LEADING THE FIELD BY LUCY HICKMANCity firm Theodore Goddard has been acting for the British Horseracing Board (BHB) - the racing industry's governing body - since its inception in 1993, when it was decided that the Jockey Club could not continue carrying out regulatory, disciplinary, and lobbying functions.While the Jockey Club continues to act as the sport's disciplinary body, the BHB's role includes strategic planning for racing, raising funds, lobbying the government, co-ordinating the fixture list, race planning, liaison with the betting industry, training and education, and the collection of funds required for the administration of racing.Theodore Goddard's team has not been asked to advise the BHB on foot and mouth, which is being handled in-house.

But with data protection, media rights and the annual levy to the fore, it is an exciting time to be acting for the horseracing body, as e-commerce head Paul Renney explains.'We act for them on all legal aspects,' he says.

'They are an interesting client and this is a particularly interesting time to advise them.

An awful lot of change has taken place in the last two years.

It's an evolving body and we are going to see a lot of developments in the next year, particularly with new Internet products.'A core team of six Theodore Goddard lawyers regularly advises the BHB on competition law, public law, corporate, commercial, and e-commerce matters.

A litigation team is also provided when required.Though not a public body, the BHB it is required to act reasonably and according to the law because it has responsibility for thousands of people - hence the need for a public law adviser.Mr Renney says: 'The amount of work changes.

A lot of it is driven by the chairman, Peter Savill, who has been actively looking to put the BHB in the best commercial position since he took up the position two years ago.

The place is now run by an executive of full-time professionals rather than country people who like riding.'The BHB has a managing director, a marketing director, and Paul Greeves as director of racing planning.

Mr Renney describes him as 'a racing man through and through - he's the one who has been dealing with the foot-and-mouth crisis and course closures'.Mr Renney adds: 'The foot-and -mouth situation is being handled internally.

We have not been consulted on that, partly because the board is aware of its duties and responsibilities.'The executive has been meeting as and when required throughout the crisis to review the scientific evidence and decide on a position.'There was no ban on racing, only suspension of individual meetings such as last month's Cheltenham Festival - because sheep had grazed on the course within the previous 28 days.'There has been criticism that the board has not cancelled racing, but you can't cancel everything just because of public hysteria,' says Mr Renney.

'Bookmakers may be bottom of the list of public sympathy, but the livelihood of tens of thousands of people across the industry rely on horseracing.'The board has had to balance scientific and public concern with the needs of the industry - and they have done the right thing.'Tristram Ricketts, secretary-general of the BHB, explains that, board is maintaining a controlled racing programme within MAFF-endorsed guidelines.'Racing always takes place in a strongly regulated environment, which lends itself to the introduction of enforceable precautionary measures,' he says.Mr Ricketts says that the cooperat ion between the BHB, the Jockey Club, and government officials, in drawing up instructions for the staging of racing, ensure the risk of spreading foot and mouth remains negligible.

He says: 'Veterinary advice remains that racing can go ahead with these strict precautions in place.

If that advice were to change, naturally BHB would review the situation immediately.

BHB has a responsibility to all those individuals and businesses who are dependent on the racing industry, which would be very seriously damaged if all racing were to be suspended.'Meanwhile, Theodore Goddard's litigation team, led by partner Hamish Porter, worked on a case in which the BHB won a landmark judgment against William Hill.

The High Court ruled that the bookmaker was breaking the law by using information from the board's database - lists of runners in races without its consent.The judgment, British Horseracing Board Ltd and ors v William Hill Organisation Ltd; ChD (Laddie J) 9 Feb 2001, was the first under new rules protecting databases.

The court rejected William Hill's defence that it should not be liable for payment because it used only a fraction of the BHB's data on its Web site.Following its victory, the BHB plans to impose a charge of 1% of the revenue William Hill gains from on-line bets on horseracing, if the bookmaker continues to use its information.

The bookmakers has since appealed to the Office of Fair Trading.The court ruling against William Hill has been seen as a test case, and a similar imposition is likely to be levelled on other alleged culprits.

The BHB wants to recoup the £4 million annual cost of compiling its authoritative list of fixtures, including details of runners and riders.

At present, it recovers only about £1 million a year.Mr Renney says: 'It's a very important case.

The BHB took them to court because they spend millions of pounds updating this list throughout the day and other Internet companies were starting to follow suit.

Now the decision has come though, we are getting on side all the other users of the data which will be under licence.'The dispute comes at a sensitive time for the racing industry, which is looking for alternative means of funding before next year, when the annual levy paid by the bookmaking industry is scheduled to be abolished.

It marks a continuation of the long-running argument about the extent to which bookmakers should fund a sport representing its primary source of income.Mr Renney explains: 'The government is proposing to abolish the Horseracing Betting Levy Board and hand over control of the levy to the BHB.

There have been some antagonistic responses about this proposal from the bookmakers and the Racecourse Association, so we have had to help work through the replies.'The bookmakers complain that it would be handing a monopoly to the BHB.

But the BHB knows about having a monopoly - it has one with the racing database.

It knows how to deal with it and be sensible in what it can and cannot do.

They are aware of their obligations and work hard to meet them.'Another issue facing the horseracing industry in which Theodore Goddard is actively involved on behalf of the BHB is the media rights deals, says Mr Renney.

Representatives from 59 racecourses are currently hammering out a deal worth £320 million plus £80 million marketing spend, with Go Racing which is made up of three parties - Arena Leisure, Channel 4 and BSkyB.

