But barely beneath the surface, the sport in Britain is facing a decline that threatens its very existence.
The Grand National starts at 4pm on Saturday (Photo: Getty)
“There is a need for us to think differently and more strategically about where the sport goes to from here,” BHA chief executive Brant Dunshea says.
“We are very much now at a crossroads.”
Nationwide, the sport has lost more than a million annual spectators in the past 10 years; prize money at the Grand National has been stagnant for a decade; and there is an estimated £3bn blackhole in the gambling turnovers that does not look like closing up.
As any racegoer will tell you, horse racing and betting go hand-in-hand – but the accountants will tell you that too. Because the amount of money made by bookmakers is directly linked to the profits of the race courses.
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“It seems a bit mad that the sport should depend on its funding in that way, and that the BHA is effectively cheering for the favourite to get beat.”
But more lucratively, the media rights packages that allow bookies access to live streams and data from the race courses are also contractually tied to turnovers and constitute the major revenue source for the majority of racecourses.
Horse racing’s ‘existential crisis’
“The sport is in crisis, and affordability checks present an existential crisis to the sport,” Channing adds.
Affordability checks are technically called financial vulnerability checks by the Gambling Commission, which recommended they be introduced to help identify and stop problem gamblers. A pilot scheme started in August, challenging gamblers who lose more than £150 in a 30-day period to prove it is not an unaffordable habit.
“But they’re making judgments on a snapshot of your financial position.”
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“Personally, I don’t want to provide details. I don’t trust the companies to keep the information safely.
He is not alone. The i Paper has spoken to a number of punters, on condition of anonymity, who have hit the affordability “wall” and abandoned that account, and the problem is widespread. Research published by the Racing Post showed a £3bn deficit between expected betting turnover on horse racing and actual betting turnover.
“We recognise concerns expressed by customers about inconsistency across different gambling companies or checks which introduce unnecessary friction. That is why as part of the Government’s wider gambling reforms, we are piloting frictionless financial risk assessments. These are aimed at reducing inconsistency and friction, respecting the freedom of adults to gamble, while also supporting customers who are particularly financially vulnerable.”
“Consumers, we believe, have reacted to them in a particular way, which is contributing to a reduction in betting activity,” Dunshea says.
“We’ve done some research with the International Federation of Horse Racing Authorities, and we’re seeing that there has been a substantial growth in that sector through a website traffic analysis of a sample of different operators.”
“I know plenty of people who would be happy to bet in four and five figure sums who are not winning punters, but who are not comfortable with providing documentation,” Channing says.
“The way the funding of horse racing works, it doesn’t really come from people having a fiver on a Saturday or a one-pound Yankee or whatever.
Racing is desperately trying to diversify
More than 150,000 people are due on the racecourse (Photo: Getty)Horse racing remains big business in the UK. The total wagered on racing in the UK remains in the billions of pounds, and it is the second-best attended sport in the country.
“What we’ve never done is got back to our pre-Covid levels or haven’t even really got close to our pre-Covid levels. So what we’ve had over the last couple of years is basically a flattening out of attendance,” says David Armstrong of the Racecourses Association (RCA).
The Jockey Club owns 15 of the UK’s best racecourses and turns over more than £200m a year, but there are 45 other racecourses likely to be feeling the pinch of falling attendance more keenly, especially with financial headwinds strengthening.
As well as building up other parts of the business – Exeter for example makes 50 per cent of its money from non-racing revenue by running a successful conference centre – racecourses are working hard to buck the attendance trend.
“So we’ve got to find more creative solutions to how we bring racing to the front pages and make it exciting for everyone.”
The second season of Champions: Full Gallop will air in the autumn (Photo: Getty)
But more widely, the industry will hit the UK with a national marketing campaign this summer of record proportions.
“By the end of the summer, you’ll be getting sick of it!”
“Horse racing is a fairly niche thing [but] it has two TV channels dedicated to it, ITV give it huge amounts of coverage, and it has a daily racing paper,” Channing points out.
It’s still important to the public too, even if fewer of them are betting on or attending than in previous years. ITV reported 1.8m watched the Gold Cup at Cheltenham, its highest figure for eight years.
Winning hearts and minds on horse welfare
“I think we need to reflect on our social licence to operate. Society’s views have shifted over time,” Dunshea says.
Checks on horses are more stringent, too. Only this week, Mr Incredible was barred from running in the Grand National, leaving his trainer “frustrated, annoyed and sad”, but the panel decided the nine-year-old posed a danger to other horses.
Trot-ups, pre-race medical inspections, are more prevalent than ever before. And the Horse PWR marketing campaign has been trying to show the country that “nothing matters more to British racing than the health and wellbeing of our horses”.
Grand National horse fatalities since 2000
2002 The Last Fling – fatal fall / Manx Magic – fatal fall 2003 Goguenard – fell – injured. Destroyed 2006 Tyneandthyneagain – injured. Destroyed 2007 Graphic Approach – injured. Died later from complications 2008 McKelvey – injured. Destroyed 2009 Hear The Echo – collapsed. Died close to the finish line 2011 Ornais – broke neck / Dooneys Gate – broke back. Destroyed 2012 Synchronised – broke hind leg. destroyed / According To Pete – broke shoulder 2019 Up For Review – broke neck 2021 The Long Mile – broke near-hind leg after jumping Becher’s Brook fence 2022 Eclair Surf (FR) fell – died from head injuries / Discorama (FR) pulled up – injured pelvis – destroyed 2023 Hill Sixteen – fell – broke neck – deadSource: Animal Aid’s official website
“You only need to look at the demographics and the way fewer children now have first-hand interaction with farm animals or horses than they did 20 years ago.
“We need to think about how it is we position our horse superstars and our horses at the centre of everything we do so that people understand and appreciate what wonderful, incredible animals they are.”
“We’re different to other forms of entertainment and other forms of gambling, that’s something we should be proud of,” Dunshea says.
The Grand National is traditionally the one race on the calendar that encourages casual punters to put their hands in their pockets and place a bet, often with little knowledge of the odds. This year it feels like the entire racing industry is in a similar position.
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