‘Change Needs to Happen at the Top’: BHA Chair Lord Allen Addresses Gimcrack Dinner

[Wandering Eyes]

In one of his first public appearances since becoming chair of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) in September, Lord Allen admitted that there is no “single silver bullet” to ease the significant challenges facing the sport.

In a question-and-answer session with broadcaster Lydia Hislop following the 254th Gimcrack Dinner at York racecourse, Lord Allen, whose appointment to the BHA was announced in November 2024, spoke of his desire for the BHA to be a “world-leading authority”.

Addressing a gathering of around 200 guests on Tuesday evening, he said, “I used that time to go out and meet a lot of people, whether it was stable staff, jockeys, trainers, owners, whatever. And therefore, although I've only been in the job probably just two and a half months, I think I've listened a lot, because I think we do need to have change. I met 120 people face to face before I joined and what they all said is they were incredibly passionate about the sport.”

Retention and welfare of horses, increasing the number of people betting on racing and attending race meetings, telling racing's stories, and the pooling of race day data are all items high on Lord Allen's strategy for change and improvement in British racing, as is the need to boost the sport's coffers.

“The truth is we need more money. Collectively, whether it's prize-money, whether it's investment in the sport, we need more money,” he said.

None of this comes as news to anyone who has been involved in the sport for a while, as almost all of the guests at the Gimcrack Dinner have been. Reaction from various trainers at the event ranged from calling for exactly the kind of collaborative approach Lord Allen seeks to one of quiet despair that this has all been said before with little subsequent change to the status quo.

Change does seem to be afoot, however, in that Lord Allen is adamant that the BHA board must be populated by independent members not tied to a particular sector of the industry. 

“Change needs to happen at the top,” he said. “And one of the issues I looked at over that 12-month period was why weren't we making the changes? And that was because we had well-intentioned people who were on the board, but they were representing a particular part of the organisation – you're there to represent owners, you're there to represent the licenced personnel, you're there to represent racecourses. And sometimes what happened in that process is that we got to lowest common denominator decision-making.”

While admitting that he would not be creating a “brand-new strategy”, Lord Allen presented an overview of areas which need attention.

“I do have five Cs,” he said, referring to racing's need to convene, collaborate, coordinate, commercialise and communicate. 

“I think we could do a lot more if we were much, much more collaborative. The other thing I don't think we do well is communicate. We don't explain our sport to the punters. The thing that surprised me was the C that I found missing was the consumer – the people who pay our wages, who come and turn up and support us. We don't spend enough time thinking about what they want. I come from a consumer and commercial background. We need to do that much, much more.

“And then also communicate with government. I think we've had a good start. When I got involved, I thought the [potential rise in] racing tax had a 10 to 20% chance of being avoided. But what really impressed me was literally my first day, being in Westminster and seeing the whole sector stand shoulder to shoulder. And that's what you need to do to influence government.”

He continued, “That was a start but it's only the beginning. We need to have a three-year strategic relationship with government that says 'this is what we're going to do'. The other thing we need to do is we need to have a much better relationship with the bookmakers. They are our principal funders.”

The BHA's stance during its 'Axe the Tax' campaign in the lead-up to the Budget on November 26 has angered the bookmaking sector which faces hikes in gaming tax that it claims will have a knock-on financial impact for racing. 

“It's often easy to find differences, but what we're trying to do is find more common cause,” Lord Allen said. “The other thing I think where we are aligned with bookmakers is the black economy. And what I mean by that is the £80 billion globally that goes offshore, that's unregulated. The Treasury gets no money out of it. We get nothing out of it. And I think we can build common cause on that.”

Hislop questioned Lord Allen's comments about the potential to become more commercial, given that the BHA has little to sell.

“We don't have the assets,” he admitted in response. “We have 200 fixtures out of 1,500 fixtures. I think there's a number of things that we can do in terms of packaging those assets, packaging those rights. And that's why I want a range of people joining our board that have a range of skills. And one of them would be somebody who actually understands rights and rights management. And somebody who would be what I'd call a digital native who actually understands what TikTok is and speaks to a different generation. I also would like somebody who has financial commercial capabilities. I also want somebody to join the board who actually understands the bookmakers' models, which are all different, to actually help us. How do we collectively create more revenue in working in partnership?”

This, among others, is a question that will remain unanswered for now, and Hislop, in closing the 25-minute session, pressed the need for those answers to be forthcoming. 

She said, “I think everyone in the room probably feels that with so many challenges facing the sport, that there is a huge sense of urgency in terms of moving forward, so we look forward to those actions.”

 

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