NEWS
Ferguson stresses need for unity at Gimcrack Dinner
Posted: Wednesday, December 12, 2001
Thoroughbred owner Sir Alex Ferguson, who also is manager of the Manchester United soccer team, said during the 231st Gimcrack Dinner at York racecourse on Tuesday that racing's well-being is threatened by "clique-ishness" in Britain. "Selfishness, factionalism, clique-ishness—all are death to a football team and I believe their influence could be just as destructive for racing," Ferguson said. "Unless racing embraces the teamwork principle wholeheartedly, instead of merely (paying) lip service to it, British racing will never have the success it deserves.
"Racing means so much to me that I am depressed to see its future well-being jeopardized by the competing agendas of sectional interests," he continued.
Ferguson enjoyed much success in racing this year with Rock of Gibraltar, a two-year-old colt he co-owns with Susan Magnier. By Danehill out of Offshore Boom, by Be My Guest, Rock of Gibraltar has won five of seven starts and four graded stakes, including the Darley Dewhurst Stakes (Eng-G1) at Newmarket and Grand Criterium (Fr-G1) at Longchamp.
Ferguson implored racing traditionalists to embrace the "positive force" that bookmakers bring to the sport, saying, "We should stop treating bookmakers as if they have stolen our birthright.
"There are still substantial pockets of resistance to progress in racing, groups who cling to the notion that the deepest pleasures of the Turf should be the private preserve of the few," he said. "They apparently think that to popularize racing is to degrade it. They don't accept that modernization and respect for tradition can go hand in hand."
