Is Irish Racing's Prize Money Crisis A Threat to Ownership?

By Connor Whitley

The level of prize money in Ireland means the best horses are going to be sold abroad no matter what.

That is according to irishracing.com’s Irish Angle team, speaking on this week’s show about the economics of owning a racehorse.

irishracing.com editor Vincent Finegan highlighted the issue in his blog this week, explaining that even successful horses in Ireland barely cover their training costs.

The government, via Horse Racing Ireland, contributes just over 60% of all prize money for races in Ireland and with little prospect of that increasing, the situation is unlikely to improve.

First-Hand Experience Paints A Clearer Picture

Racing journalist Johnny Ward spoke of the personal struggles he has faced as a part-owner of horses.

He explained: “The first horse that I was involved in happened to be good and even though I only had a 10% stake in him. It's like having your first bet, you're better off with losers really.

“I've been involved in more horses than the average person for the salary I'm on anyway.

“I'm a freelance journalist, and if you look at the cost of how much everything has gone up in price over the last few years, my wages do not go up. They just don't go up at all by a general rule. So, whatever I'm on is getting less every year.

“I'm still lucky to be in the work I'm in, but my wages will stay the way they are while everything else goes up.

“In horse racing, it's kind of like that. Your training fees are going up, the cost of the horse going to the races, petrol, diesel, all of that's going up. The trainer has to increase his or her fees because everything he or she is paying is going up.

“Once you actually start winning, your prize money is stagnant at best.

“I still get sucked back into it for whatever reason. The amount of money that I have

spent on training fees, I actually don't want to know how much it is.

“The amount of things that go wrong, if the horse is of any use the likelihood of getting injured [is higher].

“Owning a horse, for me, is becoming really difficult because prize money is really poor in Ireland, really, really poor.

“You could go to a 25-runner flat handicap in Navan. It's very competitive and six grand to the winner so you'll take home about four grand maybe, but it won't pay two months training fees.

“That’s if you're one of the one of the winners, 24 of the horses don't win and then your trainer has to tell you ‘The horse had a setback, it might be six months out’.

“The economics of it are absolute basket case at the moment. If you want to waste money, get involved in horse ownership, unfortunately.”

The Top Of The Sport Drained

Emma Nagle explained that this issue is the root cause behind smaller fields in the bigger races this season.

She said: “The prize money at the lower levels just isn't good enough to sustain someone keeping a horse in training to maybe get to the level of running in a Colm Quinn Mile or a premier handicap or Group 1 or 2 in Ireland.

“There’s a select number of owners who can afford to keep horses in training no matter what they're earning but for the majority of owners you want your horse to at least pay their way.

“But then if you happen to come across a nice horse who maybe wins a Maiden as a two-year-old, shows form as a two-year-old, looks progressive, they're going to be getting massive offers from abroad, from jurisdictions like Hong Kong and Australia, where the prize money is huge, and you're getting offered a sum of money that you just really can't turn down.

“Economically, the majority of racehorse owners are relatively wealthy people, but it would just make no sense to turn down the money given what a horse might end up earning in their career in Ireland, it's going to be minuscule in comparison. You'd have to be very lucky to earn what they're being offered to sell them abroad.

“It’s an issue stemming from the bottom. The prize money for the lower level races just isn't good enough to entice an owner into keeping a horse in training.

“Most owners just want to have a bit of fun with their horses but at the same time you don't want to be losing massive money and if you're getting offered money from abroad after your horse shows some bit of form you're likely to sell it.

“That means there isn't that higher level of horse to compete in those good handicaps and take on the bigger stables in the Group races. Owners have their hand forced to sell.

“You can even see it in the St Leger on Saturday in the UK. There’s only eight confirmations and four or five of them are from Ballydoyle.

“It’s definitely a worry. At that level of racing there should be bigger fields and more variety among owners and trainers.

“In my opinion it stems down to prize money. It's not economically viable anymore for most owners to have horses in training in Ireland or in the UK because it costs so much and if you're getting offers from abroad you're going to sell them and then the good horses leave the country.

“It’s going to be a problem down the line for both Ireland and the UK.”

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