Why the European Super League furore must act as a warning to racing

Twenty years ago British horseracing had its own 'Super 12', although they did not cause anything like the same consternation that last weekend's announcement of football's breakaway European Super League has done.

In 2000 a consortium of Britain's 12 leading racecourses entered into negotiations with broadcasters including Channel 4 and the BBC over a £225 million ten-year media rights deal covering terrestrial television and a digital racing channel, which would have been the biggest individual financial deal in the history of the sport.

It may not come as a major surprise that matters did not go to plan. The 42 courses not deemed to be 'super' were unhappy about what they regarded as the inadequate financial reward they were due to receive from the deal and in the end Channel 4 pulled out of talks, blaming "the factionalism that seems endemic in some parts of the racing industry".