I WAS interested to hear details of the speech given by Conor Grant at last week’s Gimcrack Dinner, and although his wasn’t the keynote address, which is reserved for the owner of the Gimcrack winner at York’s Ebor Meeting, it was certainly the most significant, and much of what he said resonates with me.

Grant is currently the chairman of Racecourse Media Group (RMG) but has a long history in the betting industry having worked at Paddy Power, Blue Square, Boylesports and Sky Bet, where he was Chief Operating Officer.

Following the merger of Flutter and Stars Group, which included Sky Bet, Grant became CEO of Flutter before stepping down for personal reasons in 2023. His new role sees him in a changed environment, heading the umbrella organisation for 35 British racecourse shareholders as well as being the parent company of Racing TV.

Re-engage with bookmakers

Given his experience on the bookmaking side of the industry, it was intriguing to hear Grant talk about the need for racing, to re-engage with bookmakers in order to drive much-needed innovation, arguing that: “Bookmakers excel at engaging their audiences as they operate in an incredibly competitive landscape. We need to work with them on shared audience development to co-market racing to younger demographics to increase engagement.”

It’s just over a decade ago that a representative of Jockey Club Racecourses explained that the group were trying to break with the tradition of bookmaker sponsorship for major races to court what were termed “blue-chip” organisations, an honest appraisal which led to an embarrassing climbdown and the swift departure of the representative in question.

The attitude remained, however, and the irony is that through the desire not to be associated with a betting company, the Derby ended up being sponsored by a second-hand car dealer instead.

No offence to Cazoo, but that overriding wish to ally racing with ‘respectable’ business hasn’t really worked for Jockey Club Racecourses with non-betting sponsors rarely renewing contracts.

Racing needs the betting industry, but it has never liked the forced proximity – it was Ralph Topping who accused JCR of having an “Upstairs Downstairs syndrome,” and that analogy of racing’s elite keeping the servant class at arm’s length is as perceptive as it is unsettling.

Historically, bookmakers have needed racing as much as racing has needed bookmakers, but while that was true for many years, it’s no longer such an easy equation.

Racing the core product

Bookmakers find racing not only a low-margin business these days, but one which is much less predictable than other products which offer similar returns, but racing remains the core product and it’s important for the sport and the betting industry that the two work with, and not against each other, for the long-term benefit of both.

“Bookmakers…are critical for funding, audience reach, and product innovation,” said Grant. “We need to demonstrate why racing content is important and show how it provides a unique and differentiated product.

Developing shared goals with bookmakers will create a long-term sustainable income that is vital for our sport. Building a relationship that focuses on long-term growth, not short-term profit maximisation at the expense of each other will be mutually beneficial.”

Newspapers once provided the majority of all racing content but the pressure on the print media has made it hard for most non-specialist publications to cover racing in more than a perfunctory fashion.

That potential void has been filled, to a huge extent, by bookmaker-sponsored content which has a huge reach on social media. Having horseracing free to air on television is the biggest boon to audience participation in the sport, but even that cannot survive without bookmaker participation, and while it has been popular for fans of the sport to bemoan the extend that bookie participation spills into editorial content, the truth is that it’s a small price to pay for coverage.

THE decision to alter the conditions of the Glenfarclas Cross-Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival was – to my eye at least – one of the least controversial changes made at the big meeting, but it still got something of a backlash, with some suggesting that the race would no longer attract high-class Grand National contenders like Delta Work, Tiger Roll, Minella Indo and Galvin, who wouldn’t be asked to hump “huge weights” so close to Aintree.

I couldn’t have that argument at all, mostly because the weights the best horses will carry won’t be much more than in a conditions event and the whole appeal of the Cross-Country as a Grand National trial is that despite its distance of three miles and five furlongs, it really presents little in the way of an attritional test.

There’s more chance of a top-class horse finishing dizzy than tired in my opinion, and it’s therefore encouraging to see the line-up for this weekend’s race over Cheltenham’s banks and cheese wedges, which can now be viewed as a genuine dress-rehearsal for the Festival contest.

Intriguing

In short, Friday’s contest is – on paper at least – one of the most intriguing of its type on British soil that I’ve seen outside of the Festival itself, and the presence of Delta Work and Coko Beach at the top of the weights suggest that neither Gordon Elliott nor Eddie O’Leary has any concerns about the effect that the race might have on those giving weight away.

Minella Indo and Galvin played a part in the corresponding event 12 months ago, but both were getting a sighter for a future race in which they would be meeting their rivals on significantly better terms, whereas the weights for next spring’s contest are likely to be determined in part by what happens this week, and that makes it much more interesting as a contest, both on the day, and with a view to solving the Festival puzzle.