Judgment

I received a text yesterday morning from a name well-known in the racing industry which read: "Have you seen the news about the Findlay fine? It makes the BHA look like twats."

Harsh words, perhaps, but to the point.

I can picture much wailing and gnashing of teeth on High Holborn. But as I mentioned yesterday, they need only create a decent rule and they wouldn't get themselves into this sort of pickle. I see Greg Wood has written as much in typically robust and sensible terms in the Guardian today.

I lunched soon after (someone asked me in the afternoon if all I do is have lunch and dinner; not far off, I admit) with another racing face, whose view it is that there'll be a change of leadership by November, on the grounds that increasing numbers of people are scratching their heads in dismay at the insistence on a strategy and numbers never justified when they were announced in 2008 (before the world's economy fell apart), but adhered to since, nonetheless; and supported with dubious theories and crazy plans. There are previously unpublished posts relating to each which I have published today here and here.

Meanwhile, Down Under, it appears possible that Peter V'Landys time as Chief Executive of NSW is finally drawing to a close. If you compare the interviews he is giving newspapers and the adverts that his organisation is putting out about there being a logic to their strategy (in the Sydney Morning Herald today on page 36) with the no-confidence vote they are receiving from the trainers in their state - brilliantly, as ever, written up by Bill Saunders on Cyberhorse - you will draw your own conclusions about that particular racing leader's rationality.

Me? Well, no time for that. I'm off for another client pitch. :)

Harry

I've been asked my view a number of times about the Harry Findlay laying story which goes to appeal today.

I haven't changed my opinion on the rule he has fallen foul to since it first came in: I think it is a bad rule which doesn't address the issue it purports to deal with, when a small tweak to it could make it a good rule that does. That's what I told John McCririck when he interviewed me at Sandown the evening that it was introduced, back in 2003 (I think it was).

It seems to me perfectly sensible to ban owners from being in a position that they profit from their horses losing - I am not sure that anyone would argue with that - but in my opinion that needs to be done howsoever they will profit. That ought to mean not being able to back another horse in the race to beat your own. It's about time racing's authorities and rules recognised what DCMS long ago pointed out: that backing and laying are two sides of the same ccoin.

It should obviously also mean not laying your own, but crucially that rule should in my view be extended to "to a position of net profit if it loses". The idea that you cannot lay back a back bet, if in doing so you are reducing your net backing position or locking in a profit on a previous bet is stuck in the dark ages. If there's an audit trail to prove that you are a net backer of the beast, and you stand to make more money from it winning than you do from it losing, then I think you should be able to lay it as many times as you like.

Integrity issues

There seems to have been a lot of stuff this week on issues relating to integrity in sport.

I got a call on Friday from Newsnight ahead of the piece they put out about Nigeria's football team; I saw there was speculation around tennis with news that officials were assessing reports of irregular betting on a first-round match between Richard Bloomfield and Christophe Rochus at the Hall of Fame grass-court tournament in Newport, R.I.; and I was delighted to see the announcement of an education deal with the British Athletes' Commission brokered by my old colleague Susannah Gill.

I was surprised to see Patrick Collins of the Mail on Sunday, a journalist I normally very much enjoy reading for his in-depth knowledge, have a go at the last of those. "If there were no sports gambling industry," he wrote, "there would be no question of corruption, nor any need to ‘safeguard the integrity of sport’".

Of the many places I might direct you, Patrick, can I suggest you have a look at this?

Poker push

Interesting that within a week of each other, both Time magazine (sadly, subscription only) and the Economist have had big 'special report' pieces on the changing face of poker, and the quantum of gambling that is taking place online out of the United States, despite it supposedly still being illegal.

Someone out there in the PR world is doing a good job!

Sharpe, and not so sharp

The news today was full of the fact that it is 25 years since Live Aid, but every bulletin I heard neglected to mention that yesterday was twenty years since the American jockey Chip Termini was suspended for 30 days for dropping his towel as he emerged from the shower at Louisiana Downs in full view of a 'jockette'.

You think I'm kidding? It's 100% true: and I know it because it's the 'Strangest Event' listed in the Racing Almanac given to me this afternoon by its author, Graham Sharpe of William Hill. He was kind enough to invite me out following news of my heading for pastures new ten days ago, and we ended a very agreeable, anecdote-filled, lunch with him signing a copy he had brought along specially. I've been perusing it ever since, and very interesting it is too.

I went from lunch to chew the fat with an old friend in Westminster, who was full of interesting snippets himself. Much of the hour-and-a-half we spent together over a mid-afternoon bottle of wine was split between bemusement and amusement at the latest public offering from the BHA, published yesterday (apparently in a fit of pique) and entertainingly written up in today's Independent by James Moore, who clearly read the press release with an eyebrow raised in the manner of his namesake. The 'it's everyone else's fault!' approach also seemed to be the much-derided subject of most of the discussions I joined last night at Windsor, where many racing stakeholders were the guests of Arena Leisure at their annual world-beating barbecue. Making friends and influencing people, I think it would be fair to say, the BHA is currently not.

Previously-unpublished posts today, if you care, are put out here and here.

Bwin

Just seen the news about Bwin re-branding Italy's Serie-B as Serie-Bwin.

You've got to give the credit for ingenuity. It really raised a smile.

Onwards and upwards

It's Betfair's 10th anniversary party tonight at the HAC in the City - what I suspect will be a fabulous event given the hard work that I know has gone into it from the events team.

Many Betfairians have sent me notes asking if they will see me there, but disappointingly, the answer is no: sadly my ten years as an employee fell a week short of the official celebration, so I'm no longer invited. Lucky people who joined the company this week and can attend after five days' service!

I had a successful day yesterday meeting three potential clients, so I'm spending the day writing them a few thoughts about how they might take their ideas forward.

Fresh back-catalogue posts today here and here.