The boutique racecourse yesterday (6 October) submitted the Securing Racing’s Future report to HM Treasury, highlighting work by the Social Markets Foundation (SMF) that called for changes to the levy alongside other increases in gambling taxes.
As well as adjusting the levy, the SMF’s Duty to Differentiate paper also called for Remote Gaming Duty to be hiked to 50% as part of its overall theme of “polluter pays” tax hikes on verticals with increased propensity for harm.
Dr James Noyes, SMF senior fellow, said in the report: “British racing is facing an existential threat. The government’s current tax consultation risks accelerating the demise of a vital part of the British economy, society and culture.
“The Social Market Foundation’s proposal to increase much needed Levy funds should provide the sport, and the jobs and communities which depend on racing, with a lifeline and hope for a sustainable future”.
Plumpton also highlighted the open letter signed by 101 MPs last month, as well a recent Gordon Brown op-ed, which called for widescale tax hikes in the gambling industry to fund an end to the two-child benefit cap.
It comes amid a growing rift between the betting industry and horse racing, which has seen many prominent figures in the sport side with gambling harms campaigners in a bid to get carve-outs to potential tax changes.
Tom Savill, Plumpton Racecourse director, said: “I’ve spoken to many horsemen up and down the country, and the picture is stark. One trainer told me that at the end of every month, he and his wife are left wondering whether they can even afford to pay themselves. That is the reality of training in Britain today.”
Starting shots of racing civil war?
Savill has been seen as one of the racing figures who has moved closest to gambling harms campaigners, opting to take a selfie with prominent advocate for change Matt Zarb-Cousin at the BHA’s racing strike in September.
The Plumpton report argued reallocating the levy would help raise money for the sport “without adding to operators’ fiscal burden on horse racing products”.
Recently on the Nick Luck Daily Podcast, racing journalist Lydia Hislop reported that Jockey Club chief executive Jim Mullen had slammed those trying to divide the sport from its bookmaker partners at an event where he appeared alongside Flutter UK&I CEO Kevin Harrington.
She said: “I assume he was referring to the likes of James Noyes, the likes of Matt Zarb-Cousin, the Social Market Foundation. But also the uncomfortable element of that, of course, is that a large amount of Horse Racing Inc’s strategy has been to take a different view about the forthcoming taxation to the bookmaking industry.”
Racing industry sources told NEXT.io the Plumpton report can be seen as figures who support racing’s cosier relationship with harms campaigners pushing back against this.
They added that Plumpton receives its media rights through major racecourse operator Arena Racing Company, whose CEO Martin Cruddace has been among most prominent major industry figure to align himself with the harms campaigners.
One source said: “It looks as if the Jockey Club is drifting away from Arena Racing. I can see ARC peeling off from the majority of the rest of the sport and going it alone within the next two years. Whether or not there are enough racehorse owners prepared to subsidise ARC’s low prize money business model is quite another thing.
“Two tier British racing is where this could end up with media rights being directly linked to the quality of the racing product.”
The horse racing industry has taken a difference stance to the betting sector during the recent tax fight, which saw the Treasury announce a consultation to unify betting taxes, amid increasingly credible rumours Number 11 was actually intending a major gaming tax hike.
Dingnews.com 08/10/2025