The Jockey Club will leave the Racecourse Association (RCA) at the end of the year.
One of the largest commercial bodies in the sport, its chief executive Jim Mullen released a statement on Monday morning where he claimed that a recent review conducted by the RCA failed to address fundamental concerns.
Earlier this year, Ascot also announced that they would withdraw their membership of the racecourse trade body, casting huge question marks over the governance of the sport.
The Jockey Club presides over a raft of huge British racecourses, including Aintree, Cheltenham and Epsom Downs.
Amid growing discontent regarding the sport's ability to exact change, on Saturday, the RCA published details of a review that was called for in March; outlining two key recommendations.
They plan to move from their current one member, one vote system to a different structure that is based on a 25% share for each of its four main groups. Those main constituent groups are the Jockey Club, Arena Racing Company, the Large Independent group and the small independent tracks.
Alongside that, it also said that it would no longer take responsibility of the appointment of two members to the BHA board. Instead, this would be given to representatives independent of the RCA's board and executives.
However, those changes have not been enough for the Jockey Club to continue its membership.
“Nothing proposed would displace the RCA as the political representative of British racecourses and in our view, confirmed by recent discussions, the RCA would continue to vote against necessary changes such as the introduction of an independent BHA board and substantive changes to the fixture list," Jockey Club chief Mullen said in a bombshell statement.
“While recent talks have focused on the valuable operational services provided by the RCA to the wider racecourse community, it is our view that without change to the political representation, the price of maintaining those operations is sadly too high when judged against the political role the organisation plays and its ability to suppress reform.”
