Following a two-day UK racing industry meeting, racing's leaders have issued a joint-statement regarding the development of an industry strategy. The statement reads, “An extremely positive meeting has been held where there was a shared acceptance of the challenges facing the sport and agreement of the need to work together to fix them. The industry leaders present were unanimous on the need for serious and radical changes to make long-term improvements to the industry.
“The result is an agreement on areas of focus for a strategy which will be developed in the coming months, underpinned by all parties agreeing to share data to inform decision making, with the aim of building a sustainable model for British racing and identifying areas for growth.
“There was also an agreement that action is required to begin to address competitiveness in the short term, and a package of measures will be developed with this objective.”
As a result, British racing's leaders have agreed that the sport's 2024 strategy and beyond should focus on innovation in the way that racing is presented, in particular its best races, with a view to improving competitiveness, growing attendances, ownership and the supply of horses, and engaging new audiences both domestically and internationally. Besides sharing data across the sport, the parties have also agreed that other areas of focus will include:
- the organisation of the racing product, including the fixture list and race programme
- presentation and promotion of the sport's most high-profile events
- ensuring that the sport's promotional functions are properly structured and resourced
- using data to better understand customer needs and to ensure industry decisions are based on evidence
- working with betting operators, broadcasters and other partners to optimise growth
- improving the owner experience and encouraging greater investment in ownership, in particular through affordable investment
- continued focus on equine welfare
- investment in our people and recruitment, welfare, development and retention of staff and diversity and inclusion
- integrity and regulation
- and environmental sustainability.
A package of initiatives will be developed to address competitiveness of the racing product for 2023. This package will include looking at the composition of the race programme, scheduling and timing, alongside extending initiatives such as flexible race programming.
Attendees of the meeting included leaders from across the sport's main bodies of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), Great British Racing (GBR), Thoroughbred Group (TG) and the Racecourse Association (RCA) and independent racecourses.
Development of the strategy will involve further, ongoing discussions with industry participants, owners, customers and other related industries such as the betting and broadcasting industries, alongside partners such as the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) and Racing Foundation (RF). This development and the delivery of the strategy will be led by the BHA, who will also publish initiatives and developments on an ongoing basis.
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