From market trader to CEO – how Co-op boss turned \u00a36m loss-making retailer around<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n More than half of Fakenham Racecourse\u2019s annual income comes from its media rights deals, equating to over half a million pounds a year.\n<\/p>\n
\n The racecourse attracted just shy of 30,000 visitors last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Fakenham]()
Fakenham Racecourse welcomed just shy of 30,000 people through its gates last year\u00a0(Image: Denise Bradley) The Norfolk racecourse employs\u00a0nine people full time and up to 120 casual staff on race days.\n<\/p>\n
\n Like\u00a0all businesses, government increases to minimum wages and employers’ national insurances contributions have taken a toll.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSince this government came into power it has looked at every single opportunity to raise revenues through taxation,” Mr Hunter said.\n<\/p>\n
\n “But is not looking at the bigger picture or listening to people about the consequences of what they are doing – they don\u2019t seem to care.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n ![\"David]()
David Hunter, chief executive of Fakenham Racecourse (Image: Denise Bradley) \u201cLet\u2019s hope sense prevails and they understand that morally it would be abhorrent if this happened.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey would be doing something that is detrimental to a world-class, leading, well-established, respected and traditional sporting and cultural institution in this country.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt would be appalling if something like this – which has been totally ill-thought out – could have such a detrimental effect.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf it does come into play the consequences will be felt throughout the industry.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Fakenham]()
Fakenham Racecourse employs nine people full time and up to 120 casual staff on race days\u00a0(Image: Denise Bradley) British racing supports the employment of around 85,000 people both directly and indirectly.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOur last day of racing we had here, which was Ladies Day, the bars and pubs in Fakenham before and after had a bumper day,\u201d Mr Hunter added.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cRacing is deeply intertwined with the local economy.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n ![\"David]()
David Hunter, chief executive at Fakenham Racecourse (Image: Denise Bradley)\n<\/p>\n
‘GOVERNMENT BOMBSHELL’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n \u200bBrant Dunshea, CEO at the BHA, described the government’s latest tax “bombshell” as posing the “gravest risks to horseracing the sport has ever seen”.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe horseracing industry is already in a precarious financial position, and the latest research provides a much more catastrophic forecast than we first thought,” he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Brant]()
Brant Dunshea, CEO of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) (Image: Alan Crowhurst\/PA) “We\u2019re talking thousands of jobs at risk across the supply chain, severely impacted towns and communities, and the irreversible decline of the country\u2019s second most popular sport.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cTogether as an entire industry, we\u2019re asking the British public for support in calling on the government to rethink this policy and stop undermining a much-loved part of British heritage and culture.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s time to axe the racing tax and back British horseracing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Treasury plans to hike the rate of tax on online betting on racing from 15pc to 21pc,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-321742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114980255370146422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}