Jump Racing On The Up

The Racecourse Holdings Trust (RHT), a subsidiary of The Jockey Club, has published a commercial review of jump racing ahead of the new season.

The report’s aim is to disprove the commonly-held view that jump racing is the poor cousin of its flat counterpart by highlighting the growth in this area of horse racing.

In assessing the 2005/06 season, the report underlines the rise in income from jump racing across all revenue streams from attendances and sponsorship to TV coverage and betting.

The document, which references audited figures from a Deloitte report into racing’s commercial prosperity, shows that while average crowds at flat racing meetings have declined slightly from 5,035 to 4,608 between 2001 and 2005, jump racing has risen from 3,857 to 4,420 for the same period.

In betting terms jump racing is also outstripping its flat counterpart. According to the report, 12 out of the top 20 UK race meetings by betting expenditure in 2005 were jump racing events with eight in the top ten. Throughout the year, jump racing accounts for almost 40% of the UK bookmaking industry’s total over-the-counter turnover of £4bn.

Betting firms and alcoholic beverage brands continue to dominate jump racing sponsorship with £2.6m and £1.1m invested respectively from those sectors during the course of 2005/06.

The report lays much of the reasoning behind the increase in commercial revenue from jump racing behind its willingness to innovate in particular through initiatives such as the introduction of the Order of Merit league.

The report has been backed by all of the major horse racing bodies including the British Horseracing Board and the Racecourse Association.

The full report is available for download from www.jump-racing.com.