"Our sport is fighting for survival, socially and economically." Gregor Baum used drastic words and underlined them with a video that revealed the current weaknesses of the German gallop sport.
Such honesty is not common when trying to get elected.
But the 100 members of the owners' association for thoroughbred breeding and racing (BV), who met Monday for the annual meeting at the Iffezheim racecourse near Baden-Baden, got the message across - the 56-year-old tree became the new president of the association on his birthday without a dissenting vote very influential BV elected.
“We need more betting revenue”
The entrepreneur, who works in the real estate sector, follows Manfred Ostermann, who resigned after 18 years in office.
"We need more betting income, we need new owners," says Baum, who has been associated with galloping for more than three decades - as owner, breeder and official.
Since 1989 he has been running the stud Brümmerhof with his wife Julia.
There are currently around 100 horses on the 250-hectare site in the Lüneburg Heath.
The exceptional mare Danedream, who won big races in Germany, Paris and Ascot, also grew up there, but not in the Brümmerhofer racing colours.
"The anger at having sold a very good horse too cheaply and quickly soon gave way to the pride of having bred a world-class horse," he said recently at the 200th anniversary of German galloping.
Feminine and younger
Danedream stands for the contradiction between the great international success of breeding and the difficult financial situation of the sport in its own country.
Baum knows this all too well, since he has been President of the Hanover Racing Club since 2005.
"We have to accept the challenges of the future together with the racing clubs," he emphasizes.
In order to achieve this, Baum has started with a team.
"The new board of the owners' association is more female, younger and equipped with many individual skills."
Nastasja Volz-Degel, trainer at the Ohlerweiherhof stud farm in Saarland, is one of them.
Baum calls her "one of the hopefuls of galloping".
Baum has made it his mission to get younger people into racing.
He sees the future of racing on a total of six pillars, including social acceptance, animal welfare - but also the question of how things will continue with large traditional studs if the offspring are not interested in the horses.
“We have to fight for every starter”
In his own family, Baum, who is also a partner in the second division football club Hannover 96, does not have to worry.
The two children are very enthusiastic and have traveled to Baden-Baden for the Great Week.
Baum sees the new operator there, Baden Galopp, as a positive example, and the restart of the traditional racecourse has been a success.
But even the organizer of the most important gallop meeting in Germany has his troubles.
On the first weekend, the fields of participants were unusually small.
"We have to fight for every starter," says Baden-Galopp Managing Director Stephan Buchner.
There are apparently too many races or more lucrative starting opportunities abroad for the existing horse population - around 2000 are in training in this country.
But Buchner had good news: The 152nd Wettstar Großer Preis von Baden and two other races will be broadcast live to Hong Kong on Sunday for the meetings finale.
In view of the Chinese passion for betting, Baden Galopp can count on additional income of at least 100,000 euros.
And it's also good in terms of sport: in the Grand Prix, Torquator Tasso, the winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, will most likely have a duel with the current derby winner Sammarco.
It should be the race of the year in Germany.