Racing: Cards threatened by payments row

The British Horseracing Board and representatives of national newspapers will meet next month in an attempt to resolve a dispute that threatens the future of racing coverage in the media.

The confrontation with the BHB has come about through a demand by racing's ruling body for an annual circulation-based payment for the right to carry racecards in newspapers. The proposed scale of charges would cost each national newspaper up to £340,000 a year.

Until now, newspapers have paid a nominal amount for the use of racecards, on the basis that, while the media benefited from being able to supply such information to their readers, the sport benefited more through being able to advertise its product to a wide audience. As the number of cards has increased year on year, with up to six meetings on some weekdays in summer, the cards often take up a high proportion of newspapers' sports sections compared with the level of interest in the meetings concerned.

Newspapers insist that they will not pay the new charges and an attempt last week by Peter Savill, the chairman of the BHB, to defer the issue of payment until the end of 2003 was rejected by the Newspaper Publishers' Association.

In common with other newspapers, The Independent has dropped the names of race-sponsors from its cards in protest. The only exceptions will be major races which cannot be identified easily in any other way, such as this Saturday's Hennessy Gold Cup.

The BHB's plans have met with widespread criticism within the sport. The Horserace Sponsors' Association described the demands as "extortionate" and called for the resignation of Nigel Smith, the BHB's commercial managing director.