Last night at Bath, that one.

The Racecourses are doing very nicely out of this and that is a big part of the problem. They are paid for every race they put on and keep the bulk of it instead of putting it into prize money. They all want to race on Saturday and on other days that suit themselves and not the Industry. Result is too many meetings with very low prize money. ARC have become masters in the art milking the system.

I read somewhwere about Qatar putting more money to racing, well it only benefits the table they sit at and does little for racing in general.

Digging up turf tracks so there can be twilight racing under floodlights was warmly approved by Nick Rust as it will provide more betting opportunities for his ex employees. That is the nub of the matter.

Horse racing  is run for Racecourses and Bookmakers alone. Anyone who thinks any different is living under a rhubarb plant.

Nick Rust/ARC.....The shape of things to come. Seems obvious that Bittar took a very
short time to realise the absurdity of the whole set-up. Has taken only days at the
helm for Rust to nail his bookmaker colours to the mast.

If you sell the Tote to a bookmaker, then appoint a bookmaker to head the BHA
your objective should be obvious to all.

Barton Bank 02 Jul 15 17:07
The Sport is dying a slow, painful death and they seem powerless or disinclined to even try and stop it.

I fully agree and with most of the other supportive comments on this thread. It's a generation thing with we oldies, but life goes on. The young 'uns haven't the same interest as we had at their age and are more aware of the "irregularities" and would rather bet on the many markets offered in Premiership Football where they know the teams are trying.It's my main focus now. From once being a 24/7 horse racing and greyhound owner and better, I now have very little interest in either. They were a "working mans" hobby, study form and placing bets during their twice daily tea breaks and lunchtimes. Those days have gone. I read this forum as if it were a newspaper.

I also think that Exchange turnover gives a false impression of interest because most of it is bot v bot.

It's been going downhill for the last few years and nobody seems to care. The BHA are only interested in their own ridiculous salaries and pensions, and it is a closed shop so anyone with a view about change will be kicked into touch. NOTHING will change with the current bunch in charge, they are not here for the sport. May as well have FIFA and Blatter in charge imo.


Roida - regarding the 'contact us' page. I know someone who had dealings with the BHA and contacted them and had no reply. Rang them 10 days later and was told to resend the email (to her directly) and would get a reply within 48 hours as she would pass on directly to the relevant department herself. Long story short, he got some actual internal emails from the BHA and after the second email was sent the internal email said "****** has contacted us again regarding this matter, shall we bother to reply this time". The bottom line is they do not want to interact or listen to actual punters - we are beneath them in their eyes. The trouble is when it really goes t1ts up, the ones who made the mess are drawing their huge pensions no doubt. Vile organisation who are definitely not fit for purpose.

barton - it's easier to bet on football, despite the multiple options (Asian, HT/FT, etc etc) on basic terms there are only three possible outcomes, win/lose/draw and with wall-to-wall coverage of the EPL then even the most educationally challenged know that mr overpaid foreigner just signed for loadsamoney city whereas trying to keep up with racing form haha don't make me laugh!  whats also blatantly obvious is that the odds on football betting are much worse than they were 20-30 yrs ago, particularly for draws so the bookies are making money hand over fist (despite the freak run of winning favs at start of last season) and no levy to pay! happy days

for all the moaning on here about winning accounts being closed, i've got several online accounts in profit (and a few which aren't!) since opening and still able to place relatively modest wagers although if i were staking amounts akin to 'professionals' then it may be a different story of course

magic_days - many people DO care but there is not (and can't see there will be) a single voice speaking up for these issues, you only have to look at the differing opinions (and the levels of disrespect amongst posters) on the dancing meadows thread to see that

As Millhouse has pointed out a million times the Racing Post serves the bookmaking industry and not punters, which is such a shame because they are the ones who could be speaking out on all these issues. Imagine a paper that didn't mind upsetting jockeys and trainers! We need another Sportsman to come along but obviously as the game is dying out no one's going to waste their money on a new racing paper.

i know it cannot be easybut where is the betfair police in all this.they must see as we can the big market drifters that seem to fall out or the other things that go on.

Gordon63 - sorry I meant nobody cares at the BHA, plenty of punters obviously do - but that number will be getting less and less.

I remember when the chron went the life was difficult to get in the north on the bigger race days,then the post came along and the life got its finger out the sadly the life went now we has as pretty pointless trade paper who have yet to ask anybody a tricky question.

Foxy, I'm sorry, the Sportsman was dire - there just wasn't enough info in it, but not as bad as the cheap rag that comes out every weekend.

The BHA chairman, himself a career bookmaker, wants to hear from punters what they want...you couldn't make it up

I was giving serious consideration to applying for Nick Rusts call for a punters forum, but in realising his history within the sport there is about as much chance of him addressing the sports ills, as there is of me getting stuck up Kylie Minougue.

some Bettors could for example recommend Timeform get less TV coverage because they are putting away potential future bettors...not sure that would get passed with Rowlands chairing the meeting

Simon Rowlands has the best interests of racing at heart I am sure. The key issue is how much notice the BHA will take of the findings of the forum.

Rust doesn't want to help punters, he wants to understand how he can make more money out of them.

Horse racing UK makes more cash from the gross profits deal the more punters lose, and anyone who joins the BHA's farcical punters forum will be like a turkey giving advice on how to best re-merchandise the Paxo, imo...

I don't really like commenting on people that I know on public forums tbh but I would be confident they would find him a difficult person to "get at" and that he will do a thorough job of the punters forum. Whether the BHA bigwigs will listen to the findings however I would be less convinced.

Millhouse, I nominate you as chairman