Independence (of racing)

M

montyracing2

At the Start
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
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763
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Blackpool
Just occurred to me, and not had time to ponder as yet, but how will Scottish Racing fare if Alex Salmond gets his wish.

Will UK racing have to share the spoils, if any, with the scottish tracks (note the lower case for scottish - they will prove themselves real numpties to go it alone for any number of reasons.)

A month ago, I would have said 'fair doos, go for it' but having listened to some of the legalalities which, for once, make absolute sense, e.g. letting a foreign government (UK) set their interest rates - they'll be bled dry!

Celtic tiger my a***.

Sorry, but this post seems seems to cross racing and general chat.

MR2
 
Why would it make any difference? Down Royal and Downpatrick are in Northern Ireland but seem to be classed as Irish courses.
 
As Simon says it's all to do with the governing body rather than the country they're located in - they'd probably have different tax laws but Down Royal and Downpatrick are both regulated by the Turf Club (as are the P2P tracks of Northern Ireland) whilst the rest of the UK and Wales are regulated by the BHA.

The only thing that might change is if the Scottish regulations were changed to make it more beneficial for bookmakers to base themselves in Scotland rather than overseas (such as in Gibraltar, the Channel Islands, Curacao etc.) in which case it would be up to the Scottish government to distribute any earnings from taxation in whichever way they see fit (health, roads, admin, travel, subsidies etc).
 
My thoughts are that racing will be so far down the priority listing in the first five years, scottish racing may take a big, and maybe fatal, hit.

They may have to almost become self financing, which will be interesting but risky.

MR2
 
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