BHA chair warns of growing challenges to long-term survival of British racing

The chair of the BHA has warned the sport must drive home its importance to communities across Britain and broaden its appeal if it is still to be surviving in 30 years' time.

Joe Saumarez Smith described how the perception of horses and horseracing is changing among younger demographics and said there was a danger anti-racing campaigners could make inroads, especially if there is a new government.

Speaking at the Racing Together Industry Day at Ascot on Thursday, Saumarez Smith told the audience the sport should be talking to politicians across the spectrum and that the BHA was refreshing its parliamentary engagement strategy.

He said: "That will only succeed if we pull together, share our stories and advocate collectively for the good that racing brings to communities across Britain."

Saumarez Smith said the perception some politicians might have that racing is a sport all about "top hats and champagne" was not helpful. He added: "There is an 82 per cent chance, in the betting at least, of Labour having the most seats [in the next general election]. We've got to get the message across about how racing sits at the heart of so many communities, is important to so many people and it is not something that a new government would want to harm."

He pointed to the campaign which led to restrictions being placed on betting shop gaming machines known as FOBTs as an example of how a small but well-funded and organised campaign could influence policy. Saumarez Smith added: "It wouldn't be hard to imagine that under a new government a well-funded group that was trying to get rid of racing could make quite a lot of inroads."

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The BHA chair said the sport had been "slightly behind the curve" over the influence of social media and had not been as responsive as it could be "to people who are attacking us, particularly around the big meetings".

He added: "We regularly see focus groups on the perception around the use of the whip and actually just of racing horses, there is a societal change. This is not just in the UK it's global, where a lot of under 35s see horses as domestic animals and don't think they should be raced. So there is a much wider question, not just for horseracing but anybody involved with horses, how do we address that?"

Saumarez Smith added: "It's a big challenge for the sport. If we are not careful with our messaging and if we just pretend that nothing's happening, the danger is that there's no racing in 30 years' time. What we are trying to do at the moment is to make sure the whole racing industry is sustainable and everything we do thinks about the long-term future of the sport."

Work on a long-term strategy for British racing has been facilitated by a new governance structure, which on paper has given the BHA greater control over the sport. Saumarez Smith said the new structure had been working well but cautioned against regarding it as a silver bullet for the sport's problems.

He said: "The test of the new governance structure is when the BHA board is asked to make tough decisions. It is how those who don't like the decisions react to that. I've said it before but if all they do is pick up the phone to their legal representatives the changes to governance won't mean very much.

"I'm a natural optimist so hope that our stakeholders will respect the process, but I think it would be fair to say that only under stress test will we find out just how much better the new governance structure is than the old one."

Saumarez Smith also described the latest personnel changes in government, under which there has been yet another change in gambling minister likely causing more delay to the publication of the gambling review white paper, as "frustrating".

He said: "We would like to see the white paper published as soon as possible because it will give us certainty. It will also give the bookmakers certainty about what can and can't be done and we can react to that."

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