Look out, the gentleman is angry

THE ELEGANT accent, BBC manners and hospitable smile go with the job

but, in Julian Wilson's case, what you see is not all there is. Beneath

that official Beeb profile, Wilson is a man of passionate opinion,

especially about the racing game in which he has been involved for more

than 30 years. And any man who can become animated about Swindon Town FC

must have depths of emotion beyond the norm.

Son of the renowned Daily Mirror sports writer Peter Wilson, Julian

has been the BBC TV racing correspondent since 1966, has owned and

managed a bloodstock agency and stud for 20 years and is lucky enough to

have owned a winner of that ''classic'' for two-year-olds, the Gimcrack

Stakes. He, therefore, qualifies on a number of counts to comment on the

state of racing business. And he does not mess about with euphemisms.

The product, he insists, is not what it was. ''The blame for that lies

firmly and squarely with the bookmakers. They want more and more

meetings. Consequently, there is a lot of mediocre racing, the cream is

spread too thinly and the punters get a poor deal. In the days of not so

long ago there was a big race every week which was guaranteed to be a

cracking race. Nowadays, trainers can go for a Beverley race or a

Chepstow race or abroad and the good horses avoid each other. For the

bookies it is never mind the quality just give us the width.''

He uses that argument to defend the decline in BBC TV coverage of a

sport which is now given far greater mileage by Channel Four. ''I can

see the argument of my head of department or programme editor when they

say racing is not producing the product to justify televising.

''The thing about Channel Four is that they put on a racing programme,

something we don't do any more. Sadly for them, they don't get a very

big audience, about 800,000 average, and that doesn't pay the bills.

''Now they have to get their own advertising they are struggling. Good

luck to them but I don't know how long it will last.''

BBC covers so many other minority sports now that the competition for

air space is greater, but Wilson does not shrink from criticism of his

own channel. ''The retrogressive step is the Sport On Friday programme

which is unnecessary. It is just a mish-mash of Sportsnight stories

etc., and is a small budget programme. But what it has done is eat into

our midweek racing time.''

Perhaps with a diplomatic eye towards his paymasters, he redresses the

balance by pointing out that the coverage of Cheltenham's Festival will

not be hampered on the Tuesday by the Budget and that the Grand National

meeting will include five races live on the Friday for the first time.

But it is when Wilson looks at the slump which has caused immense

heart searching in the racing industry that the frustration speeds to

the surface. ''There is recession within the recession in our industry.

It came about because the racehorse as a commodity became more heated

than anything during the 1980s. First of all, Robert Sangster came in to

turn his horse racing interests into a business. Then the Maktoums

arrived, took him on and they competed to buy the best horses.

''They tried to outbid each other and they bought the best yearlings

in the world and raced them here. But the prices went through the roof.

Suddenly people started to realise that, with the prize money structure

we have -- which is pitiful -- the sums didn't add up.

''The bottom line is that if you owned every horse in training at

present you would be losing #12,000 per horse. The average cost of a

horse in training at Newmarket is #15,000 and the average horse in

training only wins #3000.

''At the moment you can't give away horses. People are not buying them

because they can't afford the training fees, which are too expensive.

But that is not entirely the trainers' fault. There is so much

bureaucracy there are 101 costs before you get anywhere near the

starting stalls.

''For 90 per cent of the people involved it is a luxury sport and is

left to fall by the wayside in a recession. As an industry we are on our

uppers.

''It is desperate. Eight out of ten horses at sales are not sold. Even

with a very good horse you are selling for nothing.''

IN THE circumstances you might not be surprised to learn that in the

stocks beside the bookies Wilson places the Government. ''It continually

turns a blind eye to our problems. There is supposed to be four and a

half billion pounds spent on gambling in this country and racing gets

back barely #40m. Bookies are not putting enough into racing, but just

as important the Government is taking out far too much in tax and not

returning enough to the grass roots.'' He believes the proper way

forward would be to turn the Tote over to racing and pump the returns

into the sport.

Wilson, who lives five miles from Newmarket with his second wife,

Allison, has fond connections with Scotland, where he began his

newspaper and racing education straight from school. He was sent north

to spend two years with the Noon Record, the racing daily then published

along with the Daily Record. It was there in Hope Street, Glasgow, that

he and I first rubbed shoulders as we began to unravel the mysteries of

sub-editing, lay-out and six cross doubles. From Glasgow he moved to

Newmarket to become the Mirror's correspondent there and after a spell

in Manchester and some other jobs, among them racing expert for the

Sunday Mail, he secured the BBC job, despite competition from 800

applicants.

He started his own bloodstock company, with a stud in County Mayo

(''it is more economic there''), manages a few horses for various

clients and will tell you of two horses who virtually changed his life.

Tumbledown Wind, a two-year-old who was as fast as the name suggests,

cost him 4800 guineas but won four out of six races, climaxing with the

Gimcrack Stakes.

He did not volunteer how much he received when he sold the horse at

the end of the season but we can have a fair guess when he says: ''It

enabled me to buy my house and set me up for life.'' The other horse

that would be high on his list of favourites is Pontenuovo, who won the

Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot at 50-1 in 1990. It was Wilson, wearing

his manager's hat, who supervised the programme that led to the great

triumph. ''The satisfaction we got from that was very special. We

planned for 18 months the strategy to win that race and to see it come

to fruition was marvellous.'' Did he make a few bob in the ring? ''The

horse did not go unfancied'' is the enigmatic reply.

It may not have beaten the ''touch'' he had when the ill-fated

Shergar, trained by his friend Michael Stoute, won the Derby. Like many

racing folk he associates major personal events with racing happenings,

viz: ''I got engaged for the second time in Shergar's year, 1981. That

was quite a day. I had backed the horse at 33-1. The winnings paid for

the engagement ring with a few quid left over. We got married on the

Monday after Royal Ascot in 1982.'

He has written a number of racing books, notably the unofficial

biography of Lester Piggott (''His wife didn't talk to me for two

years''). He remains a fervid supporter of Swindon Town but his stint in

Scotland did not leave him untouched by the football frenzy. He looks

for three results on a Saturday, that of Swindon, then Bristol City

(''They are our west country rivals and I look to see if they have

lost'') and Partick Thistle. ''They are my Scottish team and I follow

their fortunes.'' He has made his choices for this summer's classics at

odds we will not match. They are Zafonic, whom he backed at 8-1 for the

2000 Guineas; Tenby, for whom he got 25-1 for the Derby; and Criquette,

his 33-1 bet for the Oaks. You have been told.