Radical change could be coming - but what do people actually want from the fixture list?
Scott Burton talks to figures from across the industry about a key issue
The fixture list has long been one of the most contentious issues in British racing – and one over which the governing body has had limited control for the last 20 years.
In 2003, the Office of Fair Trading ruled that the BHB’s control of the fixture list – inherited ten years earlier from the Jockey Club – broke competition law and amounted to "an illegal monopoly". British racing’s leaders were forced to commit the following year to a series of changes, among which was the creation of racecourse fixtures, owned by the tracks themselves, and industry fixtures owned by the BHA, which amount to around 15 per cent of the total.
That situation has severely limited the sport's freedom of manoeuvre in managing the fixture list, with racecourses understandably not keen to harm their own commercial prospects by giving any ground on the subject and the BHA seemingly powerless to solve growing problems within the sport.
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