Gordon's Global Lesson

In February this year, Gordon Brown spoke in the Exam Schools at Oxford. I went with a fellow British PPEist and an American friend. Sat at the back we agreed to play a kind of ‘speech bingo’ to decide who would buy the drinks on the way back. We each picked a word. The one Brown said the most would win. I went for “global”, Mr UK went for “economy” and our yank couldn’t decide as he didn’t know Gordon that well. So we gave him the trump card – if the words: “sorry,” or “Tony Blair,” were mentioned he would automatically win.

Ten minutes in it was game over and us Brits were a beer each down. “Tony” had made his way into the lecture. But were this to have been decided by a pure First-Past-The-Post system, used at General Elections and the Grand National, the word “global” would have secured a safe seat. “Global problems require global solutions and global frameworks and global institutions...” The gist was that countries should no longer compete against each other or act unilaterally but instead work together in a worldly forum in which everyone would benefit eventually. Which brings me to the inaugural British Champions Series all set to begin on Saturday with the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

The Champions Series is what it says it is – ‘British’. Yet the horses in it can come from all over the world, even just for the final day of this 35 race extravaganza. Many will indeed do so and the record £3million prize-money could well be £3million out of the British economy, divided up between Japanese stable staff and Australian owners. The total series’ offering is £13million, which is more likely to be for John Magnier, Ryan Moore, Sir Michael Stoute and co than Bob Baffert. Why is this, you may ask? Well, whilst it is true that Britain stages a large proportion of top-class international races, most trainers are chasing the big money around the globe wherever it may be. To demonstrate the point, Ouija Board, Ed Dunlop’s fantastic mare, raced exactly half of her 22 races outside of Britain. The three most valuable races she ran in, defeated, were twice in Tokyo, once in Dubai. The winners were trained by two Japanese and one British-based (an Italian, Cumani). The riders were Lemaire (a Frenchman), Dettori (British-based Italian) and Take (Japanese). Further, Lemaire and Dettori both currently ride for owners, the Aga Khan and Godolphin respectively, who demand they ride their top horses all over the world wherever they may be. The reality is that the BHA’s scheme for the elite is actually the Premier League when the managers are now focussing on the Champions League except when they have a ‘big-four’ clash at home to tend to.

This is not the BHA’s fault. Their mission is to drive up British racing amongst the home population and providing a clearer narrative seems to be a good start. There have also been initiatives such as the Global Sprint Challenge, which catches the imagination of the public for two days in June and one in July and then disappears from the British consciousness. The King Stand and Golden Jubilee Stakes at Ascot have proven that a bit of global communication reaps benefits in terms of a clearly larger international feel to races providing for a better spectacle for fans as a result. People tune in to watch Balding and Cattermole telling the tale of Takeover Target. Carl O’Callaghan’s ‘Irishman abroad’ enthusiasm makes the feature pages of newspapers outside the racing section. It goes largely unnoticed as its primary audience is trainers but the Global Sprint Challenge is a rip-roaring success. It is also flexible and its promoters, representatives from six countries including Ascot and Newmarket officials, met in Hong Kong before Christmas to discuss how to improve it. Whilst not in the slightest marketing itself to the British public, the Global Sprint Challenge has done more to ignite interest in flat racing over its five-year existence than any other scheme. People know that the sprinters they are watching at Royal Ascot and in the July Cup are genuinely the best in the world. Can they say the same about the Lockinge or the King George?

Let’s ask a question I presume not many have done when looking for guidance: What would Gordon do? I’d take a guess that he would not recommend some sort of worldwide racing authority that can impose rules on others like Fifa does to UEFA in football or the EU does to the UK. He would only need to look across the channel to see that the French like their steward’s inquiries more than we do and that harmonising every law in the book would cause unnecessary carnage. I think he’d go for the G8 or G20 option. Like the Global Sprint Challenge, a forum of representatives from different nations discussing how to integrate and adjust their racing schedules, could form a truly elite series where the best take on the best. Not just for sprinters but for all categories of flat horse. After some years bedding in they will see the fruits of their co-operation in increased public interest and a narrative understandable to all. For once the Champions Stakes winner would be a real champion. Once the product is there and working, the best marketing brains from Japan, America and Britain, together, could develop and sell a global brand to audiences, TV companies and sponsors alike.

There was a time once when Brough Scott introduced Channel 4 audiences to prime-time Breeders’ Cup action from Gulfstream Park, Florida. I know because he’s on this youtube video for half a second at the end (after the best TV theme tune ever). Never in my living memory has a British broadcaster come close to doing this again. However much unrest there is in Bahrain, on the other hand, the BBC would fly Jake Humphrey out there at a flash if there was even the slightest glimpse of Formula One. It’s an attractive spectacle simply because the contenders at the very top of their sport. It’s a global event with a global brand and a global framework to organise it. 

So the British Champions Series starts this Saturday and good luck to it. It’s a change for the better. But it will never really live up to its name.