Racecourse Association Chairman Angus Crichton-Miller today forecast racing is set to overtake football as Britain`s most popular sport.
He made the bold prediction ahead of an extraordinary general meeting at which the RCA is to decide the winner of a long battle for racing`s media rights.
And Crichton-Miller reckons that whether it is Carlton or the Go Racing consortium who land the multi-million-pound deal, the sport has a very rosy future.
'Whichever wins I am entirely confident they will be projecting the industry in a way it hasn`t been projected before, such that we`ll be having a lot more people watching television, betting on television and going racing,' he said on the BBC`s Breakfast News.
'Not just in 10 years time but earlier than that I think we will have tapped into an entirely new audience both in Britain and around the world who will appreciate the variety, excitement and integrity of British racing and will be having a flutter day in and day out.
'I think this century is going to see racing chasing and I think ultimately overtaking soccer as the really popular sport of this country.
'We are at the beginning of the century so I have given myself plenty of time but we`re clearly going to close up on them and I think we may well move ahead.
'We have the heroes - the horses, the jockeys - that I think are far more interesting than the soccer players.
'I`ve nothing against David Beckham but I think Frankie Dettori knocks him for six every time.'
The RCA may also decide today whether to accept the British Horseracing Board`s plan for distributing the money.
