#6 - British racing needs to change

Sometimes things just have to get so bad they are irretrievable before cooperation replaces self-interest.

British horseracing is now at that point.

Good people are leaving and the trickle is turning to a steady flow. Within weeks the dam will burst and what remains will be shallow waters indeed.

All parties are guilty of this self-destructive self-interest; racecourses, ‘horsemen’, administrators and bookmakers, but the owners that the industry cannot survive without have been bled dry. Their appetite for pain has run out.

We cannot blame Covid-19 any more than we can blame the fairies. This has been brewing for years and runs deep.

British horseracing is being turned into a nursery for other now greater horseracing nations. We are rapidly becoming a bit part where we were once leaders; subservient founders of a global game where despite attracting the most powerful players on the planet to invest in our shores, we frittered away the right to host them.

Let’s pray that those invested with the trust to run our industry are taking heed.

Change is afoot; it’s neither too late nor irretrievable if we act now and cooperate for greater good.