UK government blocks sale of Tote
Plans by a horse-racing consortium to buy the Tote were thwarted by the British government today.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said it had not been able to reach an agreement with the group, which included race track owner Arena Leisure, Racecourse Holdings Trust – the arm of the Jockey Club that owns Aintree and Cheltenham – and the Racehorse Owners’ Association.
Labour made a manifesto pledge before the last general election to sell the Tote – which relocated from Putney to Wigan last year and has 540 betting shops - to the racing industry.
A spokesman said the DCMS would announce shortly how it intended to meet the manifesto pledge to raise money for the taxpayer while ensuring that racing benefited from any sale.
The statement added: “We are grateful to the consortium for the work they put in o try to deliver a sale to racing and are disappointed that these discussions did not result in a successful sale.”
Newspaper reports last week suggested the bidding group was offering less than the £400m (€590m) that the Government had been looking for.
The DCMS said today it had not been able to reach an agreement for the sale of the Tote at market value.
Failure of the consortium to meet this price tag will fuel speculation that the Government could open up the sale to other bidders.
Early last year it was hoped it would be bought by the Racing Trust, which was made up of racecourses, owners, the British Horseracing Board, the BHB Industry Committee and the Jockey Club, but the move was blocked by the European Commission.
Although the country’s two largest bookies, Ladbrokes and William Hill, would be prevented from bidding on competition grounds, the next largest chain Gala Coral, may be interested.
Tote operating profits fell 3.3% to £23.4m (€34.53m) last year because of poor horse-racing results while turnover grew 16.9% to £2.21bn (€3.26bn) as more punters gambled more money.
Arena’s sites include the all-weather tracks at Lingfield Park, Wolverhampton and Southwell and the Royal Windsor, Worcester and Folkestone racecourses.