The deal will decide the coverage of race meetings on terrestrial and cable television, the Internet, and through technology such as WAP (wireless application pro tocol).The BHB was initially excluded from the negotiations, but has recently joined the talks.

'It was a bit silly for them to be excluded - they are the industry's governing body and this deal will have a knock-on effect on the whole industry,' says Mr Renney.The 59 racecourses were jointly represented by the Racecourse Association, although seven have formed a breakaway group.Theodore Goddard won the BHB brief through former partner William Rogers, a commercial lawyer and keen racegoer.

Mr Renney says: 'His habit was racing, so he knew the relevant people and was a good commercial lawyer.'We were invited to pitch for the work and William asked anyone who was interested in racing to come along.'The BHB are one of those clients where you have got to have a particular knowledge of the industry.

It would be difficult to advise them just from what the law says - it's case of applying the law to the particular circumstances of the industry.'If you have no interest in racing whatsoever, and refuse to do so, it would be a difficult client to advise properly, he says.Clearly, Mr Renney has no problems in this area - the day before he spoke to the Gazette, he picked the first and second horse home at the races.GOING IS TOUGH FOR SOLICITOR WHO WANTS TO GALLOP TO SUCCESS --NEIL ROSE MOUNTS AN EARLY-MORNING MISSION TO MEET ANDREW REID -- THE ONLY TRAINER IN LONDONFor some solicitors, reading the Racing Post before turning to The Times law reports is a matter of personal interest.

For Andrew Reid, it is one of professional necessity.While most lawyers are just getting up -- or some City solicitors just going home -- Mr Reid is standing by the gallops at his stables in Mill Hill, north-west London, watching his horses race by and, most of all, listening to their breathing.

If they sound well, he then goes back to his house and looks for races to enter them in.Mr Reid, as well as being the only racehorse trainer in London, is also senior partner of nine-partner Mayfair law firm Reid Minty; so having gone through his horse-related work for the morning, he then does a full day's work at the niche litigation firm.

Mr Reid also sits as a deputy High Court costs judge.Whether he is up on the gallops at 7.30 am or earlier -- which he is seven days a week -- depends on what time he got back from the office the night before.

'Running Reid Minty is the number priority,' he says.

'I need seed capital to run this, after all.' Mr Reid insists that being a lawyer readies you to be a trainer.

'It's all about preparation.

You try and make your horse -- that is, your case -- fit the race.

You then have to get your jockey/barrister to run the race/case properly.' The training has clearly prepared him well.

While a small trainer (he has 35 horses where a top stable has 200), he finished fourth in the trainers' table for all-weather courses this winter, and is currently sixth in the flat table.

He expects to finish in the top 30, which is not bad going given that there are around 500 trainers in the country.The combination of foot and mouth and the bad weather mean the last six months have been 'murder', Mr Reid says.

'My horses are boiling over because they do not have enough runs.

It's a serious problem.' Mr Reid, who is 47 and co-founded Reid Minty 21 years ago when he was six-months qualified, worked up through hunting and point-to-point racing to gaining a full training licence.He opened his stable less than two years ago and has had 44 winners since.

At the time, he planned a complete equestrian centre, offering services ran ging from riding lessons to polo; the dream was to take advantage of being the only such facility in London rather than in the less accessible horseracing centres such as Newmarket.But he was denied planning permission for the centre, leaving the stable to concentrate on training, breeding and polo.

He only trains his horses for the flat, not the jumps: 'I come from the world of jumping, but the injuries were so horrific and you only get so many runs out of the horses that I thought it was time to move away.' The demands of work mean he has little time to go racing himself, preferring to watch it on his office television, where he says he gets a better view.There is some professional spin-off for Mr Reid in terms of legal work arising from the industry.

He used to instruct Derry Irvine in his pre-Lord Chancellor days to act for the likes of Kieron Fallon and Pat Eddery in Jockey Club disciplinary hearings; more recently, he has been asked by the National Trainers Federation and the Racehorse Owners Association to put together a group action against Arena, the owner of Lingfield racecourse, over the costs incurred following the cancellation of a meeting in January.The economics of horseracing -- with the infamous lack of prize money -- 'do not make sense', he readily admits.

His horses won £160,000 last year, meaning the stable 'just about washed its face'.

However, breaking even is the exception rather than the rule.

'There are probably 70% of trainers living on the breadline,' he speculates.

'They're doing it because they love it.' And it is not hard to see why there are such problems when visiting Mr Reid's stable.

He employs nine staff, who have to be housed on the premises, while there is significant capital outlay in vehicles and other machinery.What would make a huge difference is to break into the higher echelons of the sport.

Mr Reid refers to the need to market himself and his stable better.

'My ability to train speaks for itself, but I don't think people know we're here.

Or they think that I only train my own horses [20 of the 35 horses are his].' So, a major project for him is to put together syndicates to own runners.His horses have yet to run in the best races, but then he does not yet have the best horses.

It seems a hard cycle to break, but he intends to try.

'I enjoy it because I enjoy a challenge and this is the biggest challenge I've had for a long time.' Disappointingly, few of his horses have legal names.

One that does, Pink Brief, he bought from a barrister.

But could he perhaps be making a subliminal comment on the state of the profession with other horses enjoying names such as 'Deceitful' and 'Outrageous'?