It’s as true now as it’s ever been that if you don’t ask you don’t get. It’s true too that those in the racing game are rarely backwards about coming forward when it comes to cash. But their pervasive disgruntled attitude towards prize money shows we really do live in an era of entitlement as opposed to enlightenment.
Long story short, trainers and owners feel Horse Racing Ireland isn’t putting enough into prize money. That’s HRI, the semi-State body that this year will get €79.2 million from the Government. Total prize money for 2025 is €70.9 million. Some of that comes from what HRI gets as part of racing’s media rights deal. Some of it is sponsorship. But most of it is public money.
Owners and trainers don’t think it’s enough. Their representative bodies recently argued that HRI put less into prize money last year than in 2019. That’s despite the total pot increasing by nearly €4 million during that time. The increased contribution of owners themselves and the European Breeders Fund largely filled the slack.
The argument goes that Irish racing loses international competitiveness if prize money levels slip. Owners will move horses to other jurisdictions, trainers will lose customers and be forced to let staff go, while the quality of the thoroughbred population here will be hit. The solution, apparently, is more of the trickledown economics that basically has the world in the state it’s in.
Asking for more public cash to boost prize money is worryingly shortsighted
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HRI is fully behind the discredited economic theory but has argued back that since 2019 there’s been a global pandemic. Government subsidies increased for a couple of years before returning to more normal levels. There are also legislative conditions on how and where it spends the money, not to mention competing demands on its resources.
That hasn’t gone down well. Disquiet with HRI rarely isn’t bubbling somewhere. But it doesn’t require much poking to unearth growing unrest at some of the organisation’s brass.
There is growing unrest too about the media rights deal negotiated by HRI, which runs to 2028. With much of it based on betting turnover, the sharp slide in the volume of business on racing is a problem. Extra races generating less yield stretches the product’s quality and appeal leading to a spiral of more is less.
Nevertheless, the bulk of prize money comes from HRI’s government allocation. The Horse & Greyhound Fund is a quarter of a century old. Its stimulus has transformed Irish racing. If much of the resultant success has mostly been for an oligarchy of owners and trainers, the valid argument can be made that such a concentration merely reflects broader economic trends.
Bodies looking out for trainers and owners can be forgiven their myopic self-interest to a certain extent. But their sense of entitlement is startling. It smacks of that old joke about the narcissistic opera singer – “me, me, me, me, me”. It is also remarkably tin-eared in relation to popular perception of public money being some sort of prerogative.
A racehorse is a luxury item. Worrying about prize money is probably a sign you can’t afford one. It is remarkable how many free marketeers insist that a horse should be able to pay for itself if it wins a couple of races a year. Maybe that’s the case in other jurisdictions but that’s not what the Irish market is and it’s arrogant to expect more State money to make it so.
Top owners and trainers wanting more prizemomey is no headline. They’re hoovering up most of it. Willie Mullins has won more than €4 million in Ireland so far this season. The trainer’s percentage of that is 6.8 per cent, which makes for a hefty sum. Mullins is one of a handful of trainers to win a million euro or more. Emmet Mullins is just outside the top 10 on nearly €370,000. And 6.8 per cent of that is no one’s idea of rich.
It reflects the reality in racing that purse money is very often a financial cherry on top of the business. And if it isn’t, that too might be a clue as to why someone might consider another line of work.
Owners may be attracted to having their horses trained in other countries. But that is often because those jurisdictions have self-sustaining financial structures rather than the singular situation here where the core product generates a small percentage of turnover and annual subsidy is at the discretion of Government.
All of it smacks of a dispiriting lack of perspective. It’s not like there aren’t structural shortcomings in urgent need of resources.
This is a sector without a proper traceability system for the animals at the heart of it. It means it is staring down both barrels of a reputational crisis as to what happens to them after their racing careers are over. Its integrity services cannot even afford fully professional stewards’ panels to police what happens on course. Regulating off course in relation to doping remains a minefield.
Spending on establishing a credible regulatory and welfare structure for the future remains woefully short. It’s only a matter of time before that comes home to bite hard. But rather than address that uncomfortable reality, the focus seems to be on the old chestnut of more prize money now.
If you don’t ask you don’t get. But outside of the racing bubble, presuming on more public cash to help keep owners engaged is a bad look and worryingly shortsighted.
Something for the Weekend
Willie Mullins continues his pursuit of the British trainers title with six runners in Saturday’s Scottish Grand National. Another Irish hope, Flash De Touzaine (3.35), could be a value bet instead. Third two years ago off 1lb higher in the ratings, he won last time at Limerick and relishes quick ground.
Better going can also help Kabral Du Mathan (2.15) emerge on top in the earlier Scottish Champion Hurdle.
