Racing’s D-day looms as proposed chief Lord Allen faces ‘sliding doors’ moment

Around 80,000 people in Britain are employed in the horse racing industry. At least 1m adults are estimated to have a bet on the horses in any given month of the year. And it is a very fair bet that on the morning of 13 November last year, no more than one in every 1,000 of them had even heard of Lord Allen of Kensington CBE, who was about to be unveiled as the new chair of the British Horseracing Authority, the ruling body of Britain’s second-biggest spectator sport.

Lord Allen had, after all, had very little recorded contact with the sport of kings over the course of either a glittering business career in broadcasting, his time as a Labour party insider under Ed Milliband’s leadership, or a dozen years in the House of Lords. But his lack of a racing background seemed less important than Lord Allen’s well-connected position in what had recently become the ruling political party, and his track record with events including London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympics and, more recently, the Invictus Games. Beyond that, he could always learn on the job after assuming his new role on 1 June this year.

Lord Allen has had plenty of contact with racing in the eight months’ since his appointment was announced, however, which is the main reason why, nearly two months after his scheduled start date, his feet are still not under the BHA chairman’s desk. The former chair of several multi-nationals took a long look at the BHA’s governance structure, and in particular in the presence of members nominated by racing’s various special-interest groups on the Authority’s board, and did not like what he saw.

He then went away and came back with an alternative vision. As a result, the 68-year-old will be cast in something akin to the Gwyneth Paltrow role on Monday as a sliding-doors drama with significant implications for a billion-pound industry unfolds at the BHA’s offices in London.

In one version of the story, Lord Allen will finally take over as the most powerful individual in British racing, having persuaded the vested interests and power blocs that currently hold sway on the BHA’s board to, in effect, vote themselves into extinction. In the other, it will be a case of he came, he saw, he thought better of it.

The first sign that Lord Allen was having second thoughts about his new role came just a few days before his intended start date, when the BHA somewhat sheepishly announced that, seven months after announcing his appointment, the new chair wanted more time to speak to stakeholders, “to better inform his vision for the sport”.

Lord Allen himself has been tight-lipped throughout, in public at least, but his vision, according to well-sourced reports in the Racing Post, includes the removal of stakeholder-nominated members from the BHA board and the division of the Authority into two parts, one entirely commercial in its outlook and the other in charge of rules and regulation.

Lord Allen is hardly the first individual to ponder the twisted knot of factional self-interests that pervades every level of the British racing industry and suggest that something needs to be done. Most rational observers, either inside or outside the racing bubble, would probably reach the same conclusion after 10 minutes of consideration.

But he is arguably the first to do so before being sucked into racing’s political quicksand, where time stands still and a little foot-dragging here or there is more than enough to ensure that meaningful progress is always another a year or two away.

A ruling body with a board focused entirely on the long-term health and interests of horse racing as a whole would be a first for British racing. Whether Lord Allen can get it across the line, however, is still far from certain.

Special-interest groups proliferate in racing for a reason: it is not one sport, one business or even, as racehorse breeders will confirm, a single industry. It is a collection of many different businesses, from five-horse jumping stables to the uber-strings in Newmarket, from glittering venues like Ascot, the stage for Saturday’s King George, to small independent tracks like Pontefract and Newton Abbot. Owners, breeders and even jockeys (within reason) can also come in all shapes and sizes.

Lord Charles Allen appeared to be having second thoughts about whether to take up the post as chair of the British Horseracing Authority. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy

The two biggest racecourse groups – Jockey Club Racecourses and Arena Racing Company (ARC) – also operate with very different business models. JCR’s tracks, along with big independents like Ascot, Newbury and Goodwood, have high levels of raceday revenue from attendance. Many of ARC’s meetings, by contrast, are staged in front of empty stands to keep off-course betting turnover rolling.

ARC’s biggest asset is the ownership of its fixtures. It will need a cast-iron guarantee that Lord Allen’s “commercial” ambitions for a body that does not, of itself, have a great deal to sell, will not impinge on that situation.

Whether or not Lord Allen’s ambitious restructuring might actually come to pass or instead fade swiftly into obscurity may become apparent shortly after the BHA’s board meets on Monday. Similar aspirations for a less factional future have come to nothing in the past, but this could be the moment when Gwyneth finally gets onto the train.

Romance can rule in King George

Four of the five runners in Saturday’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot are closely matched on both ratings and recent form, and the outsider of that quartet, the ultra-dependable Rebel’s Romance (4.10), has a better chance to record his first Group One win in Britain than a price of around 5-1 might suggest.

Charlie Appleby’s gelding has seven top-level wins to his name abroad including two victories in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but finished only third, behind Goliath and the subsequent Arc winner, Bluestocking, in last year’s King George.

Rebel’s Romance was better than the bare result, however, having raced much closer to an unrelenting pace than either of the horses that came past him a furlong out.

In a smaller field and a more conventionally-run race, the seven-year-old’s class and willingness to battle all the way to the line could be too much for his younger opponents.

Ascot 1.40 A wide-open renewal of this Group Three for juvenile fillies, with Fitzella perhaps the pick of the prices at around 5-1 to build on her three-length fourth at Royal Ascot last time.

York 2.00 Normal improvement from his first run for 149 days would see Jubilee Walk go close in an ultra-competitive sprint.

Ascot 2.20 Royal Dress won with plenty to spare last time and could be a stern opponent for the improving Chantilly Lace.

York 2.40 The exciting Almaqam has ground conditions to suit and should follow up his last-time out defeat of the subsequent Prince Of Wales’s Stakes winner, Ombudsman.

Ascot 3.00 Billyjoh had little chance from his draw over track and trip at the Royal meeting but has a better pitch here and plenty of pace among the high numbers to carry him into the race.

York 3.20 The evergreen Copper Knight looks the safest option in this annual sprint for jump jockeys, at a track where he already has seven wins to his name.

Ascot 3.35 David O’Meara’s Bopedro is in the form of his life at nine years of age and looks big at around 10-1 to register a first win since the summer of 2023.