BHA chair Saumarez Smith sets timeline for new racing governance structure

BHA chairman Joe Saumarez Smith hopes racing will have a new governance structure which gives the BHA more power to lead by the end of October.

Speaking before a pivotal meeting of British racing's key representatives to draw up a new industry strategy, Saumarez Smith said it was his understanding that the current tripartite governance system would be reformed in the near future, allowing the BHA to make "some tough decisions".

"It’s in the final stages of lawyers and one small point on what constitutes a conflict at the BHA board but it will all be completed and signed off to go to the BHA board on October 7," Saumarez Smith said on Sunday. "Then it will go to the Thoroughbred Group and the RCA for approval."

He added: "It should enable us to make some tough decisions but we have to work within the legal framework I’ve been dealt.”

Key figures from across British racing are set to discuss a future direction for racing on Tuesday and Wednesday in the hope of agreeing new core principles.

There has been criticism over a lack of urgency in dealing with mounting problems facing the sport, such as uncompetitive prize-money, declining field sizes and the drain of equine talent abroad.

However, chief executives representing participant groups and racecourses, along with Saumarez Smith, Charlie Parker and Wilf Walsh – the respective chairs of the BHA, Thoroughbred Group and Racecourse Association – are to come together for what is set to be a pivotal meeting in the creation of an industry strategy for the sport.

Peter Savill: due to make a presentation on Tuesday afternoonCredit: Edward Whitaker

Saumarez Smith said it was his belief that "pretty much 90 per cent" of the sport felt racing would benefit from fewer fixtures and revealed that former BHB chairman Peter Savill, who in July led a group of 'industry heavyweights' who approached the BHA with a series of proposals which it hoped will be taken up as part of the sport's strategy review, would present to the industry strategy meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

“It feels to me that pretty much everyone in the industry is saying there is a need for fewer fixtures," Saumarez Smith told Luck on Sunday. “I don’t think all racecourses want fewer fixtures but some may be willing to make short-term sacrifices for long-term gain.”

A BHA proposal to take 300 races out of the calendar was rejected in June, with the 2023 fixture list set to broadly mirror this year's offering. However, with more time to consider relevant data, a reduction in fixtures for 2024 is likely to be high on the agenda this week.

"If you're going to change the race programme, we need all the betting data married up with the race programme and the media rights, so you can actually model it and say if you remove these particular races, what's it going to do to the revenues of the sport," said Saumarez Smith. "At the moment we don't have that model, so it's about building that and we're getting closer. In the medium to long-term how we change the sport needs to be based on data."

He added: “I think there is an agreement that the Monday to Wednesday racing at the moment is not very compelling. How do we do something about that in the short-term? That does not need to be all about the data, but what the story is behind it and what do people want to bet on.

"Look at what Flutter have said in the Racing Post. They’ve got a lot of data about what punters want to bet on. That’s available to us and they are willing to share it.

“But this is a new thing. You have to remember the bookmakers kept saying they wanted more and more racing. This is the first year where they have said they actually want less racing. It’s also the first time they have been prepared to share all that customer data about what people want to bet on.”

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