Horseracing and Bloodstock Industries

Baroness Harding of Winscombe Excerpts

Thursday 14th September 2023 Grand Committee

[Baroness Harding of Winscombe (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Herbert for securing this debate and introducing it so comprehensively, such that I suspect I will not say anything that he has not already said—with one exception, as I declare my interests, which I am afraid are slightly longer than his. I am a steward, which really means a director, of the Jockey Club; I totted up that I have been a racehorse owner for more than 30 years, which makes me feel very old; and I am a 20-years’retired amateur steeplechase jockey. As we will discuss the levy, I should also declare that my grandfather was the first chair of the Levy Board, in 1961.

Racing is definitely in my heart, soul and blood. It has given me some of the best days of my life—I was encouraged to add the words “some of” into that sentence by my husband last night. When I have a bad day at work, I tend to close my eyes and remember how it felt to land over Becher’s Brook and how it felt to lead in the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and I suddenly feel better.

Although I have been phenomenally lucky in racing, I am not alone. As my noble friend said, racing is the second-largest sport in the UK, with over 5 million racegoers each year. It is internationally renowned, hosting some of the most prestigious races in the world, and underpinned by world-class talent, human and equine—not me, unfortunately. It has strong, respected and genuinely trusted governance, and it contributes more than £4 billion and 80,000 jobs to the economy. My noble friend listed all those facts. We also host some of the most memorable spectacles of the year in British racing. It is where Heads of State, captains of industry and everyday punters are all fans together.

My first question for my noble friend the Minister is this: does he agree that British racing is a substantial asset to this country and that he and the Government genuinely want to see British racing prosper? If so, as my noble friend Lord Herbert just asked, what have they done, or are they doing, to ensure that that is the case? That is the fundamental question that we are debating today.

As my noble friend set out—I will not repeat all the statistics—British racing’s international competitiveness is under serious threat. Our prize money is lower and good horses are increasingly leaving the UK. The number of higher-rated horses leaving doubled from 2021 to 2022. It is not sustainable for our equine talent to depart these shores. The percentage of top-rated, grade 1 races that the UK holds is dropping. In 2017, the UK held 24% of grade 1 races; four years later, in 2021, it was 17%. That is a 30% drop. The reality is that the rest of the world is copying and learning from us, but they are much more financially resilient, which is a real problem. Owners can win more money abroad, increasingly win better races abroad and sell their horses for more by sending them abroad. This is a really vicious, slippery slope of decline for something that I hope we would all agree is a great British asset.

There is much that UK racing can do itself. I am not making the case that this is only the Government’s problem. I would argue that UK racing needs to genuinely work together. I try to explain to my friends who are not keen racing fans but love other sports like this: imagine if, in tennis, the tennis ball, racket, court, net, player and team support were all separately represented in discussions about the funding of the sport—that is racing. For the horses, trainers, breeders, jockeys and fans, racing does not find it inherently easy to work together. The sport needs to get better at doing that itself, and I say that as a member of the sport.

The sport also needs to get better at appealing to younger, more diverse audiences. The sport needs to continue investing in equine welfare and in supporting responsible gambling and responsible drinking, and the sport must create events and entertainment that are fitting for the modern world and genuinely inclusive entertainment for all. I am not for a moment suggesting that racing cannot do some of that itself—it needs to—but there is also a really important role for government, and arguably there has always been.

For millennia, people have enjoyed racing horses and betting on which horse will win. For a very long time the British Government have been firmly on the pitch—or on the turf—playing a role as a regulator: in 1961, with the creation of the Levy Board as an arm’s-length body of what is now DCMS, and through the Gaming Act 1968, which brought the Government on to the pitch for gambling regulation. I know that it is hugely tempting, and I worry that we might hear it today, that the Government always would like racing and bookmakers to come to an agreement together, on their own, without the Government. I think every Secretary of State has always said that, but the reality is that we have needed the Levy Board and gambling regulation precisely because of the many conflicting interests in this sport, including the need to protect the vulnerable and to make sure that it is a fair and equitable, regulated sector. That is a role for government, and we need government to step up and act.

My noble friend the Minister has set out the two main areas, and I will simply reiterate them. The first is the levy. Despite prize money being the lowest of the major racing nations, the amount of money placed on horseracing betting makes it actually the second-largest market in the world—second only to Hong Kong. As my noble friend has said, only 2.8% of money bet on racing comes back into racing, compared to 16.6% in Japan, which is the high mark. Even just across the channel, in Ireland, it is 8.4%. We are at a structural disadvantage. What are the Government going to do to increase the rate bookmakers pay into British racing? That is their job description. That is what the levy does—it is an arm’s-length body of DCMS. What are the Government going to do to ensure that the levy is reformed to deliver a better, fairer return into racing?

There are a number of options on the table. My noble friend has described the obvious one, which is expanding the levy to British people betting on overseas racing. We created a depressingly British disadvantage, where, if I am Irish and I want to bet on a British race, Irish racing benefits—the Irish capture some of that betting revenue—whereas if I am British and I want to bet on Irish racing, nothing comes into the British coffers. It is not right. There is international precedent; we are the only racing jurisdiction that does not do this—and we used to. I really want to understand why we cannot do that. I know the Government will want to say that racing and the bookmakers should be able to sort this out, but they have not, for millennia. We need the Government on the pitch as the referee to drive this forward.

I will not dwell further on the levy, as I would like to take my remaining minute or so to talk about affordability checks. Problem gambling is a really serious problem. I have spent the last five years of my life, heart and soul, working in the NHS. We need to make sure that we are genuinely protecting the most vulnerable, but I really do not understand why checking whether everyone who wants to spend £125 a month on betting is the way to protect the problem gamblers.

I do not understand why the Gambling Commission refuses to acknowledge that there is and will be an ever larger black market. Also, by my calculations, £125 is the same as buying a family night out at McDonald’s once a week. Would we really challenge people to prove that they could afford to take their family to McDonald’s once a week? That is what we are proposing with the affordability rules, and it is not right.

Many big racehorse owners are being asked, like my noble friend, to prove that they can pay to bet. Several have publicly announced that they will leave the sport. We are shooting ourselves in the foot. This is a national asset that ought to drive economic growth in the country, bring people into the UK and give us joy.