdPfVkIHtoXKfJBabQCLcBGAs/s1600/Foals-2018-435w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="435" height="192" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N_AxM_ax_iY/XBPlUJCwiJI/AAAAAAAAAPY/bjOVUwKSAOke0ysRdPfVkIHtoXKfJBabQCLcBGAs/s320/Foals-2018-435w.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="color: #7d2a32; text-align: center;">The Three Wise Men Listen In</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Finally, and it will come as no surprise, our horse-buying gene has kicked in again, this time with Paul Davis, at Martin Keighley’s. Despite my protestations that I’m taking endless strides towards the poorhouse, the Tattersalls Foal Sale in Ireland persuaded me otherwise and Paul came back with not one, nor two, but three gorgeous foals who are now in the paddocks at Condicote, loving their turnout and their luxury field shelter. This is part of the five-year plan that Paul and I have created to build a really strong base of (hopefully) promising and (certainly) decent value horses for Martin. Paul has decided to go for a stable name theme for each year, and in 2018 it is “herbs”. On the photograph, from left to right, they are called Basil (but definitely not Fawlty), Herbie and Sage. Two are by Sans Frontieres and the other by Califet. Next year the theme may be “Rock Bands of the 1970s”, which is a bit of a give-away on my age. Anyway, tenth shares are available to purchase, and quite a number have already been taken up. If this is of interest to you and your family, please contact me direct. Jack and I have already bought ourselves Christmas presents in all three. Surprise, surprise!
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: left; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 10px;">
I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or <span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://blog.ownersforowners.co.uk/2018/12/seasons-greetings-be-generous-with-your.html" target="_blank">click here ></a></b></span> and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jon Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11128437730656289148noreply@blogger.com0