Jones a smash hit

TWENTY years ago, Peter Jones's most notable achievement in public life concerned diminutive tin aliens, flat on their backs and laughing uncontrollably - their little legs kicking feverishly in the air - at the archaic methods used by British housewives to prepare mashed potato.

The campaign, subsequently voted the advert of the century by the trade, was for Smash instant potato, not a culinary gift to rank with truffles in loch fyne oyster sauce. What it did, though, was prove Jones's skill in giving a product previously dismissed as unappealing a high and positive profile.

In view of Jones's success in persuading us "For Mash, Get Smash", his progress in transforming the Tote should not be a total surprise.

This Saturday its chairman will present the prizes for the Tote Gold Trophy at Newbury, Europe's richest handicap hurdle, content at what has been achieved since he took office in August 1997: the firm's profile has come out of the sand, its home under Jones's predecessor Woodrow Wyatt, and profits are up.

But Jones, who hopes to be granted another five years in charge by Home Secretary Jack Straw when his time in office ends in July, is more mindful of what remains to be done.

"I am reasonably pleased, but I once went on a week's course with David Maister at Harvard Business School and one thing took out of it was that one should be permanently dissatisfied with what one is doing, because that is the only way get improvement," he says, after acknowledging the part played in the upward curve by the Tote's PR director Rob Hartnett and its chief executive John Heaton.

But, steered to the recent past, even Jones, who has overseen the introduction of the Trifecta and Exacta bets, cannot hide his pleasure at the way the Scoop6, covering six races - all on Channel Four - every Saturday, has been received.

The attempt of the so-called "Munchengladbackers" - a German- based syndicate led by the Racing Post's David Conolly-Smith - to win the bet's 1.2m bonus last month pushed racing onto the front pages, and Jones admits: "Scoop6 has worked extraordinarily well. One would have to say that it has exceeded our very best expectations.

"We have been a little bit fortunate in the sense that we have had some good runs of results a time when we needed them, so the pot has built up faster than we would have expected it to on the basis of past results.

"That has managed to get us lot of secondary publicity that we wouldn't otherwise have got.

"But I think the teaming up with Channel 4 has proved very successful for both our operations. It has given their programme a decent lift and it has helped with the publicity package for our bet.

"We have all been lucky with the Munchengladbackers, who were very good publicity."

Friday's announcement over the future of racing on television, following negotiations between broadcasters and the "Super 12" racecourses, meets with Jones's approval.

He added: "Scoop6 is built around those six terrestrial races, and one wouldn't expect the same level of viewer involvement if it had gone to satellite.

"My ideal scenario is for British racing to become part of a 24- hour digital racing channel around the world and that the people who bet on that racing channel bet on the Tote, and those benefits work back into British racing.

"Outside this country, particularly in the United States, there are interactive betting products, and the Tote will be looking to link with other operators internationally."

Within the next fortnight the Home Secretary will announce whether he has acceded to Jones' plea for the Tote to be placed in the hands of a trust to look after the interests of racing, rather than a bunch of shareholders.

He admitted: "It is of huge strategic importance that the benefit of the Tote stays for British racing, which is why I have always favoured the Tote going into a racing organisation - a broad-based trust that should include our own staff representatives and punters as well, rather than being floated on the stock market and potentially becoming just another bookmaker."

For the Tote, and the sport as a whole, Jones has no time for arguments for a reduction in the number of fixtures.

He went on: "I'm an expansionist for British racing. People who talk about too much racing and cutting back the fixture list are strange because what other business says 'We want to get smaller?' "I would like three meetings every weekday, which will satisfy the betting market, and do all the rest of the expansion at evenings and weekends.

"If we were able to get another 100 to 150 fixtures on the list, we would probably need 30 to satisfy the betting-shop criteria - the rest could go on attracting people to racing."

Jones has come a long way since putting on a sixpence each-way as a lad at his local newsagents in Dartmouth in the days before betting shops, but his thoughts are focused on the journey ahead.

He summed up: "The Tote has got a huge distance to go and I would like to be around for another five years to help it through that time. We can look back on the last few years with some satisfaction, but the real test is what we do in the next five."

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