Racing: Brand new world for jockeys: Company logos on silks and saddlecloths from tomorrow could soon add up to a 'multi-million pound opportunity'

OWNERS, trainers and jockeys could benefit by millions of pounds a year from a new scheme to allow sponsorship of horses and riders. The plan, unveiled yesterday by the British Horseracing Board, will allow corporate logos to be carried on silks and number-cloths from tomorrow.

The initiative is the result of an agreement made last year between the racing industry and Customs & Excise, which allowed owners to register for (and therefore save) VAT, if they in turn actively sought sponsorship income.

The provision of a framework for sponsorship was a primary aim of the BHB's recently-devised marketing strategy, and the arrival of kit advertising in racing is further evidence of the body's adoption of modern, professional thinking.

Companies hoping to achieve soccer-style prominence for their logos will be disappointed, however. This is, after all, still the sport of kings, and 'branding areas' on silks will be restricted to the collar and shoulders.

'You'll be allowed two branding sites so you can either have two collars, two shoulders, or a collar and a shoulder,' Lucy Weaver, of the BHB's marketing department, said yesterday. In addition, motifs will be permitted on blankets and attendants' clothes.

'There will be two routes for sponsorship,' Weaver said. 'Owners can offer branding on their colours, paddock sheets and attendants' clothes, and any income raised goes straight to the owners. Branding on number- cloths will be organised by the racecourses, with income going to owners, trainers, jockeys and stable staff.'

The first racecourse to take advantage of this opportunity will be, almost inevitably, Wolverhampton, where the management's pursuit of innovation has already produced the country's first floodlit track. Saddlecloths in one of tomorrow's events will advertise a local building society, while a race at Newmarket the following day has also found a cloth sponsor.

The BHB was reluctant to make any firm predictions yesterday of the income racing may receive from the sponsorship of runners, but the return is expected to be substantial.

'It's a multi-million pound opportunity,' Weaver said. 'It's principally for owners, but it is also an overall industry initiative which is generating new money. It's a positive step towards reversing the trend of underfunding.'

Certainly, while company motifs on riders' outfits may not please traditionalists, the sport's claims of poverty would carry little conviction if such an obvious source of finance went unexploited.

Though all horses may, in theory, now be seen as mobile billboards, the value of a particular runner to a sponsor will depend on its chances of success. The Grand National, for instance, draws 16 million viewers which, with a lengthy post-race interview guaranteed, must make the winning jockey's collar worth a small fortune.

There is also scope for a sponsor to support a major owner's entire string. Robert Sangster, who has 82 horses in training, is reported to be seeking around pounds 250,000 from a blue-chip company. 'Finding a commercial sponsor and reclaiming the VAT on training bills will reduce the cost of keeping a horse in training by as much as a third,' Sangster said yesterday.

One potential problem, however, is the possibility of a big-race winner's jockey advertising a direct competitor of the contest's promoter, while existing sponsors are reluctant to pay extra money to avert such a situation.

Alistair Haggis, a consultant whose clients include Whitbread, said: 'If Whitbread aren't prepared to pay the extra money then the course is entitled to look elsewhere, but there is no way that Whitbread could countenance another company's name on the number cloths.'

David Hood, of bookmakers William Hill, said: 'If a company sponsors a race it should be granted advertising rights as part of a complete package. To ask for further payment is ridiculous.

'With our total sponsorship at pounds 400,000, we would have to pay an extra pounds 40,000,' Hood said. 'There is only a certain amount available for sponsorship and it may be that the extra costs will have to absorbed into our present contribution thereby devaluing the races.'

Weaver, though, does not believe that it will be a common problem. 'We are recommending that owner-sponsor contracts are not less than six months, so there's no danger of a horse being sponsored just for the Derby,' she said. 'You can't legislate against it, but competing brands do quite well in other sports. A good example is Tetley-sponsored cricketers playing at the Foster's Oval.'

So what will be next in the BHB's brave and commercial new world? It is only a matter of time, perhaps, before a leading chain of opticians steps in to sponsor the stewards]

(Photograph omitted)