Jockey Club Reveals Financial Results

The Jockey Club, the largest commercial group in British horseracing, has announced a strong set of annual results, which allowed it to confer a significant return to the UK’s second most attended sport last year, including providing nearly half of all UK racecourses’ contribution to prize money in 2010.?

?The Jockey Club also revealed that it plans to increase its prize money contribution by £2.7m to a record £15.7m in 2011, prior to any abandoned fixtures.? ?

Last year The Jockey Club invested £13m into prize money, which equated to 60% of profits from its entire group, not just its 14 racecourses.? ?

Simon Bazalgette, group chief executive officer of The Jockey Club, said: ‘Our group performed well in 2010, in a year where the sport made progress on many levels, allowing us to increase our contribution back to British racing’.

‘Without the big freeze that brought the country to a halt, racecourse attendances were well up on the previous year and we saw other indicators of health, such as hospitality revenues, bouncing back’.??

In 2010, The Jockey Club increased its turnover by 8% to £138m with growth recorded across all business units.

This growth was powered by successful major racing festivals, music nights, conferences and events, and increased media rights revenues.? ?

The group delivered a total operating profit of £18.3m, but after depreciation of £6.2m and interest of £4.9m, mostly related to prior borrowings to fund a recent period of major reinvestment in facilities, net profits including share of associates remained flat year-on-year at £8.6m.

This allowed The Jockey Club to reduce its debt levels in line with a contracted schedule of repayments by £11.6m to £102.6m.  ?

?Nicholas Wrigley, senior steward of The Jockey Club, added: ‘British racing is the second biggest spectator sport in the UK, the second biggest contributor to GDP of any sport and the second biggest employer in sport’.

‘The Investec Derby welcomes more than 120,000 people a year as Britain’s most attended day of sport. The nearly 9 million viewers watching the John Smith’s Grand National makes it more popular than the FA Cup Final’.