Steward Enquiries To Be Televised

The latest trial in the world of horseracing is the televisation of Stewards Enquiries. This is has been put forward at the suggestion of Racing for Change, a project led by Racing Enterprises Limited (REL) which aims to review the way racing is promoted in order to make it more focused and relevant to the customer.

This is just the beginning of the initiative, which is bringing together all the major stakeholders of the industry, with the goal of pursuing a wide-reaching and ambitious change for the future benefit of British horse racing. Horse racing has for quite a while been facing challenging times, with declining betting revenues, reduced racehorse coverage, less television coverage and decreasing numbers of racehorse owners. Racing for Change and the introduction of initiatives such as the televisation of Stewards Enquiries are seen as being means of both modernising racing and increasing its relevance to potential punters and sports fans.

While there wasn’t the time to set up the enquiries to be televised for Royal Ascot, they were during the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth day, which was followed up by Glorious Goodwood meeting the following week. These broadcasts follow on from those undertaken at the Investec Derby so that feedback from participants and the public can be assessed. Jockeys are supporting the trial, which is particularly important considering a lot of the time it is jockeys who are the predominant speakers at Stewards Enquiries.

A Stewards Enquiry is basically where the stewards (amateurs unpaid officials who attend the racecourse on behalf of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) to ensure that the Rules of Racing are adhered to) call into question some aspect of the race. The stewards have the power to disqualify horses and alter the outcome of a race should they believe the rules of racing have been infringed – You will know if an enquiry is to be held regarding a race if you hear a klaxon is sounded after the race and the settling of bets is postponed until the enquiry is complete. Horseracing fans have been calling the move to televise the enquiries a greatly welcome and revolutionary move. After all the people who actually bet on racing and keep the sport alive by funding a large part of it are surely entitled to witness the reasoning behind the decisions which affect results.

Jamie Stier, the head of race-day operations and regulation at the BHA thought that through the trial those watching at home would