Stating the bleedin’ obvious

Mike Deasy on vacuous advice for the British Horseracing Authority on recruiting its new CEO 

I don’t think I have read a more vacuous letter in the Racing Post than that of trainer Gay Kellaway in today’s (7 August) issue.

The newly elected board member of the Racehorse Owners Association makes a plea to the BHA that, in appointing its new chief executive, it “picks the right person for the job” an imperative of which is “that they know how racing works”.

And that, apart from saying that now is not the time to be “box-ticking or satisfying quotas” in relation to inclusivity and diversity, is about it.

If there is a suggestion that recent holders of the position did not have a grasp of how racing works then I can’t think who that can be, nor do I think their tenure hindered the sport.

Should racing be lucky enough to find a candidate who is both knowledgeable of the sport and capable of being an effective leader, then one hopes the BHA knows who that person is and that such a person is willing to take on the burden. Personally, I’d like someone with an open mind.

And one hopes that they appreciate it is always a good time to be striving for optimum inclusivity and diversity.

One of the issues which will have to be dealt with is a vocal group which often shows signs of having a limited grasp on reality.

Should that person be Julie Harrington (pictured), who Bill Barber in the Racing Post strongly hinted that it would be, then more than one box would be ticked.

She was on the BHA board for four years as a non-executive director until she left last year, having previously worked for Northern Racing, in which Arena Racing can trace its ancestry. Earlier her CV includes time with Whitbread, British Airways and the Football Association.

She is currently head of British Cycling.

And if she offered the position and accepts, it’s these scribblings which predicted that possibility back in May http://wp.me/p8e3Dl-3Pc

Great to have you on board

There will be a spring in the step of Ed Chamberlin on Saturday as he makes his usual greeting to ITV Racing viewers for the first time since it was confirmed this week that the broadcaster will have exclusive free-to-air coverage of racing until 2023.

It will be all the more pleasing for the ITV team that the venue will be Ascot, which granted its pay-per-view contract to Sky Sports Racing last year and who were reported as the only rival to ITV to bid for racing coverage. Quite how that could have been free-to-view isn’t clear.

To mark the occasion the first race ITV will show on Saturday is the ITV Home Of Terrestrial Racing Handicap, in which one of the runners is the aptly named Theotherside.

Still short of a big pay-out

For the first time since lockdown, the Tote has a Scoop6 pool of £250,000 and it could do with that figure swelling, leading to a bumper pay-out.

Lack of racecourse attendance will have hit the rebranded pool operator hard and the free to enter ITV7 with upwards of £50,000 on offer every time ITV show racing is getting valuable on-air promotion and eats into the Tote’s offering.

In a quick Racing Hub poll on Twitter, 5% said that they’d used the Tote for online betting more often in the past six months but 78% didn’t bet with the Tote.

To have 22% using the Tote in one way or another is no bad achievement, and is indicative that, amongst other things, the offer of matching the SP has its appeal.

But it needs to have an Agnes Haddock-type pay-out to bring in more players.

Landmark tipping

During the course of the week, The Racing Hub Daily Tip passed the 50-winner mark for the year and continues to show a modest profit.

♦ Your direct link to Doug Campbell’s tipping services feature http://wp.me/p8e3Dl-4Ad