BHB pair to share duties of outgoing commercial managing director.

Byline: Howard Wright 

BHB chief executive Greg Nichols and finance director Chris Brand are expanding their responsibilities from next week. They are to share the duties carried out by commercial managing director Nigel Smith, who leaves the organisation tomorrow, writes Howard Wright. ``It will be business as usual in all areas,'' spokesman Alan Delmonte said yesterday, confirming the job-share transfer of Smith's roles in ``ensuring continued compliance with the BHB's data licences, preparation for the Court of Appeal hearing, and other current commercial matters''.

Chief priority will be to protect valuable income from Irish bookmakers, who as a group are understood to be becoming increasingly reluctant to pay data charges into British racing's account since the European Court of Justice ruled against the BHB last November.

Smith has been involved in putting together the BHB's case for the Court of Appeal hearing on the ECJ decision, which is due to begin in London on June 28.

The ``other current commercial matters'' on which Smith has been working is a catch-all phrase that includes additional matters relating to the sale of BHB-owned data, including the ongoing position of betting exchanges and the basis on which they pay.

When Smith, 47, handed in his notice in January, he said he had told the BHB board last summer that he would not be staying once British Horseracing Enterprises had been set up to take on the role of the sport's commercial arm.BHE, which was intended to have pre-race data payments as its core income, was expected to operate with a general manager rather than a chief executive.

The ECJ ruling threw BHE's establishment into doubt, and there has been little evidence of its becoming a reality since, although the BHB board is expected to set a timetable and deal with its principles in detail at their May 9 meeting.

However, Delmonte said BHE was a long-term project and the current position would have been the same with or without Smith's decision to leave.

He added: ``Where Nigel's responsibilities will lie in the longer term depends on the outcome of ongoing discussions about the future funding and organisational arrangements with-in the framework of the Modernisation of British Racing document.''

Smith, a chartered accountant, joined the BHB in January 2002, with responsibility for growing the sport's finances, having previously worked for the Hilton Group and the Storehouse Group.

He became part of a newly structured, five-man BHB executive team reporting to the still-to-be-appointed chief executive, but tomorrow he will be the third - following Trevor Beaumont and James Halley - to leave.

Smith negotiated a data deal with the bookmakers within months of his arrival, but later had to face the wrath of media operators for his part in a proposed rights arrangement, and more recently has had to counter opposition from Irish bookmakers over the proposed data charges.

CAPTION(S):

Nigel Smith Bows out tomorrow