How has it come to this? The Tories are trashing racing

I hate to be mean about politicians of any shade but with each passing week there is a greater risk that this Conservative government is going to be remembered, among other things, for blowing British horseracing off the map. The juggernaut of affordability checks now careering recklessly through the gambling ecosystem is not just chasing away people who have long enjoyed a punt, it is taking big-time owners out of the game.

Until it started happening, I can't say I expected any of the political parties to come trampling through our neighbourhood, but you could have knocked me down with a feather when I learned that the Tories would be laying figurative landmines under our racecourses. Fair or not, I've always seen horseracing as one of the playgrounds of the wealthy and influential right-wingers who tend to populate or at least befriend Conservative administrations.

I first noticed it about 40 years ago when, as a very young person, I started following my dad around racecourses. He being a Labour MP meant he got quite a bit of access and, in fairness, a warm welcome. But it was clear he was not of these people, the grandees who seemed to be running things.

They were glad he was interested and hoped that perhaps he might be a strong voice for racing if Labour ever gained power, which seemed a remote contingency in the summer of 1983. If they happened to talk politics over lunch, the views expressed were not what you would hear, well, anywhere I'd been up to that point.

That impression has been reinforced as I've continued to hang around racing over the intervening decades. In the press room or out of it, there has always been a sense of surprise if I happened to find myself chatting with someone whose political sympathies evidently lined up with my own.

I couldn't care less about that, some of my best friends vote Tory and I've learned over the years the folly of my teenage belief that it was possible to talk someone into changing the way they think about such matters. Racing people are mostly of the right, that's just how it is.

To indulge in a very crude generalisation, many owners don't fancy a shade of government which might impinge on their wealth. And because trainers and jockeys depend on the support of those owners, they tend to see things the same way.

I remember a cheerful bit of mickey-taking from a former champion jockey at Newmarket one day. He wanted to know why I would work for a lefty rag like The Guardian. I said something about how I liked the paper and my colleagues, even if it would take a long time to get rich on a Guardian wage. "Yeah," he grumbled, "I don't think they want anyone to get rich."

These thoughts are relevant only to explain how completely weird I find it that the Conservatives should be overseeing, even in some cases driving forward, developments which will do much harm to a patch so heavily populated by their ain folk. And where is the outcry from backbench MPs?

After months of coverage of the subject, and not just in the Racing Post, there can be no excuse for ignorance. This week alone, we've heard from the big-spending owners Phil Cunningham, Olly Harris and Carl Hinchy, explaining how the unprecedented anti-gambling action is detonating the pleasure they used to take in our sport.

Phil Cunningham (right): celebrating Cockney Rebel's Irish 2,000 Guineas triumphCredit: Edward Whitaker

Harris says he has stopped buying horses because his ability to bet on racing has been so curtailed. 

"I’ve had every single account have these affordability checks," he told us this week. "I’m a regulated hedge fund manager, I’m UK-based and if someone like me is having the sorts of restrictions I am having on my account, what chance does anyone else have?"

Surely we can rely on a Tory government to heed the words of a hedge fund manager? And yet there is no sign of interest from on high.

"The government has to get a grip of the Gambling Commission," said Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley. "They will destroy the racing industry and people’s enjoyment of betting." 

His solution was for racing to complain to government, as if that wasn't happening already. The BHA said this week it would "continue to push very hard across government" to make the point that the gambling white paper is poison for racing.

Hopefully, those aren't just empty words. The BHA isn't very good at fighting talk, except when defending its own record against criticism – that's when you see real fury. I'd like a dose of righteous anger to be expressed on our behalf whenever a BHA bigwig finds themselves in the vicinity of a government minister.

But let's not lose sight of where responsibility lies for the impending disaster. Incredible as it may seem, the Conservatives are kicking at the financial struts that prop up British racing.

If, by any chance, you're a Tory with friends in high places, now is the time to speak. It can be loudly in public or urgently in private or, ideally, both. Something precious is at risk which, once lost, will never be rebuilt.

• How to respond to the Gambling Commission consultation: Views can be provided at this page. After completing the introductory questions, select 'Remote gambling: financial vulnerability and financial risk' from the 'Consultations contents page'. You may choose to answer as many or as few questions as you wish. Further Racing Post guidance on responding to the consultation can be found here.

• The Racing Post wants to hear from you: What has been your experience of affordability checks since the white paper was published at the end of April, and what do you think of the government's proposals? Have affordability checks affected your betting behaviour?
  It's a chance for your voice to be heard. Email the Racing Post at editor@racingpost.com with the subject 'Affordability checks' to share your experiences, your thoughts about the government's proposals, and your contact details.

Read more:

'They are listening' - BHA chief says government alive to concerns as owners quit over affordability checks   

'It's a step too far' - Grade 1-winning owner Carl Hinchy quits racing over affordability checks  

'I'm being courted by offshore bookies' - Classic-winning owner sounds alarm over affordability checks    

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