Jim Culloty: BHA are making changes to pander to anti horse racing mob

Former Grand National-winning jockey Jim Culloty, speaking on behalf of NewBettingSites.uk, has said that he does not agree at all with the changes that were made to field sizes, obstacle sizes and the start time for this year’s Grand National. He believes the changes were only made to “pander to the people who are anti horse racing”.

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BHA are making changes to pander to anti horse racing mob

The British Horse Racing Authority are making all these changes to pander to the people who are anti horse racing. The start time being moved forward by one hour was another example of that. There is an old saying, ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’, but they’re changing everything from whip rules to interference rules. Can we not just tell these animal rights people to get lost and mind their own business?

My nephew, Oisin Murphy, got a six-day ban the other week. He rode in a race at Newcastle worth almost £150,000 and finished fifth. He inadvertently gave the horse an extra tap in trying to run well and earn some prize money for the trainer – for accidentally miscounting he missed the entire Craven meeting at Newmarket! It is a terrible rule.

‘Entitled’ generation to blame for lack of new blood in racing

Culloty also gave his thoughts on the problems surrounding getting younger people into racing, suggesting that the new generations “entitled” nature is to blame, rather than any problems within horse racing itself.

90% of people who go to Aintree and Cheltenham now aren’t even watching the racing, they’re there to party and socialise. They’re getting big crowds and making money for racing which can only be a good thing and if you can get more people to the racecourse then some of them might develop an interest in the sport.

You do hear stories of people who thought they wouldn’t enjoy it but they do, then all of a sudden they buy a couple of horses or buy into a syndicate and then they’ve got a couple of horses in training a few years later. From that perspective it is good.

The more you can do to get young people to the racecourse the better. You will get the odd one who actually realises they enjoy the sport and gets more involved in it. The young crowd aren’t really going racing at the moment, but that applies to almost every sport, even football. The real problem is the younger generation themselves because they’re just stuck on their phones the whole time. You can’t get them out the door!

There is a fundamental problem in society regarding the youth of today in that they’re useless. To get up and go to the racing or go to a football match actually takes a bit of effort and they’d rather just sit on their computers. We get good young crowds at point-to-point meetings in Ireland, but it is still a struggling industry because we hardly have any runners! There is a massive shortage of horses because trainers have no staff and that is because the youth of today won’t work – they’re too entitled. It is fundamental problem in society, not just in racing.”