What we learnt at the Horseracing Industry Conference

Article by Rhi Lee-Jones

The Racing Foundation was delighted to welcome more than 200 delegates to the fifth annual Horseracing Industry Conference at Newbury Racecourse.

Held on 30 June in partnership with the University of Liverpool Management School, the event was attended by leading figures from across the horseracing industry. 

The conference’s headline topic was titled: “A healthy balance: balancing economic, environmental and social health to ensure a sustainable racing industry.”

The conference gave keynote speakers the opportunity to address the challenges affecting the horseracing industry in Britain.

Rob Hezel, chief executive at the Racing Foundation, said: “When developing the agenda for this year’s Horseracing Industry Conference, we did so with the belief that the long-term sustainability of the sport depends on three things: economic, social and environmental health.

“The growth in the event and its popularity demonstrates to me the real need for a forum for the multitude of organisations and businesses that make up British horseracing to meet regularly and to challenge and support each other.

“We had a vast range of talent in the room from a great variety of organisations. If the Racing Foundation can assist in aligning and coordinating them, then we are adding real value to the industry."

Joe Saumarez-Smith, chair of the British Horseracing Authority, kicked off the conference with his first keynote address since taking on the position earlier in the year.

The importance of data collection and how the British racing industry understands and uses that data was cited by Saumarez-Smith as crucial to the sport’s future.

The economic section of the conference commenced with Peter Hawkings, strategy consultant at Portas Consulting, analysing the funding structure of British racing.

Hawkings warned that the British racing industry would have a low growth rate over the next five years should intervention not take place. Seven potential levers to improve British racing’s financial position were subsequently offered:

·       Build relationships with fans and make the sport more relevant

·       Create new, exciting racing formats and greater narratives across the year

·       Convert more fans to becoming fractional owners (syndicates)

·       Secure owners in new geographies

·       Optimise racing as a betting product

·       Achieve meaningful levy reform

·       Diversify racecourse revenue streams (e.g., becoming more of a 365-day event destination)

Continuing on the theme of the economic challenges of racing, “How People Bet on Horseracing and the Implications for the Sport'' was the title of University of Liverpool’s Professor of Economics David Forrest’s keynote talk. He took delegates through the findings of the Patterns of Play project, initiated by the Gambling Commission and GambleAware.

The project was intended to yield a description of how people gamble online, primarily with the intention of informing policy for harm reduction and analysed data from 14,000 online betting accounts.

The University of Liverpool professor explained that the Patterns of Play data revealed risks to racing’s implicit business model.

Even relative to the other gambling activities that were studied as part of the project, spending on race betting was found to be very concentrated indeed with its revenue stream very dependent on a small number of the population.

Indeed, the study found that the top one percent of gamblers on horse racing provided 59 percent of total stakes. One risk highlighted by Forrest was the possibility that the activities of these high-spending gamblers may generate regulatory interventions which could curtail their levels of activity.

Forrest then explored the age range of participants in online horse race betting, finding it relatively high in all age groups. Horse race betting was found to attract only a relatively small share of betting spend in younger age groups, with more than 55 percent of horseracing gross gambling yield generated by those aged 45 or above. 

If the younger half of the population maintains these preferences as they age, Forrest warned, there is likely to be a secular decline in racing’s revenue stream. This data illustrates a medium and long-term threat to the sustainability of British racing at its current scale of activity because those who are currently in younger cohorts clearly have a stronger preference for sports betting (predominantly football) than for horse betting.

A fundamental issue for British racing, Forrest warned, is that the senior age range for all British racing’s customer groups, including racegoers, television viewers, gamblers and owners, poses a threat to the future prospects for the sport.

Crucial to the health of British racing is the sport’s social licence. Next on the agenda, conference delegates heard an analysis on the impact of equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) in British racing in a talk that explored whether it was making progress in British racing or was merely ticking boxes.

