Sir Philip Davies, the former MP for Shipley, has joined the board of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) as one of the two directors nominated by the Racecourse Association (RCA). The BHA announced the appointment on 12 October 2026. He sits as the RCA’s Member Nominated Director (MND) on an interim basis, replacing Wilf Walsh, who had been one of the RCA’s two MNDs on the BHA board since October 2021.
Davies joined the RCA board earlier this year. He was MP for Shipley from 2005 to 2024, during which he was joint chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Betting and Gaming and vice chair of the APPG for Racing and Bloodstock. He chairs the Greyhound Board of Great Britain and the National Horseracing College in Doncaster, and is a former board member of the Racehorse Owners Association.
I am delighted to be joining the BHA Board to represent the interests of racecourses.
Sir Philip Davies, Member Nominated Director (interim), British Horseracing Authority
Simon Cox, Chair of the BHA, welcomed the appointment, describing Davies as a strong advocate for racing and betting during his time in Parliament, and thanked Walsh for his contribution to the board over the past five years. The release does not say who holds the RCA’s other seat or how long the interim arrangement will last.
Not the first names put forward
According to Racing Post, the RCA board had nominated Martin Cruddace, chief executive of Arena Racing Company (Arc), and Bridget Guerin, chair of York racecourse, for its two positions. The paper reported that Cox, who took up the chair on 1 October, is said to have pushed back against both because he believed their racecourse roles would create conflicts of interest, and that it understood Davies was not the RCA’s first choice. The BHA’s announcement does not mention the earlier nominations.
A seat under review
The appointment comes while the RCA’s place in the BHA is being contested. On 3 August The Jockey Club said it would leave the RCA at the end of the year, joining Ascot in giving up its membership, and that it had begun work on a new organisation with Ascot and other like-minded industry partners, according to Racing Post.
Racing Post reported the same day that the RCA’s governance review had recommended moving from one member, one vote to a 25 per cent share for each of its four main constituent groups, and that the RCA would no longer appoint two members of the BHA board, with those seats going instead to representatives independent of the RCA’s board and executive. Jim Mullen, The Jockey Club’s chief executive, said the proposals failed to address its fundamental concern, and that the review needed to deal with the RCA’s role in representing racecourses politically through its 50 per cent share in the BHA.
In his first statement as chair, on 1 October, Cox listed the sport’s governance among the immediate matters to address, alongside a unifying vision and strategy and how the sport is funded. Funding is also on the agenda outside the sport: the BHA said on 2 October that media reports suggest the Treasury is considering doubling machine games duty on Category B machines, which include those in betting shops, from 20% to 40% at the Budget on 28 October.
Equanine’s reading
- The reported rejection of two nominees who hold racecourse roles suggests the new chair wants racecourse representatives on the board who are not involved in running tracks themselves. Racecourse groups should expect that test to apply to future nominations.
- Davies brings parliamentary experience of betting and gaming policy to the board as the Budget puts machine games duty in question, an issue that reaches racecourses through levy and media rights.
- The interim label, and the RCA review’s own proposal to stop appointing two BHA directors, leave open whether the racecourse seats survive in their present form once The Jockey Club and Ascot have left the RCA.
