Sums For Racing's Rescue Package Don't Add Up

Flight, or the lack of it, is a favourite metaphor of Lord Bernard Donoughue, and it was one that he worked to exhaustion during his speech to the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association last week. In his opinion, an idea is either "one that will fly", or one that won't. Peter Savill's plan to replace the Levy by charging bookmakers for the use of pre-race data was a good one, according to Donoughue, "but legally, it didn't fly."

Instead, he believes that the bookies can be asked to pay for "pictures [of live racing] and associated data" after the Levy, worth nearly £100m a year, is abolished in 2009. This, he said, is "the one possibility that could fly."

It was a message that went down fairly well with the 150 or so members of the TBA but while they were happy to ride the thermals with Bernard, the image that refused to leave this listener's mind was of the annual competition to find the Birdman of Bognor.

The fundamental problem with "pictures plus data" is that the numbers do not add up. The value of live coverage of racing beamed into betting shops has already been established at £4,000 per race, or about £30m a year, in a deal between the bookies and the racecourses. The value of pre-race data, as the British Horseracing Board now realises to its considerable cost, is nil. So how on earth can 30 million plus zero ever equal 130 million?