ARC 2024: Racing Urged to Think Globally, Act Locally 

SAPPORO, Japan — 'Be connected, stride together' runs the strapline for the 40th Asian Racing Conference. There are of course representatives from beyond the Asian nations present in Sapporo and it did not take long for the Asian Racing Federation (ARF) chairman Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges to remind some 800 delegates just how out of step is British racing.

“Great Britain is probably the most challenged when it comes to industry fragmentation,” he said. “For our colleagues in the BHA, I would not call it Mission Impossible but it's close, and even Tom Cruise cannot help you. You need alignment of interest and it is crucial when you have a sport that is probably one of the best racing products in the world, but if you look at the return to owners, if you look at the return to racetracks to invest in the future, to invest in technology, there is not enough revenue coming back to the industry to address this.”

Fragmentation and disagreement between various factions in racing is nothing new in Britain or elsewhere, but it is no secret that the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) is in a state of flux. Its chair Joe Saumarez Smith travelled to Japan to join the panel, but he will be standing down from his role in May 2025, and chief executive Julie Harrington is currently working out her notice.

Her counterpart at Horseracing Ireland (HRI), Suzanne Eade, joined Saumarez Smith in a panel debate alongside Drew Fleming of the Breeders' Cup, ARF vice-chairman Masayuki Goto, and Australia's Peter V'Landys and Aaron Robinson, representing respectively the often warring jurisdictions of Racing NSW and Racing Victoria.

Explaining some of the relatively recent changes in the governance structure of British racing, Saumarez Smith admitted, “Sometimes we need to take a little pain and we're not making progress as quickly as I'd like but we are going in the right direction.

“We need boards saying [they] will invest money in the long-term interest of the sport, rather than trying to maximise profits for the next 12 months, but that requires the boards of those companies – the racecourses, media rights groups, training establishments – it requires instruction from above to say we need to do everything we can to sustain the sport in the long run, but we don't always have everybody willing to do that.”

What I would like to suggest is that we have to address issues globally, and there are different priorities in the local industries but we have to think globally, and especially when it comes to having the necessary conditions to keep our social licence

He was not the only one who cited the urgent need for various bodies within racing to work together for the greater good. In a 45-minute address Engelbrecht-Bresges gave not only an astute overview of the current state of play for the global racing and breeding industry but also issued a call for unity. 

“If you look at the stakeholders – if you look at racetrack operators, owners, aftercare providers, breeders, jockeys, trainers, race clubs, racing authorities – to try to get an alignment of strategic objectives or plans for how we overcome challenges […] in certain areas you need structural changes,” he said.

“Japan and Hong Kong are in comfortable positions but if one looks at racing in Australia, there is a federal structure and funding model so there is naturally competition between the different states.”

And in an appeal to the two Australian panellists, he added, “We should not fight with each other, we should come together as an industry and fight our competition. It's great that we have two key people here from New South Wales and Victoria so we can have this discussion, and I am optimistic that together in the future we will find solutions.”

Engelbrecht-Bresges continued his around-the-world overview by airing his concerns over the mixed response and, in some cases, legal challenges in America to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) which came into being in December 2020.

“HISA was a great achievement that we celebrated at the last racing conference,” he said. “One key issue of the sport is the breakdown rate of horses in America. HISA has achieved massive improvement when it comes to medication control, but HISA is at risk of being derailed.”

He continued, “What I would like to suggest is that we have to address issues globally, and there are different priorities in the local industries but we have to think globally, and especially when it comes to having the necessary conditions to keep our social licence. While I don't like the words social licence, there is definitely the challenge of how we as an industry are seen by people who are not in racing.”

Along with the “social acceptability” of horseracing, Engelbrecht-Bresges also identified the growth of illegal or offshore betting – which is believed to have been as high as $1.7 trillion wagered in this way last year – alongside declining attendances and an ageing customer profile as some of the key challenges faced by racing. Accompanied by a slide showing a protester being removed from the track at Epsom on Derby Day 2023, he said that the sport is at a “critical juncture” in some countries when it comes to fending off the threat posed by its detractors. 

Encouragingly, after a day-long conference on Tuesday organised by the International Forum for the Aftercare of Racehorses (IFAR), the second stage of a Thoroughbred's career is now at the forefront of many minds of those running racing around the world, and was referred to a number of times during the opening day of the conference.

Engelbrecht-Bresges, who is also CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the driving force behind the much heralded World Pool, also highlighted the more significant growth in prize-money levels in the nations within the pool of the Asian federation in comparison to Europe and America. Between 2022 and 2023, New Zealand recorded the largest increase of 13%, with a 12% rise in South Africa, 11% in Hong Kong and 10% in Australia. France, Ireland and Britain saw increases of 4%, 2% and 1% respectively during that same period, while purses in the USA contracted fractionally, by -0.3%. Not unrelated to this is the decline in betting turnover, which, having grown during the pandemic, was down by 10% in Australia between the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons, and by 9% in Hong Kong throughout its latest season. He noted, however, a 15% rise in commingling, linked to the expansion of World Pool.