Racing's renaissance

Crowds flocked to the revitalised Derby at Epsom

by BBC Sport Online's Frank Keogh

Four months after horse racing was wallowing in woe, the sport is enjoying a heady revival.

The twin foes of foot-and-mouth disease and appalling weather wrecked the racing programme at the start of 2001.

For the first time in recent memory, jump racing's showpiece - the National Hunt Festival at Cheltenham in March - was called off as disease spread.

Soon after, the Grand National was bogged down by controversy after all but two of the 40-strong field fell in waterlogged conditions.

  Racing's flag bearers

Six celebrities are fronting the Discover Racing campaign:

Frankie Dettori: Popular Italian-born jockey

Matthew Pinsent: Olympic gold medal-winning rower

Sally Gunnell: Former British 400m star

John Parrott: Leading snooker player and regular racegoer

Clare Balding: BBC TV and radio presenter

Kirsty Gallagher: Sky Sports TV presenter

Even the so-called Finale meeting at Sandown, which did bring some top-class competition to the campaign, ended prematurely with the ground deemed unfit for Flat racing.

Yet it now seems much longer than just a few months since all racing in the UK was halted for a week because of foot-and-mouth.

Although the disinfectant mats which remain at every course are reminders of that turmoil, a new optimism has enveloped the sport.

Golan's impressive win in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket in May got the ball rolling.

He looked top quality, until an Irish speed machine by the name of Galileo redefined the description.

An English and Irish Derby double with eye-blinking ease provided a horse that could be mentioned in the same breath as greats like Nijinsky and Shergar. He might be even better.

Galileo has won the English and Irish Derbys

More people appear to be attending race meetings, their appetite perhaps fuelled by those blank winter days.

Chester welcomed a total of more than 100,000 racegoers for its three-day May meeting.

The Derby at Epsom, back on the BBC for the first time in 22 years, was back to its glory days.

Only last Saturday, some 39,000 spectators saw Foreign Affairs land an almighty gamble in the John Smith's Cup at York.

And, of course, there was the news to cheer every punter - betting tax will be abolished from 6 October, three months earlier than expected.

Now the industry is likely to receive a further boost on Tuesday with the long-awaited Government review of gambling set to provide more security.

No longer merely a matter of honour, gambling debts - on the part of bookie or gambler - are likely to be recoverable by law.

Other measures should further clean up the more archaic elements of betting in the UK.

Jockey Frankie Dettori, a big racing asset, with wife Catherine

Racecourses are also moving with the times, offering crowds a complete entertainment package.

Party and theme nights are a regular feature of summer racing.

You may have been cleaned out, but at least you can chill out to the live sounds of Spandau Ballet, Jools Holland, or some other act which might take your fancy.

The betting industry is booming on the internet, and protacted media rights negotiations have been resolved.

Topping all this off is a perfectly-timed £10m marketing campaign, called Discover Racing.

Some of the celebrities used to front the initiative, such as Olympic rower Matthew Pinsent or former athlete Sally Gunnell, may not have been previously known as racing's biggest supporters.

But does that matter?

If they can help further open up racing's often mysterious and confusing world, it can only be a good thing.