Alliance highlights contribution of horse racing industry to the UK

The recent week of 7-15 September marked National Racehorse Week, in which training yards, studs and aftercare centres around the country opened to the public as a celebration of racehorses and to demonstrate the care they receive.

In a briefing note sent to MPs ahead of a debate on the government support for the horse racing industry in the UK, the Countryside Alliance outlined the annual economic impact of the sport and its overall contributions to rural communities and the UK as a whole. 

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In recent years, racing has come under assault from forceful protests by animal rights extremists. The Countryside Alliance is concerned about the impact of increasingly militant protests by animal rights extremists on the sector, as on others. The illegal disruption of lawful activity must not be tolerated.

In the briefing note, the Alliance outlines that pending reforms to gambling legislation, including the introduction of affordability checks, must be implemented in a way that avoids having a disproportionate impact to negligible benefit.

Racing has in recent years come under assault from forceful protests by animal rights extremists led by Animal Rising, formerly known as Animal Rebellion, emboldened by similar actions from the environmentally focused groups Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil. These have included invading racecourses in illegal attempts to prevent races taking place.

Last year, both of racing’s premier events, the Grand National and The Derby, were affected by such protests. Neither was successful in preventing the events from taking place although the start of the Grand National was briefly delayed. The group subsequently announced that it would not continue such protests this year.

The Countryside Alliance supports the sport of racing on the basis of its economic and cultural contribution to rural communities and the UK as a whole.

We remain concerned about the impact of increasingly militant protests by animal rights extremists on the sector, as on others. Protesters are free to take whatever views they wish and to express them in the public realm according to democratic norms, but the illegal disruption of lawful activity must not be tolerated.

In reforming gambling legislation it is important for the Government to listen to the sector and avoids disproportionately impacting the sector to negligible benefit.