Racing: Newspapers reject BHB proposal on racecards

Agreement between the British Horseracing Board and national newspapers over policy for the provision of racecards, and in particular an insistence on sponsors' names being carried in race titles, has still to be reached. A meeting of the Newspaper Publishers' Association, which included a representative of The Independent, yesterday "emphatically rejected" the BHB's proposal to roll forward the current racecard data licensing agreement for five years.

The dispute, which springs from an attempt by the BHB to charge newspapers inflated fees for use of racecards, has seen all the national titles dispense with sponsors' names from race titles and drop cards from certain meetings.

"The BHB proposal was fully considered but was emphatically rejected because the BHB were still seeking to introduce changes, particularly changes in editorial discretion," Steve Oram, director of the NPA, said.

"The NPA council's position was very clear. Anything other than the status quo is unacceptable. That includes any changes which would restrict an editor's discretion to decide what goes in the paper."