'Dire' outlook: Newton Abbot facing £300,000 operating loss this year

"The projected figures are dire," is how managing director Pat Masterson described the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Newton Abbot, which is facing a £300,000 operating loss this year.

The Devon track had already been put under financial pressure by bad weather in 2019 but then Covid-19 struck, wiping out its first eight fixtures of 2020.

"We've been very unlucky," Masterson said. "We lost four meetings last year including our last three. We have hardly had any income since last September."

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In 2018 Newton Abbot made an operating loss of £101,279. This year that figure is expected to nearly treble to £296,197.

A major factor in that loss is the absence of income from racegoers, who usually provide 40 per cent of the total.

In 2018 racegoer expenditure at Newton Abbot totalled £1,085,922. This year Masterson has not budgeted for a single penny of income from that source, even if crowds are allowed to return in some form from October.

That is due to the social distancing measures introduced to enable racing behind closed doors such as having to move the jockeys from the weighing room to the betting hall.

Newton Abbot managing director Pat Masterson

"Because of the nature of where we have the jockeys and the owners at the moment I can't see Newton Abbot having any crowds this season," Masterson said.

The return of racing does mean that income from betting media rights has started but Masterson said the first figures from streaming rights were "difficult" due to the switch to a profit-sharing arrangement.

Having received £1,423,612 in media rights income in 2018, Masterson expects Newton Abbot to get just £550,000 this year.

While overall revenues are expected to fall by more than 71 per cent to £920,610, costs and overheads have also fallen but Masterson has not been able to mitigate those outgoings as much as he would have liked.

He said: "For a course like ours, business rates relief was £32,000 but we fell foul of a lot of other grants because of our rateable value."

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Aside from the crowds issue, Masterson sees further cashflow problems hitting the course from September onwards when they will have to start making executive contributions to prize-money again. In addition Newton Abbot does not charge owners entry fees for races.

"From a financial point of view, I have always said my real concern is September-October time," he said.

Masterson, who celebrated his 30th anniversary of running Newton Abbot in June, said the course had borrowed £400,000 to tide them over in the hope that they can return in the spring with crowds able to attend the lucrative Easter meeting.

He added: "I've said from the outset my ambition is to make sure that Newton Abbot comes back next April with a viable business and that I've got the same staff. That's the most important thing to my board and to me."

Read more on this subject:

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