the b.h.a. has a responsibility ....

​There is an elephant in the room, there has been for several decades. It must be invisible to the B.H.A. even if everyone else, with perhaps the exception of bookmakers, has recognised it, some have even walked into it and come out the worse for the experience. I am talking about prize-money, obviously; which is not so much an elephant as a herd, so long has this problem besieged horse racing in this country.
Every correspondent and spokesperson for the industry has cited Ireland’s prize-money as a contributing factor into why British trainers lost the Prestbury Cup at the Cheltenham Festival by the embarrassing score-line of 23-5, figures more reminiscent of a rugby match than equine activity. It is what it is, though. Yes, Irish prize-money is higher per race at the bottom and middle sectors than in Britain, yet it is also a shadow of the prize-money raced for in France, Hong Kong and Australia. It would be a step in the right direction for British prize-money to rise to Irish levels and it could be easily achieved if we had exactly the number of race-meetings per year as Ireland. But would we want that?
Racing in Ireland is incredibly competitive, with twenty-runner maiden hurdles and short-priced favourites in the care of Mullins, Elliott or de Bromhead. Would we want to replicate that? Twenty-runner novice hurdles at Warwick, Wincanton or Wetherby? 
The answer to the problem, whether you desire the status quo or the twenty-runner maiden scenario, can only be found if you embrace the spectre that is the other elephant in the room – the tote monopoly.
People of the calibre of Matt Chapman would rather push the proverbial handcart to hell than accept with good grace the idea of betting providing the revenue to put prize-money in Britain on a par with other countries around the world. He will talk of ‘the loss of atmosphere’ without the machinations of the ‘betting jungle’, a concept that hardly exists these days outside of the major race-meetings.
I have read other peoples’ opinions on this subject and their answer to the dearth of prize-money in this country, all of which tend to be convoluted and requiring the one thing that rarely happens in racing politics in this country and that is cooperation. All the various factions within racing look out for no one but themselves and will take no persuasion to help push the handcart to hell rather than ‘take one’ for the good of the sport.
The B.H.A. are a reactive governing body, when what the sport is in desperate need of is a proactive governing body emblazoned with vision and a can-do attitude. Instead, the B.H.A. twiddle their thumbs as the sun goes down on what was once a racing environment envied all around the world. We have the Derby, the Grand National, Royal Ascot, the Cheltenham Festival, Glorious Goodwood and the first classic ever staged, the St.Leger. We have Newmarket Heath; we have over 200-years of documented racing history. And yet slowly but surely our reputation for racing excellence is being annexed by our competitors; owners are more frequently than ever having their horses trained in Ireland or France. Increasingly the eyes of the racing world are turned ever-more frequently to Australia, Hong Kong, Dubai, the U.S.
We do not need 1-million-quid horse races that attract the same horses if it were worth half that amount. What horse racing in Britain needs, as surely as a dying man might need a blood transfusion, are horse races worth not less than £12,000 to the winner. And that is across the board. Every race, every day, flat and National Hunt. If the B.H.A. cannot put in place a scheme that provides the sort of revenue stream to finance this aim it should step aside and allow a more far-sighted organisation to take their place. We might have kept the Jockey Club if prize-money were to be allowed to drain-away as it has.
The B.H.A. has a responsibility to ensure British horse racing is fit for purpose; it is reneging on this responsibility. The buck stops with them. And anyone who believes ‘atmosphere’ brought about by the ‘betting jungle’ is of greater importance than the health of the sport is delusional. Every other racing nation funds itself through tote monopolies…. Enough said.