REPRESENTATIVES of racehorse owners and trainers have expressed serious reservations over the Go Racing media rights contract.
The contract which, subject to the granting of a British Horseracing Board pre-race data licence to the Racecourse Association, is due to be finalised at the end of next month.
The Go Racing consortium, which is made up of Arena Leisure -- operators of race courses at Folkestone, Lingfield, Southwell, Windsor, Wolverhampton and Worcester -- BSkyB and Channel 4, is bidding the equivalent of £400million for a 10-year deal.
But the Racehorse Owners Association and the National Trainers Federation are especially concerned that a proper public debate relating to the Go Racing contract and business plan did not take place before the 49 tracks signed up to the deal.
Sir Eric Parker, president of ROA, said: "The racing industry is in danger of permitting a contract to be finalised, that pawns its major assets for the foreseeable future, without informed discussion."
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