Why all British horse racing is cancelled on Wednesday as sport shuts down for first time in modern history

British horse racing is planning an unprecedented strike on Wednesday as jockeys, trainers and owners head to Westminster to lobby members of parliament.

The action is the first of its kind in modern racing history and comes in response to the government’s plans to raise the tax rate on remote betting.

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The proposed change will see the current rate raised from 15 per cent to 21 per cent, which the British Horseracing Authority [BHA] say will cost thousands of jobs.

Their campaign against the rise is called ‘Axe the racing tax’ and the blanket shutdown across Britain on September 10 will cost the industry a predicted £200,000 for one day of inactivity.

The BHA also claim that the proposals would lead to an annual drop in income of least £66million, putting 2,752 jobs at risk in the first year.

The rate rise to 21 per cent on online gambling will put racing in line with other forms of gambling, like casinos, but the BHA argue this ‘harmonisation’ is missing a number of important factors.

What have the BHA said about the horse racing industry striking?

Making the point, Brant Dunshea, the CEO of the BHA, told talkSPORT: “Unlike any other sport, we bring together all facets of society. 

“Here we’re so fortunate to have the support of the Royal Family but you can equally go to a race course where you bring together the locals out of the local pubs and everybody comes together and everybody enjoys it. 

“It’s so important for us to recognise that difference that we are part of rural communities, that we are part of the social fabric of this country and that governments need to recognise that to protect it and preserve it because we are a very special British institution.”

Explaining the September 10 event further, he was keen to point out that it’s not a protest.

Dunshea added: “It’s not a protest in the context of being a placard type event, it’s really creating an opportunity for the industry and the leaders to come together and make representations to ministers that will be there.”

Currently HM Revenue & Customs [HMRC] and the treasury have three different tax bands for betting.

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They are Remote Gaming Duty (RGD), General Betting Duty (GBD) and Pool Betting Duty (PBD).

As things stand RDG is taxed at 21 per cent, while GBD and PBD are taxed at 15 per cent, but the new rates will see all three put in the same tax called the Remote Betting & Gaming Duty (RBGD).

From the government’s perspective, a proposal from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that the tax would raise around £3billion, allowing the removal of the two-child benefit limit which would ‘lift around half a million children out of poverty overnight’.

James Murray, exchequer secretary to the treasury, explained the point further, saying: “The tax system needs to keep pace with the developments and innovation that have seen the UK-facing remote gambling sector change significantly in recent years.

“Since remote gambling was first developed it has grown exponentially; the three-tax system needs to adapt to reflect the dynamic and expanding nature of the sector.

“Gambling has increasingly shifted online, with gross gambling yield for remote gambling now at £6.9 billion per year, having seen over 200 per cent growth in the last ten years and 20 per cent growth in the last five years.”

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And while this only impacts online racing betting, trainer Marcus Tregoning has explained another key difference that horse racing isn’t a game of chance like other forms of betting.

“To align it with online casinos and online poker games that go through the middle of the night, racing’s not like that,” he told talkSPORT.

“It’s a game that has to be studied and a lot of people put an awful lot of work into finding winners and it’s not a game of chance. 

“A lot of people are employed in our industry, something like 85,000 people and I can promise that this will have serious consequences on our labour force, trainers being able to keep going and the rest of it.

“Personally I don’t believe that this will happen, I think we will get a very small hike but not 21 per cent. 

“I’d be very disappointed if it did happen because it would affect all of us. People have got to have a bit of fun in life and racing is a great day out.”