CALUM McCLURKIN: Potential £66m tax raid is one this sport simply can't afford to pay

The widespread fear of unintended consequences of financial harm to racing over new gambling legislation has been a profound one in recent years.

White paper after white paper has been drawn up by various clueless governments in different guises.

This decade-long muddled line of thinking has led to confusion in the betting community.

The Gambling Commission have mainly sat on their hands, waiting to implement the government’s sketchy plans on deposit limits on punters’ accounts.

It left bookmakers to practically guess how to use tools in trying to protect punters from problem gambling.

The issue is widespread soft financial checks that are affecting an increasing number of punters, the vast majority of whom were already gambling responsibly.

The unintended consequences have led to fewer bets on racing and that’s hit the levy which mainly funds the sport.

This has pushed more and more punters towards the black market of betting and that money does not filter directly into sport. Bookies are less reliant on racing thanks to the casino and gaming wing of their respective businesses.

Racing looks increasingly isolated and reliant on the goodwill of sponsors, most are still bookies, and generous owners that are struggling to make the sport pay.

So with a Labour government that have been a year in situ, seen public finances in a dire state and made some poor decisions to add to the woe, a betting tax that aligns sports betting from 15 per cent to the gaming and casino rate of 21 per cent is being viewed as an easy win to shore up the increasing black hole in the nation’s finances.

The problem Chancellor Rachel Reeves fails to see in going in this direction is that tax rises on businesses drive away wealth creators and the companies that are being targeted will simply pass down the cost to the customer. Which in this case will be racing and the punter.

Big bookmakers will simply offer worse prices, remove any best odds guarantee and increase their overrounds. Like the Pasty Tax and Bingo Tax before them, this is racing's equivalent.

For all its rudderless leadership, the British Horseracing Authority has been quick to outline the peril the ‘Racing Tax’ would bring to the sport. Another hit to racing’s finances simply isn’t sustainable. In an era where punters are being forced out, owners are selling their horses abroad, prize money and field sizes remain worryingly low, a 'racing tax' would only hasten the sport's decline.

The BHA have estimated that £66mi;llion per year would be wiped out of the sport if this tax was implemented.

In this week’s Racing Post, top trainer John Gosden said it would be ‘devastating’. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch insisted that ‘we must not let it (the racing industry) die’ as she added her voice to the ‘Axe The Racing Tax’ campaign.

Let’s hope the treasury see sense in not taking the easy route and the BHA’s collective lobbying push works. If it fails and the tax rises from 15 per cent to 21 then this really could be the beginning of the end of racing in Britain.

RACING’S RESPONSE TO OISIN MURPHY CASE HAS BEEN PROFOUNDLY UNSERIOUS

Oisin Murphy can consider himself a very lucky man.

The four-time champion jockey pled guilty to drink driving in court on Thursday and received a 20-month driving ban and was fined £70,000.

Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt. These were serious charges and the sport’s, while understandably silent over specific details, general reaction was unserious.

There was a closed-ranks approach to things. Racing is ridiculously insecure about optics when it comes to equine welfare. Gordon Elliott was widely castigated for sitting on a dead horse. A hefty ban was swiftly implemented. What he did was insensitive and stupid but it wasn’t an act of criminality.

Owners like Cheveley Park Stud were quick to sever ties. But here’s Murphy in the weekend prior to his court hearing, riding in the red and white silks. The optics were nothing short of shocking.

Murphy’s issues have been well documented in the past. In November 2020 he was suspended for three months after testing positive for cocaine in France. A year later, stewards at Newmarket stopped him from riding after being tested above the legal limit for alcohol. At that time, he was reportedly involved in an altercation in a pub with a bloodstock agent.

Then, in February 2022, he was banned for 14 months for a breach in racing’s Covid protocol and for being over the alcohol limit twice. He also lied to the BHA about where he was after travelling to a red-listed country at the time of the pandemic.

While nobody wants to see one of the sport’s brightest talents struggling with these kind of issues, there is a wider responsibility on his shoulders to not bring the sport into disrepute. Murphy, who is 29 years of age and not some daft, naïve kid, has done this on multiple occasions.

The charge sheet is damning and increasingly unacceptable. There are stipulations on Murphy’s jockey licence and it’s unclear whether there will end up being some sort of internal sanction for the jockey in addition to the court ruling.

Most on the outside looking found it extraordinary that Murphy rode a day after the incident and continued riding without any interruption through all of this. Many weighing rooms would have been an awkward place. For weeks on end, you couldn’t have fitted a bigger elephant into a smaller room.

To be in court on Thursday and in New York riding in Friday seems unfathomable. Perhaps the BHA should update its own rule book in how to deal with these matters as it seems woefully unserious and out of date.

Jockeys are under enormous pressure. They are constantly battling weight issues and are frequently dehydrated. But that’s no excuse for crashing into a tree under the influence. And that’s the main issue here. Murphy can count himself lucky. Again.

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK…

DELACROIX proved that his running in the Derby was all wrong when winning a messy edition of the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown.

In the first clash of the generations, the three-year-old Delacroix came on top with a late charge to run down favourite Ombudsman.

Making ground from the back was not the plan for Delacroix and he only got out just in the nick of time under Ryan Moore to narrowly prevail. Trained by Aidan O'Brien, he looks every inch an Irish Champion Stakes horse.

SELECTION OF THE DAY…

SHADOW OF LIGHT (5-2, Paddy Power) was outpaced when a disappointing fifth in the Commonwealth Cup but the Charlie Appleby-trained colt can bounce back in the Prix Jean Prat (Deauville, 3.40).

He could well be a seven-furlong specialist and the softer ground should also be more suitable over this extra furlong after his effort at Royal Ascot.