How Paul Bittar has kept British racing together

British racing is such a quirky minefield that some were surprised when in 2011 the authorities chose Paul Bittar, a man from Wagga Wagga with most of his racecourse experience in New Zealand and the state of Victoria, to run the British Horseracing Authority. Australian cricketers, it used to be said, had a standard uniform: green caps and a chip on the shoulder. When I mentioned in front of a racing club audience the other night that New Zealanders will bet on anything that moves, and if it doesn’t move they will kick it and bet on when it will start to move, Paul was sufficiently Australian to chide: ‘You’re not suggesting, are you, that Australians would be any less eager to have a bet?’ It set the tone for an evening of good humour and candid common sense. We have, thank God, a realist in the saddle.

Paul arrived as the BHA had managed to turn the introduction of new whip rules for jockeys into a public relations fiasco on the first Champions’ Day. Racecourses and owners were publicly at each others’ throats with owners, via the Horsemen’s Group, threatening racecourse boycotts. Racing was one long moan about poor prize money and low-grade fixtures.

Swiftly, he defused the whip controversy by reintroducing discretion for racecourse stewards. He has achieved warmer relations with the betting industry, on whom racing depends for its finances. He has cooled the factions and reasserted the BHA’s authority.

‘I knew there were quite a lot of good haters in the sport. I thought that I could bring a more commercial approach. I also felt that the BHA had lost its way a bit and there was a good opportunity for the governing body to reconnect with the sport.