Levy slashes veterinary research grants

krizon

krizon

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Not content with being the main cause for the cliff-like drop in owners' prize money, the Levy has now sliced a million quid from its grants towards equine veterinary research. Like many forum members, I've had plenty of their reports showing where they've bunged this and that uni or organisation £100,000-odd to continue research into vital areas such as stress fractures - preventative measures and possible repairs; stem cell research, which has been the reason why some good horses are now back on track following tendon injuries; abortions in foal fetuses and a host of other work related to making racehorses healthier and longer-lived.

I find this pretty sickening, to be honest. There are always vested interests, such as drug and feed companies, helping towards funding this research, but by far the most money which the horses generate is that which underpins gambling. Now that the Levy Board can no longer rely upon bookmakers doing the decent thing and sponsoring such research, it seems that racing will have to bear another setback.

Surely it's time that the problems with the Levy were sorted out, via the government deciding that if bookies/exchanges make millions out of being offshore, that if they have UK-based customers, that portion of their business is still taxable? I realise that means a big change in legalities, legislation, policies, etc., but isn't it doable? Is the Levy barely worth the paper it's written on now, toothless and helpless, as all racing seems to be in the face of bookmaker and racecourse apathy?
 
Bookmakers are putting into the levy and the levy is being divvied up amongst whoever wants it (reading on TRF £20m+ went into pension funds and £9.8m of the levy went into integrity and clamping down on corruption).

Interesting stuff Kri and in the ideal world the big firms would all be UK based but whilst they are based overseas and taxed overseas there's little the UK government can do short of saying "you can only bet with UK based firms" and blocking access to overseas based companies.
 
Whose pension funds, Martin, any idea? Not heard about that and I've no idea why so much would go into racing integrity - some people must be awfully well-paid, unless it's to cover the cost of the failed cases the BHA brings!
 
http://betting.betfair.com/horse-ra...e-for-the-levy-board-to-put-their-100810.html

The Levy Board report can be located here:

http://www.hblb.org.uk/document.php?id=56

It does not specify who benefited from the pension payoff, other than that it was The BHA.

I have tried to establish with The BHA what department official handicapping comes under and how much it costs but to no avail so far. I suspect it accounts for a chunk of "integrity", though what integrity has to do with handicapping is not clear, other than that those who do such a job need to demonstrate a degree of that virtue.
 
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Many thanks for that, JAP - I'll have a good squint through it as soon as Sligo's over! I'm delighted, of course, that the Levy bungs anything towards veterinary research, but I'm very much less than delighted that it's decided to pull such a huge amount of it. All of racing is a circular exercise - you cannot complete the circle without one or other component (however unnecessary we think some of the jobsworths or stewards are!), each depends on the other to create the entire. Betting is a traditional and integral part for most racegoers, and I'm sure that they would like to think that their losses, while regrettable, go towards something beneficial to keeping the circle intact. I would like to think that the funding will be picked up by some benefactor whose income is more secure than the Levy's. Oh, let me win the Euromillions, dear Lord!
 
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