Official Report search · Parliament Workbench

Chamber

Plenary, 08 Jan 2004

08 Jan 2004 · S2 · Plenary

Item of business

Horse Racing Industry

Home Robertson, John Lab East Lothian Watch on SPTV

I join colleagues from all parties in congratulating Susan Deacon on securing this very important debate. Indeed, the debate must be important, because this is the first time I have ever seen a reporter from the East Lothian Courier in the press gallery.

Musselburgh racecourse crosses the boundary between Susan Deacon's constituency and my constituency. My only complaint is that the winning post is in her constituency, but we cannot have everything. I want to take this opportunity to reflect on the racecourse's recent spectacular development and to pay tribute to East Lothian Council—particularly to Provost Pat O'Brien, who is present this evening—for its foresight and courage in redeveloping what was a sadly neglected and rundown facility.

Over the past eight years, East Lothian Council has promoted the investment of £4 million in the course, buildings and services at Musselburgh. What a wonderful achievement that has produced. Rightly, the rebranding of the racecourse included the correction of the anomalous title of what used to be called Edinburgh racecourse. Those of us who know the honest toon well understand that Musselburgh is the senior burgh in its part of Scotland, so it is right that we now have Musselburgh racecourse.

The racecourse is a tremendous asset for East Lothian and the whole area. It stages 24 meetings each year and employs nine full-time staff plus up to 230 part-timers on race days. It attracts tens of thousands of visitors and is worth about £3 million to the local economy. However, I agree with Susan Deacon that the industry could do even more for Scotland, given the right policies from the Scottish Executive and our friends at Westminster. I join Susan Deacon and colleagues from all parties in expressing very serious concern about the threat of damaging interference arising from recommendations by the OFT. That must not be allowed to happen.

I want to flag up an exciting initiative that is being worked up in the Lothian area to develop the potential of the industry. At present, Scotland's racecourses depend heavily on people, skills and horses that come from other parts of the British isles. That is the case because Scotland does not have an institution for training and career development in this very specialised area. That situation is about to change, because we will have a Scottish racing academy here in the Lothians to develop skills, vocational excellence and careers for people in horse racing. We have received valuable help from the Northern Racing College in Doncaster. The plan is for students to start a Scottish vocational qualification course at Oatridge College in West Lothian, followed by practical training at Tony Dicken's racing stable at Dunbar and at Musselburgh racecourse in East Lothian. I hope that the minister will be able to confirm today that this exciting initiative will receive support from Scottish Enterprise, because we want Scottish students to start their training at the new Scottish racing academy next month.

I know that the First Minister and the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport have already visited Musselburgh racecourse and have seen what has been achieved there. I hope that the new Scottish racing academy will make it possible to develop even further the tremendous potential of the industry. Specifically, I hope to see more Scotland-bred and Scotland-trained horses, ridden by Scottish jockeys and supported by Scottish specialist staff at racecourses in Scotland, the United Kingdom and further afield.

I have left one group off the list of those who need further education—the bookies do not need any further training, because they are already taking quite enough money off people such as me. However, I must press the minister to confirm that Scottish Enterprise will back the Scottish racing academy initiative.