Longer cards and fewer meetings may be the future - BHA chief Rust

Longer racecards and fewer meetings could be here to stay, BHA chief executive Nick Rust hinted on Saturday.

Restricting jockeys to riding at one fixture a day is another measure - introduced for the drastically altered fixture list adopted after lockdown - that could be retained in 2021.

"In the period from June until now, we introduced a resumption fixture list which was focused on where the revenue streams were coming from, which was largely betting and associated betting media rights - there's obviously no crowds and no hospitality - so we tailored it accordingly," said Rust.

"The number of races per card was increased, we had fewer race meetings. That made it more efficient and we heard from most of the jockeys saying, 'Fantastic, I'm not driving round the country for two meetings.'"

Asked whether those measures were likely to stay, Rust, speaking on ITV Racing's Opening Show, added: "We need to adjust the media rights position to get to that, but I think that the lessons learned from those ten weeks, when we were a bit freer to say, 'Let us coordinate this in a way without some of the usual barriers in place because we just have to get on with it', I think we will adopt the learnings."

Rust will be succeeded by Julie Harrington at the start of 2021 as BHA chief executive, and he believes racing is better placed than many other activities in the wake of the pandemic.

Julie Harrington: succeeds Nick Rust as BHA chief executive

"There would be many other organisations and industries that would be pleased to be in a position where we are returning to a full set of economic activity from September to December, with our fixture list, where three-quarters of the races are returning to their prize-money levels before Covid," he said.

"We've had a good start and the recovery plan needs to kick on from that. We want full resumption of raceday activities, including crowds obviously and the full experience for owners. Owners are the major investors in our sport and they need to be properly looked after.

"We need to balance the race programme next year that looks after the economic interests of the sport, brings in the maximum revenue that it can but looks after our participants, and we need to spend our central funding in the way that best supports recovery."

A key part of the sport's recovery will be the end of racing behind closed doors, and Rust hopes for imminent news on pilot schemes for the admission of spectators, after the late scrapping of a planned trial at Goodwood earlier this month.

"We're hoping to have further pilots," he said. "We're expecting there will be an announcement this week from government around further pilots in the lead up to the intended return for all sports crowds on October 1."

More to read:

Why we took the decision to shut down British racing

BHA appoints Julie Harrington to succeed Rust as next chief executive

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