RACING: Representatives of the newspaper trade yesterday poured scorn on the British Horseracing Board's plans to defer the increase of charges for racecard data.

BHB officials have agreed to extend their current media racecard arrangements until the end of next year with a view to discussing the increases with members of the Newspaper Publishers Association.

However, NPA managing director Steve Oram firmly rejected any thoughts of an immediate agreement. He said: "There is no possibility of agreement until the BHB unequivocally withdraw their charges for an increase in fees. "

Newspapers currently pay around £3,400 each year for racecard data, which earns an estimated £300,000 for the BHB. However, the suggested circulation-based charge was expected to generate over £2 million and would have resulted in an annual bill of around £230,000 for a paper like the Daily Mail, based on .03p per copy of circulation for a year.

The Sun currently pays around £3,500 a year but under the new charges that figure would have shot up to £340,000 Newspapers reacted angrily by withdrawing cards and dropping sponsors' names from race titles.

Colin Gibson, sports editor at the Daily Mail, is pleased with BHB's decision to scrap pricing plans but revealed they have no plans to reinstate sponsors' names in today's paper. He said: "We think it is a complete and total humiliation for BHB and it shows they have realised their complete stupidity on this matter and those responsible should stand down. We will want to discuss how we progress in the future now.

"Entire coverage of racecards was suspended for one day yesterday and that seemed to bring them to their knees but until we are contacted by the NPA, we have no plans at the moment to reinstate sponsors names."