'It's as grim as anything I can remember' - racecourse chief's gloomy warning over affordability checks

Long-serving administrator John Sanderson, who has been involved in running racing for more than 50 years, has warned the funding crisis facing the sport is "as grim as anything I can remember".

He was speaking about the potential impact of affordability checks, brought in by bookmakers under pressure from the Gambling Commission acting before the much-anticipated gambling review white paper.

Arena Racing Company chief executive Martin Cruddace estimated affordability checks have been the primary cause of a £280 million drop in digital betting turnover at the company's 16 courses last year compared to 2019, which he claimed would equate to £800m across the sport as a whole and a £40m hit to racing's finances. Trainer John Gosden expressed fears last week that punters moving to the black market as a result of intrusive checks would be a "disaster for both the betting industry and the British horseracing industry".

Sanderson, who has worked in racing administration since 1966 and served on the boards of the then BHB, the Racecourse Association, the Tote and Racecourse Media Group, said: "On the face of it, the situation now is as grim as anything I can remember, mostly based on the theoretical outcome of the Gambling Act review and we're still waiting for the white paper.

"Martin Cruddace knows what he's talking about and the figures he quotes don't make good reading at all. And John Gosden is a very reserved man and he's very well connected, so he won't be exaggerating.

"If we only knew what we were facing then we could start to rearrange our product."

John Sanderson: has been involved in running racing for more than 50 yearsCredit: Alec Russell

Sanderson, 81, who started as assistant manager at York in 1966, is group chief executive of International Racecourse Management, which runs Catterick, Thirsk, Redcar and Wetherby.

He warned that the shortfall in funding would force tracks to make significant cutbacks.

"The money is a very big part of the smaller independent racecourse's revenue now," he said. "It's more than 50 per cent in some cases.

"If that's starting to go down, we have to cut somewhere to stay alive. Prize-money is an obvious area but there are other things you can cut as well. None of us is fat with staff and it's fatal cutting maintenance because it only comes back to haunt you.

"The only flexible thing, and the biggest overhead, is the cost of putting on racing, which includes prize-money and the cost of servicing owners and jockeys. But smaller and less competitive fields in turn generate less betting turnover so then you get round to thinking, should we be looking at cutting the number of races or fixtures?"

Sanderson, who was awarded an OBE for services to racing in 2012, has recently stepped down after more than 30 years as managing director at Catterick, where he did his best to make the sport's case to the local MP, now prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

"I wouldn't bother him now but wearing my Catterick hat I did my best by writing letters to Rishi," he said. "I always got a reply and he was very sensible about it but we can't influence it.

"Of course there are problem gamblers but there are also people with other problems. But nobody is worrying about that at the moment because unfortunately gambling is flavour of the month and all the politicians react and get frightened."

Read these next:

John Gosden fears affordability checks and black market could 'spell disaster' for racing 

Minister rebukes Gambling Commission over intrusive affordability checks 

'Illogical and disproportionate intrusion' - owners slam affordability checks 

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