Sport of kings still behind the times
Under an impossibly blue sky over the ultramarine Bosphorous water that joins Asia and Europe, Istanbul's Asian Racing Conference was trying to bridge the sport's many worlds this past week.
Much was discussed positively and just as much negatively, while attempts were made to put a shine on the odd piece of fecal matter, but only when security at the hall was breached after a regular morning siege. The door police had strict instructions to refuse entry before 9.30am and carried them out with grim efficiency, so delegates crammed into the foyer space, juggled coffees and swapped stories of the previous night's revelries until the doors flew open like sluice gates.
Day one involved self congratulation - justified and otherwise - and some of the smart messages might have been lost. It was clear new media need to be embraced by racing. It was not as clear how, and every ARC has a clearer message that racing struggles with multiple layers of bureaucracy, often including government, and a consequent paralysis of action, even policy, in promoting itself.
Figures were presented with alarm. Racing's share of world e-wagering is only 5 per cent, against sports with 40 per cent. Yet, playing devil's - perhaps angel's - advocate, it was easy to put a more positive spin on this: since 2007, online sports betting was up by US$3.71 billion or 46 per cent in a pie that doubled in size. Online bets on racing had more than doubled. Was the sky really falling in? Some other aspects of horse welfare were underplayed while the debate over the use of whips punched above its weight, strewn as it was with misinformation, misconception and aesthetic preference in place of argument. It remains, in some places, a dangerous red herring when there are bigger fish to fry.
In Malaysia and India, and surely the host country, Turkey, illegal betting operators are a major obstacle to whatever the future might hold. A figure of 100 per cent of legal turnover was bandied about as the illegal market for Hong Kong, but that paled against Malaysia's illegal market of 10 times its legal market.
More was to come. Despite its huge population, India turns over only US$20-30 million a year legally but that became only the second most surprising revelation when the Indian delegate stated that illegal betting accounts for US$20-30 billion, or 1,000 times the legitimate figure. A lack of government willingness to assist seemed to underpin the problem, and so too Singapore, where turnover has plummeted 20 per cent since casinos arrived.