Savill`s five lessons for Irish racing

Peter Savill has passed on to Irish racing five pieces of advice which he has picked up over the past three years as chairman of the British Horseracing Board.

The Irish Horseracing Association is about to be replaced by Horse Racing Ireland and 'it will mark an exciting new dawn for Irish racing,' Savill, who now lives in Wicklow with his wife and children, said at the Moyglare dinner.

The valuable lessons he has learnt are:

1. Reduce rather than increase Government involvement.

'Government has better things to do than oversee the proper running of industries, even one as important as racing, and would rather see an industry grow and develop autonomously than depend on Government for subsidy,' he said.

2. Develop commercial interests of pictures and data quickly.

'Britain is currently leading the world in trying to establish the validity of data rights as a charging mechanism and, although betting on the outcome of challenges by bookmakers to the Office of Fair Trading and European Court of Justice is as hazardous as betting on the outcome of stewards` inquiries we are confident of success, a success which would enable other racing nations to insist on realistic commercial payments for their pictures and data,' believes Savill.

3. Reach an agreement in advance within the industry as to how to divide the income.

'The principle of agreeing the fundamental allocation of income in advance is crucial,' said Savill who told the audience that British racing signed the Future Funding Plan in June.

4. Work towards reaching the number of sectional interests on the Board of Horse Racing Ireland.

'This may seem a strange piece of advice when HRI still awaits its official launch but BHB has instituted two constitutional reviews in the past three years as we have seen ways to improve our structure and learn from our mistakes,' he said.

5. Let executives runs the industry.

'BHB is in the process of making provision for three executives to be able to be appointed to BHB`s board. HRI makes no provision for any. Such a policy will work against attracting and keeping the right people.

'Businesses and industries are run by executives with a mix of executive and non-executive directors on the board. Why should racing be any different?

'You have appointed an excellent chief executive in Brian Kavanagh. Give him his head, give him enough money to hire good people, let him choose his team and let him get on with it. It is his jog to develop the strategy for you industry; it is your Board`s job to accept, reject or modify that strategy.'

From May 1 2002 the BHB will sell the rights and delivery to bookmakers in Ireland without SIS as middleman and Savill reminded British bookmakers that they must return their signed contracts by the January 15 deadline.

He said: 'There will be no negotiation with Trade Associations, there will be no better terms offered than those already communicated and concessionary rates will not be available to anyone who misses the deadline.'

And he ended with hopes that the British and Irish can continue to build on their special relationship.

He said: 'I would like to share my belief that when racing jurisdictions such as ours make their product available to your punters to bet on, there is an obligation upon us to see that some share of that revenue is returned to Irish racing.

'The Americans call it a Source Market Fee and I shall be discussing the concept with my board and HRI in the coming months.'