The talk was hosted by Lee Mottershead, Racing Post senior writer and member of the sport’s Diversity in Racing Steering Group. Mottershead quizzed industry leaders including Chief Executive of the British Horseracing Authority Julie Harrington on the sport’s responsibility towards ED&I. Mottershead was also joined onstage by Urban Equestrian Academy founder Freedom (a.k.a. “FR33DOM”) Zampaladus, who offered honest insight into his experiences in horse racing as an individual from a historically underrepresented background.

Two members of the recently appointed project team at the Horse Welfare Board were next to present and sparked heated debate amongst the delegates present.

Mike Etherington-Smith, equine safety advisor, and Francesca Compostella, aftercare lead, explored racing’s aftercare responsibility towards its equine athletes.

A  number of horse welfare projects were also discussed, including the Racing Foundation-funded Orange to White project.

Currently being phased into British racing, the Orange to White project has seen an estimated 368 fences and 2,132 hurdle panels across 40 racecourses change markings from the traditional orange to white.

The project, which Etherington-Smith and Compostella explained as being delivered by the Horse Welfare Board as part of the ‘Life Well Lived’ strategy, followed intensive research carried out by Exeter University into equine vision between 2017 and 2018.

The study found that changing the wood and vinyl padding of take-off boards, guard rails and top boards to white provided increased contrast and visibility for horses, leading to improved jumping performance.

Rhi Lee-Jones, communications and events manager for the Racing Foundation, said: “The 2022 Horseracing Industry Conference was the biggest yet with 227 tickets allocated.

“I’d like to thank our speakers and panel experts for delivering such thoughtful and challenging dialogue and contributing to insightful debate, which I hope engaged and ignited action in our delegates.

“At the Racing Foundation, our aim is to drive industry improvement. We plan for the conference to keep developing in the years to come as an important means of achieving that end.

“That process of alignment and coordination is crucial, and it needs to be informed by racing’s leaders. They need to be visible and articulate the direction of travel but also be prepared to listen, reflect and respond to what they hear.

"I would like to reiterate our thanks to all those who attended."

Horseracing and Thoroughbred Industries MBA graduate Katie Walker also presented her research on the effect of whip use on stride parameters of the racehorse—more details of which can be found on the insert.

The final keynote address of the day came from Sustainability Consultant Ruth Dancer, who has recently completed a scoping exercise into British racing’s environmental sustainability practices. The White Griffing consultant examined with delegates the findings of the recently published report, looking into the way in which environmental sustainability impacts the British horse racing industry. From water shortages to the potential for biodiversity, Dancer detailed the risks, challenges and opportunities for the sport in this area. The importance of a whole industry approach was emphasised along with how horse racing might move towards Britain’s net zero goal on carbon emissions by 2050. Social licence was again mentioned and was a common theme throughout the day, with Dancer highlighting the importance of environmental sustainability for the next generation. The carbon footprint of delegates’ travel to the conference was also offset by the Racing Foundation through the process of carbon sequestration, reinforcing the Foundation’s commitment to environmental sustainability and its belief that the issue has to be at the heart of not only racing’s future, but its present too.

To conclude the 2022 conference, racing’s leaders formed a leadership panel in which they took questions from attending delegates.

Among the leadership panel was Chief Executive of the National Trainers Federation Paul Johnson, Chief Executive of the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Claire Sheppard, and Chief Executive of the Racecourse Association David Armstrong.

Chief Executive of the Racehorse Owners Association Charlie Liverton and Tim Naylor, the director of Integrity and Regulation for the British Horseracing authority, completed the expert panel.

Neil Coster, director of studies for the Thoroughbred Horseracing Industries MBA at University of Liverpool Management School, said: "It has been fantastic to see the conference evolve since it started in 2018—more than doubling in size and this year attracting a record number of delegates.  

“The University is delighted the event continues to showcase the graduates’ research projects, and this highlights one of the philosophies of the conference—that of better informed decision making.  

“It is now seven years since the launch of the MBA, and we are pleased to see a number of our graduates progressing to senior positions in the industry."

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