Roy hopes to ride out British horse racing storm

London Paul Roy does not thump the desk in a gesture of growing frustration. His hair-dryer treatment — unlike Sir Alex of Old Trafford — is strictly reserved for the bathroom, and the toys have remained in the pram.

All of which is ammunition to critics of the chairman of the British Horseracing Authority as the sport lurches through a crisis with a capital C. Plunging levy payments — the money the sport receives from the racing profits made by bookmakers — have prevented publication of a fixture list for 2011. When it is finally unveiled on September 23, it will be two months late.

Future ambitions are in danger of becoming stuck in a financial quagmire and levels of prize money are so low at some tracks that owners don't even cover expenses if their horses finish in the first three.

There has also been a mixed reaction to the modernising project Racing For Change — Racing For Loose Change some call it — which is accused of merely tinkering rather than delivering radical reform.

Roy, some feel, should be making more noise. But Roy, an investment banker and successful racehorse owner with a stake in this season's top miler, Canford Cliffs, has a different style. But he can still land a stinging punch.

"I don't care who is sitting in this chair, they would have got the same amount of flak from the same people on some of the same issues," he said. "I am not worried that there are backwoodsmen out there who come up with some reactive things."

Stinging punches

"What annoys me slightly is the same voices keep getting wheeled out with the same negative comments. It's always John McCririck. And I love Peter O'Sullevan and have more respect for him than anyone, but him talking about Racing For Change? We are trying to look forward to the next 80 years."

Roy, however, is forthright in who should share the biggest blame for racing's predicament and it is not just the old enemy, bookmakers.

"Labour failed racing. The previous government paid lip service to the sport. We asked them to close loopholes — bookmakers going offshore to avoid Levy obligations, making betting exchanges make fair contributions and scrapping thresholds which let 60 per cent of shops, most owned by the major groups, pay less than the 10 per cent gross rate.

"We asked for help with legislation. Frankly, it was a case of masterly inaction."

It is an uncomfortable truth for Roy and his chief executive Nic Coward.

For all their efforts — they have put together the most comprehensively researched and presented case for an annual levy yield of at least £130 million (Dh737.6 million) rather than nearer £70 million that bookies are offering — progress ultimately depends on favourable intervention from the new coalition government.