The Jockey Club
Group Chief Executive's Review
UNLOCKING RACING'S POTENTIAL
Simon Bazalgette
Last year I stated that over the previous 12 months, horses raced in Britain for record amounts of prize money and were watched by increasing numbers of people on television and mobile devices, while racing fixtures attracted the second-largest crowds of any sport, generating billions of pounds for the UK economy along with employment for many tens of thousands people. I am pleased to report that all this can be said for 2018, accompanied by a 10th year of commercial growth at The Jockey Club, which allowed us to put more than ever into the funding of British Racing, in line with our Royal Charter governance. This Review outlines a lot of good news, delivered by our hardworking people across Jockey Club Racecourses, Jockey Club Estates, The National Stud, Racing Welfare and Jockey Club Services, and in group-wide roles. At the same time, I am clear on an outlook that includes multi-million pound financial challenges for the sport, which we have much work to do to overcome. COMMERCIAL SUCCESS SUPPORTING RACING SUSTAINABILITY Everything we do at The Jockey Club is driven by our mission to act for the long-term health of British Racing. In 2018 we generated a record £214.6 million in turnover, an increase of 6.7% year-on-year, which outpaced the 5.2% growth of the previous year and 1.4% UK GDP growth. In all this was our 10th consecutive year of commercial growth. We have been able to increase Group turnover by 68.2% in those 10 years from £127.6 million in 2009. Last year our underlying profits – which we describe as Group operating profit before prize money – grew by 7.4% to a record £48.1 million. We contributed a record £27.1 million to prize money in 2018, which was more than double the contribution we could afford 10 years ago [2009: £12.5 million]. We were keen to increase grassroots race values, which I am pleased to report rose by more than a third in 2018, while also boosting all other levels of the race programme. As a result, average prize money per fixture at Jockey Club Racecourses
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