TOP 100 SPORT SITES
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Big freeze leaves losses snowballing for the racing industry The icy spell is loosening its grip and jumps action may return on Saturday, but every part of the sport is already paying a priceLike any economy, racing needs to keep the money moving if it is to survive and prosper. Punters need to feed money into the daily churn of betting turnover, the Levy Board takes a slice to boost prize money, owners enter horses to chase the purses, and so the cycle goes on. The frost is finally coming out of the country's racing ground, and a National Hunt horse may jump a fence in public for the first time since 3 January as early as Saturday. But even if the gap in the programme is eventually less than a fortnight, every sector of a complex industry will pay a price, not just in the short-term, but perhaps over the coming weeks and months too.RacecourseJonjo Sanderson Clerk of course, WetherbyOur financial year starts on 1 October, so you can't put a definite figure on what it's cost us yet, but we are thrifty Yorkshiremen and we always budget to lose Boxing Day every year. But this year we lost 27 December and then 4 January as well, and possibly Saturday's meeting too, so it must be starting to have an effect. We're already probably 30% down on crowd numbers, because Boxing Day and 27 December bring in 20,000 of our annual attendance of 70,000 in just two days. We've got time left this season, and we may hopefully get some extra meetings too. The next meeting after Saturday is another Saturday, 6 February. If we lost both of those as well, we could be looking at some serious cutbacks for the remainder of the year and some very prudent accounting next year as well.Jockey Noel Fehily Fourth in jump jockeys' championshipIt's hard to say exactly what it will cost, and I probably wouldn't really like to think about it either, but the fee per ride is now £145 [Fehily would hope to average at least 70 rides a month at this stage of the season] so there's no doubt that it's getting costly. But it's not just the money, it also stops your momentum, because when you're in full flight, you just like to keep going. A couple of days is OK, but I really don't like having to stop for this long. Hopefully it's coming to an end now and we will all be back racing soon, but the worry then is everyone will end up chasing the same races. You'll find that your horses are all in the same races, and you can't ride them all, so you end up missing out on winners on horses that you could have ridden.Levy BoardAlan Delmonte Operations directorThe rule of thumb is that every lost race costs £10,000 to the Levy, but we have taken calculated financial risks to try to reduce the damage, and the British Horseracing Authority has also shown flexibility to provide jumping horses with opportunities. But apart from the short-term cost, there is potentially a longer-term danger for racing. If there is a sustained period when no British racing is taking place, then it's easy to see how people who might start betting on something during that period will then not come back to British racing when it returns. It might be that 90% of people do come back, but even then, you have lost 10% going forward, so it is vital to do everything possible to keep people betting on British racing, and that is where the value of the all-weather tracks really becomes apparent.BookmakerDavid Hood PR director, 1,800 betting shopsIt's a really difficult question to answer, but if the Levy Board reckon it's 10 grand a race, that would imply a gross win of 100K per race across the industry, which after overheads, costs and everything else could mean that the industry – not just Hill's – is clearing about 20 grand per race, though that is no more than a guesstimate. But the difference between the industry now and 20 or 30 years ago is that there is a much wider product base for the customer to choose from. Customers have changed as well, they have grown up with computers and PlayStations and are very comfortable with virtual products. We've seen an upturn on that, and there's also been live football several nights, so there's been some transference of business. To get it all back again, racing will have to make sure that its product is interesting.TrainerEvan Williams Seventh in trainers' championshipThe training fees are still being paid, so we would have no real costs in terms of lost income, but there's some extra costs in keeping going on a day-to-day basis. You need lots of grit, and there's extra man hours for mundane jobs like getting water when it's frozen. We've also used a lot more diesel going to the beach to exercise, whereas normally everything is on-site. It would be different if it was February, as there are so many more horses that would need a run, but the concern we have now is that when racing starts, all the races will be full and they will start balloting. It's frustrating for owners and trainers, if you can't get a run, but believe me, it is a lot easier to train horses in this weather than to milk cows.Horse racingGreg Woodguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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