Breeders warn government that racing tax proposals could damage world-leading industry

Leading racehorse breeders have warned that government proposals for harmonising online gambling duties risk damaging one of the UK's world-leading industries.

There are major worries about the future of the sector already, with breeders leaving the industry and foal crops falling at an alarming rate.

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Now there is grave concern that the Treasury's plans for gambling taxes, which the BHA has estimated could wipe anything from £66 million to £160m from British racing's finances, might be the final nail in the coffin for some operations, in the words of Derby-winning owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer.

The BHA has called on everyone in racing to contact their MP about the proposals, something Oppenheimer, whose colours were most famously carried by Golden Horn and Cracksman, has done.

Anthony Oppenheimer: "Thoroughbred breeders in Britain are struggling"Credit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

He said: "I've written a letter pointing out that my stud is delicately balanced on profit and loss and this could push it to virtually closing down."

Oppenheimer said the environment for breeders was "very difficult indeed" set against the backdrop of rising costs and prize-money failing to keep pace, and that there could be "terrible damage" if the financial impact caused by the government's proposals was realised.

He added: "Thoroughbred breeders in Britain are struggling and this would be not one nail but three nails in their coffin.

"You can talk to any owner-breeder, if they haven't had a major success recently they're probably going bankrupt.

"Horseracing produces a great deal of money in exports and for the UK economy. It is vitally important. It really could be a disaster."

The UK's status as a world leader in the breeding industry was an issue also raised by Peter Stanley, joint-owner of New England Stud, as he warned that small breeders were "nigh on extinct".

"Government leaders of both parties spend too much time reading the headlines about record-priced horses," he said. 

"They don't drill down and realise that the vast majority of horses which go to the yearling sales lose money on the cost of production and the breeders who breed those horses end up getting out of the business."

Stanley said he hoped that Labour MP Dan Carden, who is co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Racing and Bloodstock, would be able to tell his parliamentary colleagues about how important the issue is.

He added: "The UK is not a world leader in many industries, but we are still world leaders in horseracing. We still have the best horses in the world trained here but we are all well aware how those higher-rated horses are haemorrhaging abroad.

"We are also well aware that the Japanese product is getting more and more superior and we are going to be overtaken.

"At that stage the government will wake up and realise that it has lost one of the few world class industries the UK is still at the forefront of."

Julian Dollar: "We must do everything we can to support our breeders"Credit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Julian Dollar, general manager of Newsells Park Stud, described the government's proposals as "an incredibly important issue."

"We have to try and make them realise how short sighted this is because clearly they don't completely understand how racing is funded," he said.

"The more we take money away from prize-money and funding the less domestic market we will have. There is a clear line from prize-money to owners. Owners buy racehorses and if there are fewer owners then fewer people buy yearlings, therefore we can have fewer mares and so on.

"We are already seeing it with the foal crop, so we must do everything we can to support our breeders and the whole sport if we want it to thrive."

Dollar said he feared that the government would see a tax on gambling as an easy option, not realising the link it has to British racing's funding.

He added: "When these politicians have no clear idea how we are funded, it is very easy for them to say 'put a tax on gambling, nobody is going to complain about that, we are taxing something that is inherently bad'.

"That is how our sport is funded, that is the way it is set up and that is the way we have got it, so we must try and educate the politicians out there that this is a devastating blow to our industry if the original proposal is allowed to go through as it is."

Read these next:

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The Racing Tax: ill-thought-out proposals have potential to cause massive damage to British racing 

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