doom & GLOOM, OVERHAUL, KERRY, & GOVERNANCE.

​The doom and gloom about racing these days just becomes ever doomier and gloomier. Apart from Flooring Porter’s exhilarating display of front running at Listowel yesterday, today’s edition of the Racing Post hardly raises a smile, let alone offer hope for the future. It is not the fault of those with columns in the newspaper; it is as it is, unfortunately. Just as our politicians in power seem intent on making life more difficult for all sectors of society except the sector, of course, they themselves operate in, horse racing is made hidebound by those paid large salaries to provide insight and leadership to a sport that has never needed those qualities more than at any time in the sport’s history.
Let us begin with the still swollen race-program in Britain, the failure of Premier Racing to either boost attendance or to attract interest from mainstream media, the lack of an overall strategy for the future and so on and so on. Wrestling control of the sport away from the Jockey Club was supposed, if my memory serves me adequately, to be in the greater interests of the sport and yet here we are decades later still trapped in a maelstrom of inactivity, feet dragging and battles tainted with self-interest.
There is a consensus amongst the majority that there are too many Group and Grade 1 races in both Britian and Ireland. Easily changed, one would have thought. There are not enough horses in training in both Britain and Ireland for the programme of races, especially in the former. Some, misguidedly, are of the opinion that the B.H.A. should legislate against horses of limited ability, as if pruning from the bottom will be of benefit to those at the top echelon of the sport. To legislate against the lowest banded horses would ensure more trainers go the wall and the sport would lose ever more owners. The pruning must be the same as pruning a hedge, from the top.
When this topic comes up for debate, the elephant in the room is not even in the room. The purpose of all-weather racing was to ensure betting turnover during the winter months, yet here we are with all-weather racing all the year round. Unless the plan is for all-weather tracks to supersede turf tracks, then we have too many all-weather racecourses, and certainly too many races run on an artificial surface. Rather like electric cars, which apart from the ease upon which they catch fire and that they are fundamentally environmentally unfriendly, they do have a place in modern motoring, fifteen-minute cities and all that, and all-weather has its place in the sport, but only as a back-up, a safety-net, with the occasional glory-day. It has grown too large and needs reining in.
If Britain is to have a successful summer jumping program, the B.H.A. must look to Ireland, to its racing festivals, of which Listowel’s Harvest Festival meeting seems a good template. The program in Ireland through the summer caters for all-types of horses, from dual Cheltenham Festival winners like Flooring Porter, to top-flight handicappers and novices of all types.
At least the morally bankrupt Labour Party were voted into office, even if less than one third of the population voted for the bastards. The B.H.A. and its stakeholders are invited into power. I believe this is plain wrong and we should push for a system when those who apply for such positions, from C.E.O. to any position of influence within the governance structure, should stand for election and not interviewed and approved by other non-elected officials. Owners of racehorses, racecourses, leading betting industry officials, should be asked to vote for their favoured candidate, as should trainers, their staff, jockeys, agents, valets, Racing Post readers and racegoers. Employees of the B.H.A. should not be eligible to vote. If there are those involved in B.H.A. committees and sub-committees in favour of revolution rather than evolution then my suggestion is just what the doctor ordered as we must have the right people with long experience of horses and racing in the right positions. Influential positions within the sport should not be earned on the basis of ‘jobs for the boys’ or a high salary and 3-day week for services elsewhere in the political spectrum. 
The stagnation has gone on too long and threatens the very existence of the sport. It is time for those responsible for the feet-dragging to stand before an electorate and take the flak head-on. Hiding behind non-disclosure and closed doors should not be an option. Lives and jobs depend on stakeholders standing shoulder-to-shoulder with dedicated, honourable front-line workers.