Lots in the news the last few days about the level of prize money on offer at tracks managed by ARC (Arena Racing Company). The company have used the reduction in FOBT maximum stakes, and the resulting loss of revenue from its betting shops, as a constraint on increasing prize money. Several trainers, led by Ralph Becket, have called for races at ARC tracks to be boycotted and this has resulted in another aalkover on Sunday at Sedgefield: https://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/sunday-walkover-at-sedgefield/159172 Could this mean the end for ARC and the death knell for some of its courses? Doncaster, Hereford, Newcastle, Bath, Brighton, Chepstow to mention a few. Is it time for a necessary "thinning down" of racing, in terms of tracks, races and horses? The current numbers just do not seem sustainable.
I remember a very good debate on BBC 606 where that was one of the unpalatable conclusions I reached. I wish I could find that thread
Meanwhile Kelso put up over 160 grand in prize money on Saturday and attract only 37 runners for 7 races. Their MD is rightly fuming: https://www.racingpost.com/news/lat...37-runners-declared-for-saturdays-card/368657
To be fair they can't do anything about the weather and watering is sensible. With regards the festival, surely 50% of those entered in the handicaps must know they won't get a run so support some other meetings? Poor stuff from the trainer IMHO.
Well we are supporting a smaller local track as our boy Top Decision runs next Saturday at Hereford. We put it nicely to our trainer though not to enter him in a race on the Tuesday to Friday of the festival!. It's ladies day at Hereford next Saturday although as far as I m aware that had no bearing on our decision. He had a small setback but is now ready to go and had a visit to Nigel Twiston-Davies's gallops recently.. Will get the insight soon on his chances but has had a nice gap since his last race.
Apparently there are people who don't think the world revolves around Cheltenham for those four days. Seems very odd behaviour to me...
I know it's an ARC racecourse Hereford but no thought of boycotting from us and it looks like prize money will be more than the last race he won at Warwick
Looks like ARC are ready to compromise (at least in the short term): https://www.racingpost.com/news/lat...ide-prize-money-to-unlock-levy-funding/368967
I don't believe they do, do they? They just sell live coverage from their courses to the bookies and are worried that a number of betting shops will close due to the FOBT stake reductions, so their revenue from the bookies will fall so they will have less to contribute towards prize money. That was my take on it.
So they are using the FOBT stake reductions as an excuse to cut prize money now, in anticipation of reduced income in the future? And will still presumably bill the betting shops for all they can get in the meantime. Sounds pretty shabby to me.
Boycotts extending now - Lingfield's card on Wednesday has 19 runners across its 6 races. Fontwell (Weds) has 27 entries for 6 races and Southwell (Thursday) has 20 runners entered in 6 races. I wonder whether Sky might get involved as this will affect the newly launched Sky Racing channel? Perhaps they could divert some of the millions from football into horse racing?
How do you create more money to hand out for prize money, increase the entry fee's...?? I don't know how much they are charged but if the entry fee's are quiet low, i'm guessing around £100/150 per runner at the low level, rising the higher the class of race, then maybe that 'could' be a start... The fact that most of the races are sponsored by the bookies, we talked about that a few days ago on a different thread, maybe the prize fund needs to be better distributed to filter it down to the lower level...?? I don't know what needs to be done, don't know all of the points etc, but to just say that its all down to the FOBT machines is a bit poor from ARC. Surely they have a better take on it than that...?!?!
Still comes back to too much low-grade racing for me red. We need a thinning out and to be honest if 80% of those ARC tracks cosed down would it really be such a staggering loss?
I think this ARC thing is a lot more complicated than it looks to us. According to the companies report for the year ending in 2017, ( and backed up by Company Check ) Arena Racing Corporation Limited had a total cash holding of just 4,119,000 pounds. It's hardly a gold filled vault. With the ongoing fall in off course betting turnover since 2009 factored in, things don't look all that rosy. The steady decline over the years has seen the turnover drop from 5.743 billion on 2009 to 4,322 by March 2018. Clearly a lot of the major betting houses are throwing up scary numbers in response to the government's thoughts on the FOBT issue, but they probably have a real fear when it comes to a decent drop in revenue. If these falls actually happen, then ARC will certainly feel the effects. They can't be blamed for looking to the future, especially if a nasty road block is likely to be thrown up in front of them. I think ARC is just as much a victim as the owners and all other racing folk when it comes to the present plight of UK racing. There are host of races today on the main land where prize money ( to the winner? ) is below 4,500 pounds. That's awful. Clearly the revenue from the present system isn't enough, and it seem like nothing much is going to chance in the near future. Things are just going to get harder for all concerned. I can't see where culling the numbers will help either. Heaps of hard working folk will be forced from the industry. People are rightly worried by the economic future of GB as Brexit nears, but just imagine the impact on the racing industry if 10 or 20pc of the racing numbers were thrown on the scrap heap. It would make Brexit look like a wild party. The answer is to rationalise racing so that those suffering can be helped, not persecuted. Then there's the same old debate, why rationalise? Why not let those who can't make a profit go to the wall? It makes good business sense. And what's in store for racing as a whole? In this rapidly fragmenting world where a million and one options are being offered up as gambling outlets, racing doesn't seem to be where the new age punter wants to invest. I think the internet is now where a lot of the money will end up, and less and less of it will be in racing.
Horse Racing is a business just like any other Cyc, and tough decisions need to be taken. I think almost everyone I've ever heard talk about them agrees that FOBTs are a pretty dispicable thing, preying on gambling addictions, and the decision to limit stakes is socially and morally correct. For me the legislators in Horse Racing, and also ARC, are way behind the bookmakers in terms of leveraging the sport in the Internet. In a few years the Bookies in the High Street will be gone, everything will be done online. Horse Racing needs to find a way to tap into this and also ensure that revenue from online betting is correctly channelled into the levy. But beyond that, the industry does need streamlining. If a racecourse is not attracting enough paying customers to survíve, then surely it has to close? I am a passionate fan of horse racing but there are too many races on a day-to-day basis for it to be sustainable. Yes some hard working folk will be forced from the industry, but is that any different from the coal industry, the steel industry, the textile industry or the car industry in Britain in the last 30 years? The world is constantly evolving and for me Horse Racing needs to evolve more quickly with more innovation to secure its long-term future.
