Racing heavyweights’ plan for radical shake-up of sport too narrow in focus

Several months after the first rumours of its existence emerged in the Racing Post, some fairly sketchy details of Peter Savill’s latest scheme to transform racing’s fortunes emerged this week, suggesting that Savill and a number of other “industry heavyweights” want to “restructure” the Flat and boost prize money and field sizes at the highest levels of the sport.

Savill, for the benefit of younger readers, was a very hands-on chair of the British Horseracing Board, the forerunner of the British Horseracing Authority, from June 1998 to July 2004, a six-year reign that was never dull and, at times, highly controversial.

A vainglorious attempt to demand payments from newspapers for publishing racecards was eventually abandoned when it became clear that the cards – and coverage - would be abandoned instead.

More generally, Savill also pursued the sale of data – on runners, riders and so on – to bookmakers in particular as a potential source of riches for the sport. The plan was eventually frustrated by a landmark ruling of the European Court of Justice in November 2004, shortly after Savill left office, in a case brought by the bookmaker, William Hill.

Savill told Nick Luck’s Daily Podcast last week that he had returned to the fray on racing’s behalf because “I felt that it needed to come from not just one sector of the industry, it needed some general support from across the industry.” The “key players” involved include both racecourses and those closely connected with the horses: owners, trainers, jockeys and breeders.

Savill identified two major problems that need to be addressed: small field sizes, and what he described as “basically a horse drain, or a loss of horses at the top end.”

As Savill sees it, “British prize