'We've chosen this moment to tear ourselves apart' - racecourse boss hits out at Jockey Club

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The Racecourse Association's chief executive, Alex Eade, said on Saturday the Jockey Club's decision to leave the organisation has caused division at a time when British racing should be uniting. 

The Jockey Club has joined Ascot in its plans to leave the RCA at the end of the year and plans to set up a new group to represent its interests.

Both the Jockey Club, which owns 15 racecourses across Britain including Aintree, Cheltenham, Epsom, Newmarket and Sandown, and Ascot are key stakeholders in the sport.

• Jockey Club to set up breakaway group as it quits Racecourse Association with demands for a greater say in British racing 
• Analysis: The Jockey Club is to leave the Racecourse Association - what happens next? 

"My overwhelming emotion is one of sadness," Eade told ITV Racing. "Precisely at the moment when we should be uniting as a sport, coming together behind our new chair Simon Cox, we've chosen this moment to tear ourselves apart to some degree.

"It makes a big difference. They [the Jockey Club] are a very, very big part of the sport in general, the same as Ascot. I would ask what their alternative vision of the sport is. They need to lay that out. I would like to understand a bit more about their alternative structure."

In March, the RCA underwent a governance review, with several racecourses keen to back the organisation in concentrating on its role as a trade body, making reforms to its voting structure and changes to racecourse representation on the BHA board.

Eade said: "I believe that the RCA went through a process that it was asked to go through by some of its members. It went through a comprehensive governance review and came up with some recommendations which I genuinely believe would have worked for the whole sport, and particularly the racecourses."

Alex Eade: chief executive of the Racecourse AssociationCredit: Dan Abraham

The Jockey Club's chief executive Jim Mullen said on Saturday that the decision to leave the RCA was due to the contrasting status of different racecourses and their respective representation.

"This isn't really a debate about the RCA," he said. "This is about whether British racing has the governance and the courage to essentially deal with the long-term problems ahead of us. We believe that in order to have our voices heard on the really strategic matters, we need to be heard directly at the BHA.

"You have an RCA which does a fantastic job in services, but has participants of such different economic models with such different timespans of how they want to impact the sport that it's practically impossible to manufacture a singular position."

Mullen spoke of the Jockey Club's aim to create a new alliance to tackle some of the key issues facing the sport in the coming years.

He said: "We're looking to build a coalition of like-minded racecourses who share our view of how to address the long-term problems like the foal crop and horses-in-training declining. We can hopefully go to the BHA and say this is what we believe in and how we can change the sport for the better.

"We're currently speaking with Ascot, and we'd like to speak to other racecourse groups. It's not a them and us, but it's really, really important when I get asked a question as a group chief executive that I can give a clear, consistent view."

Read more:

Jockey Club to set up breakaway group as it quits Racecourse Association with demands for a greater say in British racing 

Analysis: The Jockey Club is to leave the Racecourse Association - what happens next? 

Jonjo Sanderson rejects accusations the RCA stifled reform as racing digests Jockey Club decision to quit trade body 

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