Racehorse trainers operate unregulated asset management businesses in which the assets owned by outside clients compete with those owned by trainers for the latter's time, care and attention. However, market mechanisms appear to deal effectively with the resulting agency problem in situations where it matters most. In a sample of 8000 racehorses and their associated stables, we find that client-owned horses do indeed perform worse than their trainer-owned counterparts in small stables that have relatively few outside clients, but that the reverse is true in large stables where client-owners provide much of the trainer's income -agents with more to lose apparently behave better. Moreover, they appear to have good reasons for doing so: client-owned horses that under-perform are more likely to be transferred to another stable, thereby causing a loss of income for the original trainer.

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This chapter introduces and discusses the nature of management in today's entertainment industries. This snapshot of entertainment management is developed by considering the following four key questions. (1) What is management and what do managers actually do? (2) What changes in business and wider society have led to changes in the way we manage? (3) What characterizes management in the entertainment industries? (4) And to what extent do the above considerations impact upon the skills required to be an accomplished manager within the entertainment industries?