As a Member for North Wales, of course, my first trip racing, as a new convert to the sport, was to where else but Bangor-on-Dee racecourse within my region, to which I was actually invited by the British Horseracing Authority, along with some other Members of the Senedd, who I'm glad to see are here this evening. The day started, of course, with a trip to Oliver Greenall racing to visit a racehorse training yard, which is something we're not usually exposed to when we see coverage of training. There are over 500 such vital rural businesses across Britain, 20 here in Wales, and, I have to say, you'd struggle to find more hard-working and dedicated people than stable staff. They're up at the crack of dawn, and they work 365 days a year to make sure, of course, that their horses receive the love and the care that they need in order to be at their best on the track. We then, of course, after that visit, went to the racecourse—an experience I would thoroughly recommend to anyone who has yet to go racing, because if you're looking for a day out with a group of friends, or even a family looking for a family fun race day, there is something for everyone—genuinely, something for everyone.

Now, there were over 160,000 visits to Bangor-on-Dee, Chepstow and Ffos Las in the last non-COVID affected year of 2019. That's a significant figure that struck me as something I hadn't realised, I have to say, but, of course, I know now from chairing the cross party-group on horse-racing here in the Senedd that the industry is particularly keen to work with the Welsh Government on expanding that number, given, of course, the huge potential economic benefits this could bring to all parties involved.

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Welsh racing awards, an annual event that recognises the significant achievements by members of the Welsh horse-racing community, both human and equine, and I was thrilled to find out just how successful Welsh-trained or owned horses have been over the past 12 months. We've had major wins at the Cheltenham Festival by the Evan Williams trained Coole Cody, and at Royal Ascot from the David Evans trained Rohaan. Both are positively representing Wales at some of the UK’s biggest sporting events, which are extremely competitive, of course, and involve international competition. Furthermore, David Probert and Sean Bowen are also in the top five jockeys in the country on the flat and over jumps respectively. But, of course, maintaining this success and growing the sector to realise even greater achievements and even more significant economic impacts would also require support from the Government. Now, I’ve been told that horse-racing is the third most followed sport in Wales in terms of attendances, behind football and rugby, but I’m not sure it receives anything like the same recognition in terms of its significance, and certainly in terms of its wider economic contribution.

Now, in racing, prize money acts as the lifeblood of the industry. It helps not only to sustain owners’ critical investment in the industry, on which, I have to say, many don't receive a significant financial return, but it also supports training, businesses and the livelihoods of hundreds of the sport’s participants here in Wales. That also then, of course, drives that broader economic activity through the wider rural economy here in Wales. Owing to a range of factors, including the level of return from betting activity through statutory and commercial channels to the racing industry, racing across Britain faces increasing challenges in achieving competitive levels of prize money. On a measure of prize money per race, British racing now sits behind other major competitor jurisdictions, including Ireland, France, Australia, the United States, Hong Kong and Japan. Now, these competitor jurisdictions are continuing to drive prize money increases, and offering, of course, significant incentives for British owners to relocate their investment. Previous economic modelling has suggested that every 20 racehorses in training deliver around £1 million in direct and indirect economic benefits, so there are real negative economic consequences if there is a contraction in this particular sector.

Now, the UK Government is, by statute, required to review the rate of the horse-race betting levy, currently set at 10 per cent of betting operators' gross profit on British racing. They need to review it by no later than 2024. And this provides a critical opportunity, I believe, for the imbalance in prize money to be rectified. The levy also, of course, provides critical investment in integrity, in training and education and, importantly, in equine welfare. And I'd just like to say a few words about equine welfare, because, through the levy, British racing has spent almost £40 million on funding veterinary science or veterinary education projects aimed at improving the understanding of equine physiology and disease prevention. In March 2019, British racing established a new horse welfare board, independently chaired by Barry Johnson, a former president of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and with political representation on it as well from Tracey Crouch MP. The horse welfare board has published a comprehensive, five-year strategic plan called 'A life well lived', which was published in 2020, and its publication represents a landmark moment for British racing, providing, for the first time, a single, overarching welfare strategy, building on the many projects already under way across the industry to raise welfare standards and to improve safety levels for horses. Work is currently under way on 17 of the projects recommended by the horse welfare board, and £3 million-worth of funding has been announced today, as it happens, to extend the horse welfare board's work through to 2025.

But, coming back to the horse-race betting levy, I know the Welsh racing industry would very much appreciate any representations that the Deputy Minister can make to her counterpart at Westminster and at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to expedite the review to support the industry in Wales. And I'd be very happy to follow up with a briefing on this subject, if the Minister should wish. And I can see her nodding, so I'm looking forward to her contribution even more now later on.

We have a real success story here in Wales when it comes to horse-racing, which isn't always recognised, maybe, as it should be, and I firmly believe there are clear benefits and opportunities for the Welsh Government from engaging constructively with racing here in Wales. And to that end, I was delighted to see that the Deputy Minister visited Chepstow in the summer, and I would be even more delighted if she accepted my invitation for her to join me for a day's racing in Bangor-on-Dee so that she can see what racing in north Wales has to offer as well. [Interruption.] Yes. Other Members can come along as well, yes, of course, of course. But I would urge the Minister and her Government to continue to proactively engage with and to support the Welsh racing industry, as there will be clear benefits in so many ways.

So, I thank you once again, Llywydd, for the opportunity to bring this debate forward. I very much look forward to other Members' contributions and to the Minister's response on this vital and successful industry for Wales. Diolch.