we must not sacrifice perth & cartmel.

​When individuals of influence or a collective of such people that have plotted behind closed doors submits a proposal to a governing body on how ‘they’ would like to see the future constructed, it can be assured, especially when enough detail has been leaked to certain sections of the media to encourage debate and speculation, the result can only be, if acted upon, seismic change from which there will be no way back.
Firstly, it would be wrong to condemn whatever the proposals put forward by Peter Savill and his accomplices contain before they have come into the public domain. I dare say, what lies within the document now in the hands of the B.H.A. is underscored by good intent, with a love of the sport at its heart. It is concerning, though, that even before the B.H.A. has read and discussed the proposals, before you or I have had chance to support or condemn, Peter Savill is denying that elitism is the driving force behind whatever his proposals might be. As proved by the political elitism of the past few years, and across the world, not only in Britain, what we are told to be the truth and the advice of ‘leaders and experts’, is almost certainly the opposite of what is happening and what we, the public, should be doing.
And I will say one thing in support of Peter Savill and his accomplices, at least he is being pro-active in support of the sport, whereas the B.H.A., the governing body of horse racing, is seemingly swanning around as if all in the garden is rosy. Someone or something had to come into the light to combat the long-term inertia that pervades the offices of those paid large salaries to protect the sport’s present and future.
The word that sets alarm bells ringing in my heart is ‘premier’ accompanied by reference to the Premier League. Again, our distinctive, incomparable, sport is being aligned with a sport that has no parallels with our own. First it was motor racing, now premiership football. Elitism already has raised its head above the parapet. 
The Savill Manifesto, I suspect, proposes greater rewards for the mega-rich who compete at the top-table of the sport, with everyone else left to fight for the left-overs. This is doubtless a cynical overview. But you do not build a house from the roof down and that is the principal behind this proposal. The ‘have all the top races run on a Saturday, Sunday and the big Festivals, is to a great extent what happens already, so that cannot be the enlightenment at the heart of the proposal.
And the divisional aspect of the sport already exists, though at present owners of the middle-of-the-road racecourse have the latitude to improve the quality of their racing by increasing prize-money to attract higher-rated horses. I doubt if this will be allowed under the Savill initiative. I am pretty sure a premiership of racecourses will be created, an elite underpinned and protected by the diverting of resources that at present is divided throughout the diversity of racecourses we have in this country. I suspect the smaller racecourses, those that fall outside of the created elite racecourses, will have to survive on any scraps they can forage for themselves. Unless there is provision under the Savill initiative to protect all the racecourses of this country, I cannot understand how we will ever grow the sport. If prospective race-fans living in Cumbria, for instance, are denied a day out at Carlisle or Cartmel to help spark their enthusiasm, I cannot see how they would be enthused by contact with a sport that can only be viewed on television, the owners of winners of a social and financial class the Ordinary Joe cannot relate to. Perhaps television did at first, and to a lesser extent still, attract new followers to the sport, but the sport began as a country pursuit, a local festival that brought people together for commerce, fun and frivolity. Elitism takes the sport a million miles from its origins, even if it began with the local aristocracy betting against one another in match races across heath and common.
I also fear, if you list all the prospective candidates for this ‘premiership of racecourses’, that some of them will be considered surplus to requirements. Another excuse for Jockey Club Estates to close Kempton Park, perhaps.
What I find galling is that while ‘Rome burns’ the B.H.A. does not, seemingly, have a fiddle to play a tune on. The obvious answer to racing’s woes, a betting monopoly to fund the sport, is not only left unpursued, it is actively despised. And the solution to the problem of decreasing field sizes is left on the table as a black banana in a fruit bowl is ignored. The pruning of 300-races from the race calendar was a first step along a path towards redemption, yet because Arc Racecourses squealed and threw the toys out the pram the sport continues to be afflicted by an easily solved dilemma.
The truth is, and it is self-evident, the sport is poorly governed, as indicated by Peter Savill’s intervention. Yes, my thinking tends to verge on the ‘half-empty’ and if the smaller racecourses were set adrift it might allow them to return to the festival theme of their origins, with Galway type meetings becoming their salvation. I have championed the idea that summer jumping should be staged not as one-day affairs but three and four-day meetings, so perhaps good may come out of the elite reasoning of this elite proposal. I just want all our racecourses included in whatever this manifesto proposes. The great indulgence of our sport is in the diversity of our racecourses. Without Perth and Cartmel, Salisbury and Beverley, and every racecourse in between, this sport will lose far more than it will gain by adopting the principles of premier elitism, with all the cynical play acting that accompanies it.