Jump racing is a favourite

By Andrew Leach
Updated: 05:22 EDT, 29 October 2006

Jump racing has become big business, with hundreds of millions of pounds of investment creating thousands of jobs and boosting corporate sponsorship, a report into horseracing will reveal this week.

About £420m has been invested in the sector in the past four years and a further £300m is forecast to be spent by 2011 - football is the only sport with higher investment.

The report, Jump Racing Focus, will be published on Wednesday and will also reveal that the industry employs 88,000 people.

Improved tracks and facilities have helped boost attendances at meetings by 42% between 2001 and 2005.

Sponsorship is also booming, with revenues hitting £23 million last year. Recent large deals have included brewer Scottish & Newcastle using its John Smith's brand to back the Grand National at Aintree and Anglo Irish Bank's sponsorship of Cheltenham Racecourse.

The sport also remains a firm favourite with punters - jump racing accounting for 40 per cent of the bookmaking industry's total annual British turnover of £4bn and 75% in winter months.

The report was commissioned by the Racecourse Holdings Trust, with backing from the British Horseracing Board and the Horserace Betting Levy Board.

Martin Broughton, chairman of the British Horseracing Board, said: 'Investment is the lifeblood which the sport depends upon in order to grow and develop.'