“The British Horseracing Board made the following announcements following its monthly meeting in London on Tuesday.
Change in BHB Representation on the Levy Board
The Board approved the nomination of BHB Chairman Peter Savill as one of its three nominees on the Horserace Betting Levy Board, for a period of two years with effect from 17th November 1998.
The Board considered it appropriate that the BHB Chairman should be a member of the Levy Board in the run-up to and during the negotiation of the new levy arrangements, to take effect on 1st April 2000, following the expiry of the Five Year Levy Agreement. He will succeed BHB Chief Executive Tristram Ricketts, who is stepping down after more than five years but will serve as alternate to the BHB nominees, who include Angus Crichton-Miller and David Oldrey.
Appointment of Auditors
BHB has appointed KPMG as its auditors in succession to PricewaterhouseCoopers (formerly Coopers & Lybrand), who resigned following the decision of the Directors not to recommend their reappointment. KPMG has gained substantial experience within the Racing and Breeding Industry, including a number of BHB assignments. The lead partner will be Ian Barlow, KPMG’s UK Head of Tax and Chairman of BHB’s Taxation Group.
Re-offered races – Shorter Declaration Time
In continuing recognition of the importance to the media of the early release of full racecards for the following day’s racing, the standard time available for declarations in a re-offered race is to be shortened from 45 to 30 minutes.
The change to the BHB Order approved at Tuesday’s meeting, which is not expected to lead to any reduction in the final number of declarations as most additional declarations are made within half an hour, takes effect for races run on and after 1st December 1998.
Last month, the Board agreed that the successful procedure for re-offering races which produce small fields at the overnight declaration stage should be extended at weekends. Races are re-offered if attracting three or fewer declared runners, but for races on Saturdays and Sundays this has been extended to four or fewer.
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