MISCELLANEOUS
SOCIF FINANCE
SOCIF is currently financed by Wentrow Media Ltd, a company engaged in the business of selling shares in racehorse syndicates and selling memberships in a racing club. The hope is that an industry body (for example HBLB) will take over the finance and responsibility for the running of SOCIF.
SOCIF MEETINGS
Meetings are held at EquiPrep, Devizes, Wiltshire. (Premises owned by Wentrow Media Ltd).
No obligation is placed on any industry body to regularly attend; however, all are welcome.
LEGAL REPRESENTATION
SOCIF legal representation: Stone King LLP
CHAIR INTRODUCTION - SOCIF MEETING 9/11/22
Chair: Jeremy Blackburn (Wessex Racing Club)
"Firstly, it is great to see such a broad gathering from racing syndicates and clubs, membership and training representatives and the BHA. Thank you for all your time today and yes there is such a thing as a free lunch on this occasion. The meeting is scheduled to last for a couple of hours and we will have lunch at 1pm.
I am confident that the participants here today are highly likely to have the same underlying goals. One of these goals will be to maintain and develop consumer confidence in the future of racing clubs and syndicates.
Approximately 100,000 racing consumers currently participate in clubs and syndicates, and many trainers rely on shared ownership and clubs to support their business. With the increasing popularity of clubs and syndicates the importance of getting syndication and racing clubs right for the future success of our industry is vital. Consumer confidence driven by transparency, trust and regular communications and supported by a robust process for regulating the sector is paramount to the success of the business of syndication and racing clubs.
Let's be clear there are many well run syndicates and racing clubs outside of this gathering and our aim should be to support and protect well run racing syndicate and club businesses now and in the future. However we feel that with the current systems in place, consumers remain vulnerable to misleading or false ownership promises presented to them by rogue traders.
This of course will have a severely detrimental impact on all the businesses around this table and beyond, as confidence in the product will be undermined.
Ultimately, we believe there should be a level playing field, thereby instilling consumer confidence, which in turn will create a solid foundation for a strategy for sector growth."
TRADING STANDARDS (OFFICER) COMMENTS
- It appeared delegates to the meeting were in agreement that the issue of consumer protection within the racehorse syndicate and racing club sector is of importance and requires attention.
- It also appeared delegates agreed that while the activities of commercial syndicates and horseracing clubs who provide their product to consumers come under consumer protection legislation the British Horse Racing Authority should be best placed to regulate syndicates and racing clubs.
- My understanding is that for a syndicate or racing club to operate in Great Britain it must register with the BHA, I therefore agree that the wider regulation of syndicates and racing clubs correctly sits with the BHA. Should a syndicator or racing club manager engage in criminal conduct this would be a matter for law enforcement, whether that be the police, trading standards or another law enforcement agency would depend on the specific type of offending.
- In the event of a criminal breach of consumer protection legislation being reported to trading standards I'd anticipate any investigation would seek to engage the support of the BHA. While an investigation could be conducted by the trading standards service of the local authority in which any victim, or reporting party are based it's more likely to be undertaken by the trading standards authority in which the alleged offender is located or potentially by a regional enforcement team. • I believe at one point in the meeting there may have been a suggestion that only syndicates or racing clubs that charge a fee for membership would be considered commercial. While most commercial syndicates and racing clubs may well operate in this way consumer protection legislation gives potentially wider, or certainly different, definitions. Under the CPRs [Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008] a trader is defined as “…a person acting for purposes relating to that person's business, whether acting personally or through another person acting in the trade's name or on the trader's behalf and [except in relation to consumer's rights to redress] includes a person acting in the name of or on behalf of a trader.” While a commercial practice is defined as “…any act, omission, course of conduct, representation or commercial communication (including advertising and marketing) by a trader, which is directly connected with the promotion, sale or supply of a product to or from consumers, whether occurring before, during or after a commercial transaction (if any) in relation to a product.” While it seems very unlikely that a commercial syndicate or racing club wouldn't charge a membership fee there may be a situation where someone operating a non-fee charging syndicate or club could still be considered a trader for the purposes of the CPRs.
BHA CODES OF CONDUCT
One object of SOCIF is to help the BHA update its Codes of Conduct for syndicates and racing clubs. They require the input of expert legal specialists, which the BHA apparently do not have the resources to engage. SOCIF has sufficient expertise to constructively help bring them up to date and meaningful.
HBLB
The Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) is a UK statutory body. It is required to collect a statutory levy from the horseracing business of bookmakers which it then distributes in accordance with its statutory objectives, mainly to the improvement of horseracing. The biggest allocations are to prize money and towards racecourses' costs associated with the provision of integrity and regulatory services, principally by BHA, deemed essential to ensure that the high standards demanded by the Rules of Racing are met for every fixture. The BHA is the body responsible for the governance, administration and regulation of horseracing in Britain.
HORSE WELFARE
It could follow that those entities who run syndicates and clubs fairly and honestly, are potentially more likely to have horse welfare as a top priority, whereas entities set up without such scruples could potentially be less likely to respect horse welfare.
If the above theory has foundation, then this becomes one more reason why the syndicate and clubs' industry need to be regulated by a competent authority. However, the BHA have stated that they are NOT a 'competent authority' pursuant to the Provision of Services Regulations 2009.
Syndicate and club businesses are fully entitled to trade - but not at the expense of the welfare of the racehorse.
BHA STATEMENT 31st January 2023
"British racing has never been subject to greater media and public scrutiny than it is today.
And if we are to protect and enhance fan engagement with our sport while at the same time boosting its commercial sustainability then one thing arguably matters above all others: integrity.
Sport is nothing without integrity and in the modern age, with all sports fighting ferociously for diminishing fan and corporate spending, it perhaps matters more to our sport than any other.
Any perception that we have not properly dealt with corruption or poor governance would rightly raise questions about our ability to govern ourselves."
Note: the above statement is an extract from a BHA feature on their approach to anti-doping in racing. SOCIF expects the subject of syndicate and club regulation to be included in the BHA references to integrity and governance.
SECTOR STATISTICS
The accurate registration of syndicates, partnerships, clubs, sole owners and companies, by a competent authority, is a racing industry essential. Arguably, this should at least have been in place at the point the BHA launched their Strategy for Growth in 2015. However, it would appear from a BHA statement on 4th October 2022 that seven years later and there's no reliable measurement in place to establish the success or otherwise of the shared ownership and clubs Strategy strand. Quite concerning, particularly as SOCIF believes that the Strategy may have been part-funded by public money (HBLB). There's obviously nothing that can be done about the lost opportunity, however, SOCIF is in a position to offer help to the BHA now, with expertise and resource.
A competently regulated sector will enable growth to be accurately monitored.
SOCIF believes that it is crucial that growth areas can be identified. This is another reason why it is so important that the BHA identify the difference between a racing club, a syndicate and a partnership at the point of registration.
BHA statement 4th October 2022:-
Absolute registration numbers aren't something we share as they are not a good gauge of the state of Ownership and require significant caveats. The figures below, however, are what we are happy to send across and show the number of unique registered Owners with a runner so far this year (as to the end of Aug 2022):-
| 2022 | |
| Club | 166 |
| Company | 349 |
| Sole Owner | 2739 |
| Partnership | 3201 |
| Syndicate | 1932 |
| Total | 8387 |
Note: based on the above figures, the BHA have collected over £2million in registration fees. SOCIF believes that this should have been more than an adequate sum to enable competent authorisation, registration and regulation of entities.