Lord Charles Allen, the new Chair of the British Horseracing Authority, feels Wednesday’s ‘strike’ which sees no racing taking place in the UK demonstrates the “feeling and unity within the sport”.
In addition, there is a campaign event at Westminster in the afternoon in which guest speakers include BHA Chief Executive Brant Dunshea, John Gosden and Dan Carden, MP for Liverpool and Walton and the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Racing and Bloodstock.
The events are in response to Government proposals to harmonise remote gambling duties which the BHA argue would have a devastating impact on British racing.
The UK betting industry currently contributes around £400million each year to the sport through Levy, media rights and discretionary spend on areas such as sponsorship. However, they were not consulted in advance of the blank day being announced.
Lord Allen said: "British Racing has taken the unprecedented step of stopping racing for a day because the threat posed by this proposed racing tax hike is nothing short of an existential threat for our sport.
"I fully support this bold initiative which has only been made possible by an extraordinary collective effort across the industry, led by the BHA, and I applaud the efforts of all involved.
"It shows the great strength of feeling and unity within the sport and demonstrates that racing will not sit quietly by while our future is placed in jeopardy."
Jim Mullen, Group Chief Executive of the Jockey Club, supports the strike but is wary of anything that disincentives bookmakers from continuing their current level of support for racing.
"Britain can be proud of its racing industry, which is rich in history and heritage, world-leading in its standards of equine welfare and Thoroughbred breeding and plays a vital role in communities up and down the country,” he said.
"Horseracing also has a symbiotic relationship with betting in a way that other sports do not, with bookmakers contributing £350million to British racing annually via the Levy, media rights and sponsorship to fund everything from prize money and jobs to veterinary and equine welfare research.
"If passed, these Government proposals would disincentivise bookmakers from maintaining that level of contribution to our sport and result in a reduction in betting activity on racing. Research shows that this would have wide-reaching and potentially devastating consequences for people’s livelihoods and our industry, which contributes billions to the UK economy every year.
"We hope that by taking the unprecedented step of cancelling all racing in the UK for 24 hours we are able to highlight just how harmful and ill-thought-out these proposals are and prompt the Government to reconsider."
Sebastian Butterworth, Strategic Racing Director at Flutter UKI, praised the BHA's efforts but warned any tax increases on the sector, would ultimately impact racing.
"The BHA has done a great job in raising the concern about tax increases and the knock-on impact to horse racing, " he said.
"But it’s important to call out that any rise in betting or gaming duty will impact racing's finances. Campaigners are talking of tax increases in the region of £2-£3bn - it's fantasy land to think racing won't be affected by this."
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