Racing: Punters hit as bookies escalate strike action

Bookmakers refusing to take money sounds like good news, but the escalating strike action by on-course layers could have serious implications for punters. After refusing to take bets on one race at Lingfield on Saturday, yesterday the bookmakers stepped up their action by downing tools for the opening events at each of the day's three cards. No starting prices, the odds at which off-course bets are settled, were returned on two of the races.

It is usually punters who are associated with self-destructive tendencies, but by continuing a dispute that they are long odds-on to lose the racecourse bookies seem determined to hasten their own demise.

The argument centres on payment to the Levy Board of a charge of 10 per cent of gross profits, the same rate paid by high-street shops, for data from the British Horseracing Board – basically, the daily lists of runners. The charge, which comes into effect from 1 April, had been agreed by the Bookmakers' Committee with the Levy Board, who must balance the demands of the BHB on racing's behalf, with what is deemed an equitable figure for the bookmakers to contribute.

The Bookmakers' Committee, although dominated by the high-street chains, includes representatives of on-course firms, and it is between those parties that the dispute should have been resolved. Once the agreement has been accepted by the Levy Board, or determined by the Home Secretary if agreement cannot be reached, it is binding. At present on-course bookmakers pay an annual fee of £132, plus £15 for each day they trade on the track.

The Levy Board chairman, Rob Hughes, explained yesterday: "It was the off-course bookmakers who wanted a gross-profits based levy. We used to have a turnover-based levy and the on-course bookmakers used to pay a flat rate.

"This is a matter for the bookmakers to sort out between themselves. There needs to be discussion about how the bookmaking fraternity are going to operate because this is a very serious issue for the whole future of on-course bookmaking."

Certainly, the off-course bookmakers were making the most of the dispute yesterday, returning their self-made "industry prices" on strike-affected races at Exeter and Wolverhampton – a method they would like as a permanent replacement to the current starting-price system. At Kempton, three bookmakers who were, unsurprisingly, the representatives of the largest high-street firms, Coral, Ladbrokes and William Hill, broke ranks and laid bets. To satisfy the rules of the Starting-Price Executive, an independent body made up of representatives of the Press Association and MGN Trinity Mirror, publishers of the Racing Post, a minimum of three bookmakers must be prepared to price up all horses in a race and lay such prices to "good money".

At Wolverhampton's Tote windows the long queues of punters were rewarded with a near 23-1 pay-out on the winner, Forty Forte, compared with an industry price of 12-1. That was based on information, collated from business in the shops of the major bookmakers, and determined by an arbiter at Satellite Information Services.

* Jonjo O'Neill is to face a Jockey Club hearing over the running of Top Of The Left at Exeter yesterday. JP McManus's gelding finished unplaced in a novices' hurdle and O'Neill was referred to Portman Square under the rule concerning schooling in public as this was his third offence in two years.

* The Queen is to attend the Cheltenham Festival on 13 March for the first time since 1951 to present the Gold Cup.