AS an infrequent punter, hardly deserving even of that title, I had to confess to a degree of ignorance about the World Pool.

A random selection of people I questioned about it were unable to enlighten me further, and so my meeting with Alex Frost during the recent Aintree Grand National Festival was hopefully going to be revelatory, and it was.

While Alex’s day job is that of chief executive of the UK Tote Group, his passion and belief in the World Pool is infectious, and he is not a man who is inclined to tilt at windmills.

Rather, he is one who deals in facts, and he brings with him into his present role a curriculum vitae that is highly impressive.

Last year Irish racing took its first step on the road to becoming more fully integrated in the World Pool family, still in its relative infancy, when the Leopardstown leg of the Irish Champions Weekend took part. The outcome was that just shy of €30 million was bet into the World Pool on the day, and in addition giving the Irish racing product global visibility.

That figure wagered was a 33% increase on the same day in 2021, but this is not just about numbers and monetary figures, but it is also part of a strategy to engage more people with racing, and giving back something to the sport and the people working in it. After last year’s Leopardstown meeting, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Michael Fitzsimons was thrilled with the outcome, praising the collaborative approach by all parties, including Tote Ireland.

Horse Racing Ireland owns Tote Ireland, and HRI’s chief executive Suzanne Eade was delighted with the result. This year, the Curragh Racecourse is also taking its flagship Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Day centre stage, and it will participate in the World Pool for the first time.

Lifetime interest

Alex Frost has had a lifetime interest in horses, going back to a time when his grandfather had a colt called Roan Rocket.

Bred in Co Limerick by Lady Ainsworth, the son of Buisson Ardent was a smart two-year-old, and a much better three-year-old. In his second season racing he established himself as the leading miler, capturing both the Sussex Stakes and the St James’ Palace Stakes. He was beaten a short head by Canisbay in the Eclipse Stakes, and just came up short when trying to win a second Sussex Stakes at four.

The passion for horses is in the family genes, as Frost explains. “My dad was a very enthusiastic sort of small breeder. My dad’s a massive part of my life, and we have moved back to live near my mum and dad.”

The ‘we’ is Alex, his wife Olivia, and their children, and home is near Malmesbury. Additionally, I find a deep Irish connection, one that is especially close to Frost’s heart. Olivia’s late mother was the elegant Gina Galvin, well known to all in the bloodstock and racing worlds in Ireland. Her passing, some four and a half years ago, impacted greatly on Frost and his family. “I think Gina’s passing was a big moment in our lives; definitely things like that wake you up a bit.”

Frost was something of a phenomenon in the City of London, becoming managing director of Merrill Lynch at the age of just 29. He retired just over a decade later at 40, relocating to Ladyswood Stud which allowed him to spend more time with his family, breed some racehorses, and enjoy having them in training.

Second career

It was Olivia who set the ball rolling in terms of a second career, fuelled by listening to her husband bemoan the prize money levels that are a perennial talking point in Britain.

She said to Alex that “you can either drive me mad moaning about this for the next 20 years, or you can do something about it.” The gauntlet was thrown down, and Alex accepted the challenge.

Alex approached a former colleague at Merrill Lynch, Simon Larkin, with a plan to acquire the Tote. Frost describes Larkin as “the best guy I ever worked with in banking”. Larkin believed in the plan and in Frost, resigned his role and joined the team, the Alizeti Group. At the heart of their plan was what Frost called “a great opportunity to do something where we leave a legacy that we can be proud of”.

The hard grind that followed took Alex to many places in search of investors, conducting 450 investor meetings, and seeking those with an interest and passion for racing. Some 160 owners, breeders and more came on board with them and invested.

What attracted Frost to even consider the Tote as a possible business venture? “I looked at the industry and everyone was going on about Australia, and so we looked at Australia, at Japan and at Hong Kong. Every one of them is powered by a strong Tote. There’s no example of any racing jurisdiction around the world that is as successful as these places that isn’t powered by Tote.”

Tote monopoly

Is Frost calling for a Tote monopoly? “The infrastructure is here, and the connectivity of all bookmakers is in place. There is an incredibly powerful bookmaking industry, which is great, but it doesn’t need to be mutually exclusive to a powerful Tote to sit alongside it as you have in Australia.

“I don’t think a monopoly is ever viable. The world has moved on. Bookmakers are desperately looking to be better distribution platforms.”

The potential reach for the World Pool is incredible, with some 80% of the people who will watch the Derby at Epsom this year coming from Asia. “The international opportunity is huge. Our sport is watched by everyone in the world, and it has got huge integrity. It is in a great time zone and is the best racing on the planet.”

Frost is conscious of the social problems connected to gambling, and the challenges ahead, but he feels that the case for racing is often lost when it comes to dealing with government. “Racing needs to argue its case with more consideration. I think putting a solution to government is much more viable than having a moan. We’ve got to realise that we are not being represented at the moment.

“I think Ireland couldn’t be better positioned. It has the greatest bloodstock on the planet, though Japan is getting close and there are other strong areas. However, it is a real jewel in the global crown. In racing, Ireland has wonderfully full fields of runners, so as a product it’s fabulous. There’s great integrity in its racing.”

Younger demographic

There is one area that Frost believes can be improved, and that is around bringing a younger demographic along. At this year’s Asian Racing Conference he addressed this question. “My answer to it was to employ more young people in management positions within racing, especially if you are trying to appeal and get freshness of ideas. We need that vibrancy and growth, but if you look at the management of racing, it’s pretty narrow now.”

Frost and his family have lots of connections to Ireland, and for Alex personally he has been a lifelong friend of Harry Fowler, all the way back to being at school together from the age of seven. That enduring friendship has also brought with it success on the track, most recently with the Scottish Champion Hurdle runner-up, Colonel Mustard, who is in the care of Harry’s wife Lorna.

Alex enjoyed ownership of horses with his late mother-in-law and has special memories of travelling around Ireland with the Jessica Harrington-trained Gambling Girl. That daughter of Hawk Wing won seven times, and Frost recalls the mare winning at the likes of Kilbeggan and Roscommon with special fondness. “It was great fun, and for me I totally fell in love with rural Irish tracks. At Roscommon I had one of the best days of my racing life.”

Queen’s Gamble

Born almost to the day that Gina Galvin passed away, Alex and Gina’s son Edward share Gambling Girl’s Getaway daughter Queen’s Gamble, trained by Oliver Sherwood. Incredibly, the mare has a marking on her forehead in the shape of the letter G. A 10-length bumper winner at Cheltenham, Queen’s Gamble was then runner-up to the recent spectacular recent Aintree winner Dysart Enos next time out. Gina’s legacy lives on.

With a dozen mares at Ladyswood, Alex and his family love being close to their horses. The passion he and his family have for the animals helps to fuel his drive to grow his business, and the World Pool concept, to greater heights. While it may be an island on the edge of Europe, Frost is keen that the industry here benefits from that growth. His message is simple.

He concludes with this: “For Ireland, it’s tremendously important that people get behind what we are doing. We want those big days to work and fund the industry. All we ask from them is to feel the passion we feel to make this work.”

World Pool - what you need to know