{"id":573459,"date":"2026-08-03T14:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T14:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/573459\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T14:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T14:44:10","slug":"jockey-club-rocks-british-horse-racing-by-quitting-racecourse-association-horse-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/573459\/","title":{"rendered":"Jockey Club rocks British horse racing by quitting Racecourse Association | Horse racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jockey Club, which owns 15 British racecourses including Cheltenham, Aintree, Epsom and Newmarket, said on Monday it will join Ascot<\/a> in resigning from the Racecourse Association (RCA), the trade body that represents all but one of the country\u2019s 59 tracks, at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The Jockey Club\u2019s announcement comes two days after the RCA revealed the results of a review of its governance structure, which was launched in an attempt to prevent further resignations after Ascot announced its decision<\/a> to quit the organisation in May.<\/p>\n

Jim Mullen, the Jockey Club\u2019s chief executive, said that the review\u2019s proposal to replace a one-track, one-vote voting structure with four groups of racecourses holding a vote apiece \u201cfails to address our fundamental concern that the RCA can continue to act to stifle the necessary changes needed in the industry\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mullen continued: \u201cNothing proposed would displace the RCA as the political representative of British racecourses and in our view, confirmed by recent discussions, the RCA would continue to vote against necessary changes such as the introduction of an independent [British Horseracing Authority] board and substantive changes to the fixture list.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our intention to work with Ascot Racecourse and other like-minded industry partners to pursue a vision based on the long-term sustainability of the sport and we are in the early stages of establishing a new organisation to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The effective counterparty to the breakaway group of major racecourses is Arena Racing Company (ARC), which operates 16 courses with a business model largely based on quantity rather than quality to service the off-course betting market.<\/p>\n

The growing fissure in the RCA will effectively split the organisation in two if some or all of York, Goodwood, Newbury and Chester, the remaining \u201clarge independent\u201d tracks inside the organisation, decide to join the exodus.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideGreg Wood’s Tuesday tipsShow<\/p>\n

Catterick:\u00a02.15 Waakabb 2.45 Iconic Times 3.15 Slack Alice 3.45 Miss Rainbow 4.15 Muhib 4.45 Havin A Flyer.<\/p>\n

Ffos Las:\u00a02.30 Safari Dream 3.00 Artemis Star 3.30 Cypriot Diaspora 4.00 Rosemary\u2019s Rose (nap) 4.30 Arbaawy 5.00 Mythological Star 5.30 Ada Rose.<\/p>\n

Lingfield:\u00a05.18 Sub Thirteen 5.48 Langdale Lass 6.18 Minnal 6.48 Style King 7.18 Tabasko (nb) 7.48 Koko Blue 8.18 D Day Major Winter.<\/p>\n

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The Jockey Club\u2019s move is also triggers a constitutional crisis for the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and its recently appointed chair, Simon Cox.<\/p>\n

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The RCA nominates two BHA board members, dependent on the organisation being \u201cthe person most representative in Great Britain of the interests of owners of racecourses\u201d. Without Ascot, Cheltenham, Aintree, Newmarket, Epsom and Sandown \u2013 and, quite possibly, other major tracks too \u2013 the RCA cannot realistically claim that status.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the BHA said in a statement on Monday that the sport\u2019s ruling body \u201cwill continue to liaise with the racecourses and other constituent bodies regarding the sport\u2019s governance structure, and consider all proposals made.\u201d The statement added: \u201cThis engagement will include the incoming BHA Chair, who formally takes up the role from 1 October. Our priority will always be to ensure that British racing is in the best position to support ongoing efforts to strengthen and grow our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jockey Club, which owns 15 British racecourses including Cheltenham, Aintree, Epsom and Newmarket, said on Monday it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-573459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}