Summary
Horse racing is the second most popular spectator sport in the UK but it is also a business. Presenter Evan Davis and guests discuss who makes the money: the horse owners, the jockeys, the race courses or the bookmakers?
Guests:
Simon Bazalgette, Chief Executive, The Jockey Club
Rachel Hood, Director, The Horsemen's Group
Ciaran O'Brien, Group Communications Director, William Hill bookmakers
Producer: Julie Ball.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading this programme. This edition of the bottom line looks into the UK's second most popular spectator sport, horse racing and some of its challenges. |
| 0:10.5 | Hello and welcome to the programme and we're off to the races today. Horse racing is an entertainment business like any other but also unlike any other. |
| 0:19.9 | The Jockey Club goes back to 1750 when the first |
| 0:23.7 | formal rules of racing were devised, and yet the sport has a rather modern problem, rather like some |
| 0:30.1 | internet businesses. It's still trying to find a way to monetise the full value that it creates, |
| 0:35.4 | and we're going to get into some arguments about who contributes what to the costs of racing. |
| 0:40.8 | But the horse racing industry also faces challenges. |
| 0:43.4 | How do you ensure that the crowds keep coming after the big races at Ascot, Aintree and Cheltenham? |
| 0:48.9 | There are issues over offshore and online betting and worries about loss of jobs in the rural economy and the UK as the centre of horse breeding and training. |
| 0:59.3 | So a lot to talk about. |
| 1:01.3 | My guests today represent those with different interests in the sport, so let's meet them. |
| 1:05.6 | And first of all, Simon Basiljet, Chief Executive of the Jockey Club. |
| 1:09.7 | And Simon, what's interesting about you is you're a former accountant. In fact, you're not from a horse background. I'm not at all. And in fact, I don't normally admit to ever having been an accountant. And when somebody exposes me like you just have, then I would say I reformed. I gave it up about 20 years ago. Now, just in terms of what the Jockey Club actually does, what is its |
| 1:29.3 | piece in the kind of chain of people involved in this? So the Jockey Clubs today is the biggest |
| 1:34.5 | commercial stakeholder in British racing, primarily as the biggest race course group. We own |
| 1:39.7 | New Market, Sandown, Epsom, Cheltenham, Aintree, and a whole series of smaller courses. |
| 1:46.2 | We therefore run some of the country's most iconic events, the Investec Derby, the Grand National, |
| 1:51.5 | the guineas. These are fantastic horse racing events with huge heritage, and we see ourselves |
| 1:56.5 | really as the guardians of that heritage. |
| 1:59.0 | Who owns the Jockey Club, and what do you do with the money that you make in these events? |
| 2:04.2 | The Jockey Club is a company set up by Royal Charter. |
| 2:07.1 | It has a series of members who are really trustees for the sport and for the Jockey Club as a business. |
... |
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