Responding to a statement by RCA Chairman Keith Brown today, BHB Chairman Peter Savill said:

“Keith Brown’s emotional outburst is just what Racing does not need at this moment. The press statement which I issued on Friday was made after careful consideration and a lengthy discussion with the Senior Steward of the Jockey Club. Christopher Spence was fully aware of my statement in advance and made it clear that he had no objection to anything that I said. I made very supportive comments about the Jockey Club in a number of respects.

“I also made it very clear that I was speaking personally and that my view had not been discussed by either the Racing Review Committee or BHB Board.

“Keith Brown has clearly lost confidence in my Chairmanship of BHB. I shall be calling a Board meeting in the next few days where I shall ask him to put a vote of no confidence in my Chairmanship. That is the proper way to deal with the personal feelings that he has now ill-advisedly chosen to express in public.

“It is important that we have a united Board. Unfortunately, the RCA has consistently shown itself to be at loggerheads with the whole of the rest of the Board for the past year. Somehow, Keith appears to have deluded himself that I am the cause of this and does not appear to have heard the views of the other ten Board members which have consistently opposed the RCA members on every major issue for the past year.

“As for being in conflict with my executives, Keith Brown is referring to the fact that myself and eight other Board members, including Martin Broughton, the other Independent Director, rejected our executives’ proposal that Minimum Values should increase by only £13 million in 2003. I wasn’t aware that it was the Board’s responsibility to rubberstamp executive recommendations.”