Racing: Gredley retreats from strike call

RACING'S planned insurrection turned out to be of the Citizen Smith kind yesterday when Bill Gredley withdrew his call for a strike on 2 November. Britain's racehorse owners are not revolting.

Or not yet, anyway. In a sombre address that made you want to don a frock coat and gather round the wireless with a cup of Ovaltine, Gredley announced portentously: 'The much-needed leadership displayed by the Jockey Club combined with the constructive nature of their remarks about a strike have prompted me to reconsider the need for a day of action on 2 November.'

Gredley was referring to Lord Hartington's promise to speed up the formation of the new British Horseracing Board in deference to widespread agitation for change. However, User Friendly's owner warned that if the Jockey Club Senior Steward's 'initiative leads nowhere or the Government fails to respond positively, the threat should be carried out'.

Gredley claimed that 'the support of owners in recent days has proved that it (the strike call) is not an idle threat and that collectively they have sharp teeth.' He continued in similar vein: 'The formal rejection of the strike by Portman Square (Jockey Club headquarters) was to be expected. Although I do not agree with all their reasons for justifying such a decision, I would be the first to acknowledge the sympathetic tone in which their remarks were couched.'

One alternative interpretation is that Gredley had no idea his campaign would cause such a furore. The Racehorse Owners' Association is just one organisation fiercely opposed to his scheme. John Biggs, their director general, said yesterday: 'I don't think a strike would have attracted much support and, more importantly, it wouldn't have made much difference. They didn't seem to have a very clear target in mind. I wouldn't go along with the belief that this strike call has got things moving.'

Racing, just now, is like a malaria patient. It lurches between fevered conflict with its many demons and the cold-water aftermath of being forced to view its problems in the wider context of the economy and the Government's political difficulties.

Although discouraging signals from the Treasury about VAT rates threatened to set the thermometer throbbing again yesterday, the sport was in one of its more subdued phases, with Gredley's climbdown combining with better news about the Maktoum family's plans for next year.

As was apparent within days of Sheikh Mana Al Maktoum threatening a partial withdrawal from Britain (in remarks he made at Newmarket on 1 October), the warning from racing's most lavish owners is much less ominous than it at first appeared.

Discussions with the Maktoums' racing advisors confirm that numbers of horses in training in this country will not decline appreciably next season. Anthony Stroud, Sheikh Mohammed's racing manager, is in Dubai discussing allocation plans. John Leat, the Sheikh's closest assistant, says he believes 'artistic licence' coloured the accounts of Sheikh Mana's pronouncements.

'If they (the Maktoums) were trying to make a point it obviously got through,' Leat said, and therein may reside the key to the autumn scare that sent Newmarket into such a panic. In the long term, the brothers will clearly monitor the levels of prize-money, VAT and training fees here as they compare to those in France, Germany and the USA, among others, but in the forseeable future there will be no wholesale retreat.

That said, the family is maintaining its diplomatic pressure in an attempt to ensure that it, and its pounds 1bn investment over 15 years, is never again taken for granted. More than once last week, the story was told (by Maktoum aides) of a racecourse official challenging Sheikh Mohammed as he tried to enter an owners' stand.

Breeders' demands for special treatment in the application of VAT on bloodstock (17.5 per cent here, 2.3 per cent in Ireland and 5.5 per cent in France) look to have finally been discounted by the Treasury. James Paice, chairman of the all-party Commons committee on bloodstock (can you believe there is one?) said: 'The result will be that bloodstock breeders in this country will send their horses abroad to be sold and studs will follow.

'We are seeing an industry in which Britain has always been pre- eminent going into permanent decline.'