Irish racing going all ‘béal bocht’ about prizemoney a hard sell … and even harder listen

Those looking for a snapshot of Irish racing’s political instincts only had to watch one of its most high-profile figures, Michael O’Leary, fish for controversy with baiting comments on teachers that the Ryanair boss was no doubt delighted to see swallow up much of this week’s election narrative.
In front of an adoring Fine Gael audience, O’Leary underlined his free-market credentials by having a cut off public service to puff the value of private enterprise. Too many teachers in the Dáil he said, basically riffing on the old refrain about how those who can do, and those who can’t teach.
To a roomful of appreciative chamber of commerce types, it was catnip stuff. Irish business’ straight-talking strongman preaching to the converted about how survival-of-the-fittest bottom line identifies those who know how to get things done.
Irish racing likes to see itself in similar terms, a tough game for tough people who, in O’Leary-speak, get up off their arses and make it happen. Only the strongest prosper. Anyone quibbling about less-than-level playing fields are whingey lefties; there’s only one kind of Trot in the racing game.
It’s remarkable, though, how those free-market instincts are parked when it comes to public finance.
Some €76 million in State funding is going into racing this year. It will be €79.2 million in 2025. That money is generated from betting tax put into the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund — and topped up if necessary — despite the anomaly of Irish racing generating little more than 10 per cent of betting turnover.
Much of it goes towards prizemoney. Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) budgeted for €69.4 million this year. Outside of media rights income and sponsorship, almost half of that came from the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund. HRI frames this in terms of a stimulus, but after more than 20 years critics would argue that this looks a lot like subsidy.
Unsurprisingly, those successful figures at the top of the game never tire of saying how important prizemoney is. They are, after all, getting most of it. O’Leary has said he uses what he gets to cover training fees that go to a handful of top trainers such as Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott.
Grumbling about prizemoney has grown noticeably louder this year. Owners, apparently, feel short-changed and might not have horses in training any more, with a ripple effect on those various professional sectors catering to them. The argument is that a horse capable of winning races should be funding its owner’s enjoyment.
It is remarkably tin-eared stuff. Never mind the contradiction of so many hard-nosed business types looking for more State aid: everyone pushes the envelope, even more so perhaps when it has a harp on it. But going all “béal bocht” to the government about more prizemoney is a hard sell, and a hard listen sometimes.
Racehorses are a luxury item. Anyone depending on prizemoney to own one probably shouldn’t have one. That’s particularly so since the extent of personal responsibility to that animal once it isn’t racing any more is becoming an increasingly urgent matter for the sport’s sustainability, something, it seems, yet to fully register in the industry.
On the back of RTÉ’s animal abuse programme at the Shannonside abattoir last summer, ex-trainer Ger Hussey handed HRI a proposal for how best to systemically rehome and retrain retired racehorses. It is an attempt to reduce wastage rates that have always been a stain on the sport but are now coming more and more under the spotlight.
Crucial to Hussey’s system is that would make it mandatory for owners and trainers to log their horses when exiting racing. That way, animals don’t fall off the radar with potentially disastrous outcomes. He doesn’t claim it to be faultless. It might even be naive to an extent. Some of it is designed to generate public debate on a sensitive matter.
[ Ex-trainer says Horse Racing Ireland response to plan for retired racehorses is ‘discouraging’Opens in new window ]
But HRI equine welfare director John Osborne has dismissed it, mostly on the basis that the industry operates on “stimulated spend” generated by prizemoney. Levies imposed to pay for the centralised hub outlined by Hussey would run opposite to that, Osborne argued, discouraging owners from doing what they are encouraged to do with their own property. The idea of mandatory, it seems, might scare the horses.
However, evidence of how some individuals don’t voluntarily live up to their responsibilities has been stark and to the cost of racing’s reputation. Hussey has described HRI’s response as “discouraging”.
Perhaps just as dispiriting is how he says plenty of figures within racing like his ideas, but no straight-talking, high-profile figure is prepared to stick their head above the parapet and publicly say so. Instead, there’s an attitude of keeping heads down and hoping the problem goes away. Except, the issue of how best to deal with ex-racehorses isn’t going anywhere.
Irish racing doesn’t seem to have any problem with the collective when it comes to squeezing money out of government, only to then turn much more every-man-for-himself. It’s an instinct that O’Leary & Co might appreciate. But at some point, finding reasons not to act must change to a position of getting things done before this issue blows up in racing’s face.
It’s 15 years since an Irish-trained winner of the Paddy Power Gold Cup but Lets Go Champ (2.20pm) could change that at Cheltenham tomorrow. Dropped in trip from his last start in the Galway Plate, Henry De Bromhead’s runner should relish quick going. The ground could also be key in tomorrow’s Fortria at Navan where Gentleman De Mee (2.33pm) is weighted to go close.