Jockeys Hollie Doyle, Tom Marquand and Oisin Murphy took half in a protest by the British horse racing business in opposition to the federal government’s proposed tax rise on betting on the game.
Main jockeys, trainers and homeowners descended on Westminster to foyer MPs and present their opposition to potential adjustments, which the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) says would value thousands and thousands in income and result in hundreds of job losses.
The protest befell amid a one-day strike throughout British horse racing, with 4 conferences at Lingfield Park, Carlisle, Uttoxeter and Kempton Park being rescheduled by the BHA.
It’s the first time the game has voluntarily refused to race in its fashionable historical past.
Jockeys Paul O’Brien, Saffie Osborne, Kieran Shoemark, Lilly Pinchin and former rider Richard Johnson have been additionally at Westminster.
They have been all carrying ‘Axe The Racing Tax’ silks offered by the BHA, whereas there was additionally a statue of a horse with the identical slogan.
The Treasury is proposing to introduce a single distant playing tax, which might improve the 15% tax charge paid by bookmakers on racing and align it with on-line playing, which is at the moment taxed at 21%.
The BHA says this may have a “harmful influence” on the business, with its financial evaluation predicting an estimated £330m loss in income and placing 2,752 jobs in danger within the first yr alone.
“Racing has all the time been handled in a different way and, subsequently, ought to proceed to be handled in a different way due to the broader financial influence that British racing has,” Louise Norman, chief govt of the Racehorse Homeowners Affiliation (ROA) informed BBC Radio 5 Dwell.
“This is not a few recreation of probability – it’s skillful. There may be time, effort and contribution emotionally, financially throughout the game, whether or not that is by means of the trainers, homeowners, jockeys, workers [and] the broader impacting relationships that racecourses have with communities.
“By unifying that method, racing will likely be negatively and unfairly impacted.”
The strike is happening a day earlier than the beginning of the four-day St Leger competition at Doncaster Racecourse.
“I perceive the motion,” mentioned Labour MP Alex Ballinger. “I’ve seen the session that has gone out to harmonise tax charges.
“I signify a bunch of MPs who suppose the other ought to occur. That we must be having extra dangerous types of playing – on-line casinos, on-line slots – extra addictive and harmful types paying extra taxation.
“Conventional, historic types like horse racing that contribute to native communities, they need to keep about the identical.”
