The government’s adviser on the financing of the racing industry said to favour a three year extension of the current levy system to finance British racing.

The government already decided that the levy system should finish by 2006. However, the desired replacement of the system, a financing of racing through the sale of data and image rights, has been frustrated by a European court decision.

According to the European Court of Justice in its ruling in November last year, the scope of the intellectual property rights on horseracing data is limited to the making of the database, and does not include the efforts for gathering the data.

The British Horseracing Board, which is responsible for the financial health of British racing, feels that more time is needed to understand the impact of the European ruling, which still needs to be interpreted by the UK court. The extension of the levy system, in the absence of certainty about an alternative, seems to be the preferred option by the government advisor.