the b.h.a. chair & PUBLIC AWARENESS.

​I am no fan of the B.H.A. or the muddled way British racing is governed. So, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I am bewildered that yet again the B.H.A. has looked outside of the sport for its chairman. At least the previous incumbent, or present incumbent as he is until his successor takes possession of his desk, Joe Saumaraz Smith had previous involvement with the sport. The new-to-be chairman, the Labour peer Lord Charles Allen, has as much cliff-face experience of horse racing as Ray Allen and his sidekick Lord Charles. You might want to Google that last side-swipe at the B.H.A.
What might prove beneficial to the sport in the appointment of Lord Charles Allen is that one of his many executive positions during his ‘stellar business career’ was as chief executive at the I.T.V. who holds the contract to televise British horse racing for the next few years. I am sure Ed Chamberlain will be championing Lord Allen over the coming few weeks. And, of course, as a Labour peer he might have influence with the government if the sport should need to defend itself in the face of governmental meddling.
What bemuses me is that anyone of influence should think that a sport as nuanced as horse racing would benefit from a part-time chairman with no hands-on experience of horses or the mechanics of the sport itself and will need at least six-months to a year to get a grip on the technicalities of a sport with 200-years of history. Would he know that there is a racecourse in Norfolk or that the Midlands National in run at Uttoxeter or that five-furlongs is the minimum distance for a flat race? And that is without having a clue about the more momentous issues within the sport that he will be expected to deal with.
At a moment in the history of the sport where the future is looking hazy at best, is it beneficial to have for the ‘bedding-in period’ someone in charge of the wheelhouse with limited knowledge of the history of the sport, the perilous position it presently finds itself and how to steer the mighty ship to the calmer waters of self-sustainability? As an advisor to a chairperson of the B.H.A. with experience of the sport, Lord Charles Allen or someone with his business record would be invaluable and doubtless worth his six-figure salary, and that is the way round it should be – the business expert advising the racing person. Unfortunately for the first six-months of his tenure, Lord Allen will be asking ‘why’ far more often than he will be making decisions. 

The Breeders’ Cup, apparently, is the exemplar of how a major race-meeting should be advertised and marketed. Personally, I think it is an overblown bun-fight for racing’s international elite, with the undertone as an exercise in making and selling potential stallions. The majority of the races are run on dirt, a surface alien to all European horses, always on left-handed tracks that are as flat as a pancake, which gives the Americans a big advantage. To Americans looking-in, it is right-up there with pumpkin pie as being quintessentially home-bred.
Selling the Breeders’ Cup to U.S. sports fans is easy-peasy compared to selling the Epsom Derby to people over here. The Breeders’ Cup is glitz and glamour, with eye-watering prize-money that would no doubt solve the homeless crisis in several American cities.
Perhaps the Epsom Derby, a race in decline, no matter that it remains the Holy Grail for British trainers and jockeys, would benefit from a televised draw for stalls and more exposure in the weeks before the actual race. But our big meetings, at least on the flat, are more social events for the well-heeled than considered a major sporting event, which, by the way, was exactly the same back in both the early and heydays of the sport. To the majority of viewers, whether the Derby favourite was drawn 1 or 10 would matter not a jot to anyone, unless they have had backed it ante-post, of course.
If Epsom and the B.H.A. want to resurrect the Derby, it needs to return to its traditional first Wednesday in June, with the Oaks and the Coronation Cup either on the same card or run on the Saturday if the bookmakers need to be appeased. 
The Breeders’ Cup comes at the end of the European season, whereas the Derby is run in the first few months of the season and comprises a field of horses with hardly any exposure to the racing public let alone the wider sporting viewer. You cannot sell something on the basis of what has come before; you cannot apply glitz and glamour to something that does not shine and there is very little shine to the Epsom Derby anymore as it is no longer the be and be all of the sport. In many ways, Epsom is outshined by Royal Ascot and all the summer festivals that come after it.
We should stop envying what other countries have and we do not and simply enjoy what we have and hope our enthusiasm will spread to others.