Significant change appears to be in the offing for that grand old feature of horse racing, the Starting Price, which has hitherto been derived only from the prices offered by racecourse bookmakers. Its future has been under debate for many a year and is once more a hot topic, following the recent decisions by William Hill and Paddy Power/Betfair to trade their own prices online right up to the ‘off’, instead of taking betting shows from the track for the last 10 minutes before a race.
The Starting Price Regulatory Commission has mulled the issue in previous years before concluding that the existing SP mechanism remains seaworthy. While the SPRC is tight-lipped as ever about what happens next, the Guardian understands that it will consult on the subject once more this year and that this time minds are more open to the idea of change than in the past, raising the distinct possibility that the SP calculation could be opened up to reflect at least an element of the off-course betting on a race.
“The tail is wagging the dog,” is the phrase being used by betting industry figures when they reflect on the diminishing strength of the on-course market. They reckon that at least 90% of betting on any particular race is now done away from the track. Change is being described as “inevitable” by some, but the question of how to make that change is not easily answered.
The need for caution was stressed by Simon Clare, PR director of Ladbrokes Coral, who told me on Wednesday that customers still value the independence of an SP derived from betting at the track. “Although it’s an anachronism in the way it works, it still works. Everyone calls for the exchanges and the off-course market to have a role, well, we do.
“Although it’s a complex effect, we still have the ability to feed money into the ring if the price is too big in the ring. The shows and the SP are all heavily influenced by exchange action and off-course action. We’re not opposed to change but if and when change comes, we want to make sure that it’s positive change. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it is an old, boring cliche that I think still applies here.”
Andy Geraghty, a racecourse bookmaker, is not surprised to hear that the discussion is taking place once more. “It’ll be a bit sad, if it changes. The racecourse market will no longer be the big, powerful voice that it used to be. The online industry is taking over. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, there’s not much that isn’t affected by the internet, apart from hairdressers, I suppose. There are times when I’d like to turn the whole thing off.”
But Geraghty reckons there would be no sudden loss of income for the betting ring if the SP mechanism were changed. “The off-course firms haven’t hedged for about three years, to try and manipulate the SP, so, on a day to day basis for me, it wouldn’t make one iota of a difference. They might still play at Wolverhampton and Lingfield and Kempton, where there’s a very small number of bookmakers, but generally they’re just not interested in us any more.”
Wednesday’s best bets
Congratulations to Leicester, which has lost so many race-meetings to bad weather over the last four months but today stages the only turf racing in Britain. It’s a slow-starting card, however, as the first three favourites have ended up as being unbackably short, to these eyes.
But I’m tempted by 4-1 about Miah Grace (3.15), making her handicap debut for the in-form Jedd O’Keeffe yard. She showed impressive resolution to score for the second time at Hexham last month and does not seem harshly treated as she faces rivals who are mostly exposed. Her half-brother, trained in Ireland, scored from a higher mark at Warwick recently.
In the last, there has been some support for Evan Williams’s Sabbathical (4.15), who showed his first form of any real merit when third on his handicap debut last week. Now that the cheekpieces, tried once before, return, he can be expected to take another step forward, though 3-1 is a bit shorter than I was hoping for.
At 5-2, Fen Breeze (6.15) could be the pick of tonight’s Kempton card. She was backed for her first run in six months at Wolverhampton recently and ran well to be third, as the first two have both won since.
Leicester 1.45 Imperial Alcazar 2.15 Pistol Whipped (nb) 2.45 Ballyellis 3.15 Miah
Grace 3.45 Prairie Town 4.15 Sabbathical
Kempton 4.45 En Famille 5.15 Rusper’s Lad 5.45 Merchant Of Venice 6.15 Fen Breeze (nap) 6.45 Ginger Fox 7.15 Split Down South 7.45 Distant Applause 8.15 Que Quieres
Hereford Abandoned due to waterlogging
