At The Races not at core of the problems facing on-course layers

I must confess to getting as mad as a March hare whenever Francis Hyland, spokesman for the on-course bookmakers, gets up on his hind legs and starts to whinge about live pictures of Irish racing on At The Races.

Hyland was at it again last week, reacting to figures released by Horse Racing Ireland which showed that there was a 4.6% decrease in bookmakers’ turnover on-course last year.

“The live (ATR) pictures have played havoc with our turnover’, whined Hyland. The message seemed clear, get the pictures off the screens and let us have more business please. Pathetic.