my fantasy to-do list.

​I am the new supremo at the B.H.A ….. Well, no, as you might expect the B.H.A. would never employ someone with a life-long passion for the sport. But indulge me, allow me to let the fantasy rip for a thousand-words or less.
First-off, I would set-up a committee to investigate the possibility of what was once described as a ‘Tote Monopoly’ as a way to fund horse racing. I would like independent bookmakers involved on course, with a fair percentage of their daily profits going into racing’s coffers, perhaps in lieu of a pitch fee. The world over racing is funded through betting and it is ridiculous that in this digital age our clever dicks dismiss the idea out-of-hand, citing the loss of atmosphere that the ‘betting jungle’ creates. I for one would rather have a healthy racing industry than a dead racing industry, and anyway ‘atmosphere’ is created by the emotional highs and lows of spectators, not the tinkling of bookmaker’s satchels.
I would have less race-meetings and more races per meeting. If any good has come to the sport through the government’s health emergency scam it has been the one-jockey-per-meeting and extended cards.
I would stop having two fixtures on any one day within 75-miles of one another. No Southwell in the afternoon and Wolverhampton in the evening, for example.
I would ensure every racecourse has at least one major race a season and one locally important meeting, a festival meeting that celebrates something of local or historical importance to the area. Horse racing needs to reconnect with the local population, as happens in Ireland, especially through the summer and autumn months.
I would bring the Cheltenham Festival forward by a week to ensure a 4-week interval to the Grand National meeting, with the Midlands National run the same day as the Imperial Cup.
I would make the Lincoln a truly unique race in world racing by starting the race by barrier, to return history to the race and the spice of lottery. I would also, flying in the face of safety-limits for one race a year, up the field size to a maximum of forty. This apparent madness would give modern-day riders an idea of what flat racing was like during most of its developing years. It is a sadness to me that the Lincoln has become just another handicap when for most of the sport’s history it was one of the major races in the calendar. If this slightly madcap idea became reality the Lincoln would become special again and the Spring Double something to excite the racing fan throughout the winter.
I would make the Eclipse the final classic of the season and, of course, restrict entries to 3-year-olds. In this modern age a 2,000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse makes for a more appropriate Triple Crown.
I would make the St. Leger Britain’s richest flat race, a competitor to the Arc. I would keep the distance as it is, open it up to 3-years and upwards and bring it forward in the calendar by 2-weeks. At 1-mile, 6-furlongs it would be unique in world racing. If such a race existed next season it would be an obvious race for Stradivarius, as well as the typical 3-year-old it currently attracts.
The flat jockeys’ titles would be decided on the length of the turf season and not on ‘Champions Day’, a meeting I have no love for. If Qipco were to walk away from it, I believe Ascot would struggle to find a replacement as in essence it is a consolation meeting for horses that have missed their targets through the season.
I would have absolutely nothing to do with ‘team racing’ or ‘street racing’, two bonkers ideas that rip the heart out of the history of the sport.
I would have no 2-year-old races until June and no Group 2-year-old races until September. Two-year-olds should not be treated as commodities, raced too early just to get them on a racecourse to please an owner desperate to get some of his outlay back as quickly as possible. Not to sound too corny but 2-year-olds are the sport’s future; they should not be considered expendable.
I would go 100% at selling the idea of ownership in as many ways as the marketing department could think of, especially the sort of syndicates and ownership clubs they have in Australia, with hundreds of people owning small percentages of one horse. They get it in Australia, though not at the B.H.A., that this sport is a sport of the working-class. If you could get whole factories of working people owning a horse – well, the possibilities are endless. We have to lose the generally held idea that horse racing is a sport of the nobility, a concept that has held us back for decades.
I would refuse to allow any racecourse to close. The racecourses we have left as our heritage; we have to protect them.
I would limit use of the whip to one stroke as I am a great believer in the adage ‘if they won’t go faster for one hit, they won’t go any faster for two’. I also believe horses are at greater danger of injury when they become unbalanced due to jockeys pulling their sticks through to the other hand and if jockeys were forced to keep their mounts balanced less stewards’ inquiries would ensue. 
The above are my ‘hobby-horses’, if you excuse the pun. I am sure readers of this blog would have more constructive changes they would like to see come about.
If I am not to become racing’s supremo, which seems favourite, my number one change would be to have someone in the B.H.A.’s high chair who is 100% passionate about the sport and who has worked in the sport and been involved with horses all their lives. Such a supremo would make more difference, for the better, to this sport than anything other than a proper funding structure.