As part of an ongoing series, the TDN caught up with trainer Mark Johnston to discuss some of the challenges facing the racing industry, and how they can be tackled.
What is the most pressing problem that needs to be tackled in racing, and how would you solve it?
MJ: The biggest problem facing racing in the UK remains the lack of prize-money. We differ from all other major racing nations in that we made the grave mistake of legalising bookmakers more than 50 years ago. In more recent times we had an opportunity to improve the situation significantly when picture rights became valuable to the betting industry at home and internationally but, bizarrely, the racecourses won the battle for the ownership of those rights and we now have a situation where the stadia, rather than the players, are the main beneficiaries of income from pictures.
Our BHA have made another breakthrough recently in that they have secured a new levy replacement deal which will require bookmakers, wherever they are based, to pay a percentage of their gross profits from British bets to our sport. This is expected to make a significant contribution to our prize-money, but we have a very long way to go even to allow us to compete with our near neighbours, France, let alone countries like Australia and Japan.
How would you introduce a newcomer to the racing/breeding industry?
MJ: It was in Britain that horseracing earned its nickname 'The Sport of Kings' and that description is apt to this day. Those currently charged with the marketing of our sport and the task of finding newcomers are keen to shake off that image and attract a wider range of people from a much broader income band. I think they are barking up the wrong tree.
With prize-money in Britain still only returning around 25% of running costs, without factoring in the losses on capital value of the horses themselves, it remains an extremely expensive sport. It is way beyond the means of most people and sharing the cost between a number of people doesn't make it any less expensive or make the percentage returns any better. In practice, it is the small owner with a single horse or a share that most needs a decent return. It is these owners that rapidly become disillusioned with the financial structure of the sport and it is amongst them that the churn of owners is, by far, the greatest.
So, unless we see a quantum leap in prize-money (and that looks unlikely), we need more 'Kings'. Our racing and breeding industries have been sustained for the last 30 years by foreign, mostly Arab, owners who have been willing to inject vast sums of money to keep and race the world's best bloodstock in Britain.
We need more like them and to attract them we must sustain and build on all the unique selling points–traditions, variety, quality of racing, the ownership experience, etc.–which have made British horseracing The Sport of Kings.
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