Racegoers availing of reduced admission prices© Photo Healy Racing
Racecourses have made great strides in recent times to improve the race day experience for owners — increasing the number of free entry tickets available, priority parking, exclusive owners’ lounges, free food and in some cases free drinks. All admirable as owners are seen as the life-blood of the industry.
Owners are of course a vital cog in the system, they keep the breeders and sales companies in business, pay the training fees which indirectly cover all the staff wages, transport costs, vet’s fees, farriers fees and jockey fees.
But what about the punters?
Not only do punters effectively pay the wages of the 6,000 odd employed in the betting industry in Ireland, they also subsidise the prizemoney of every race through taxation and levies.
Take a standard race with total prizemoney of €12,000. The entry fees for the owners are €84 with an additional €24 to be paid if the horse is declared to be run. A typical race I looked at had 22 entries of which 15 declared to run (average field size in Ireland is only 11). The total contribution paid by owners through entries was €2,208. The owners also pay the riding fees - €185 National Hunt or €160 Flat — and all other cost associated with getting the horse to the races but there can’t be many other social pastimes or even commercial activities where less than 20% of the value of the purse is put up by the participants.
In fairness, the owners look to be getting a good deal here having their pastime, which it surely is for the vast majority, heavily subsidized by a combination of direct Government funding via HRI, Media Rights, and race sponsorship.
So you would be forgiven for thinking that the punters who underpin these subsidies would get the red-carpet treatment when they turn up at the races but that’s not the case. They often have to pay to park their car, pay again to enter the racecourse, pay for a race programme, pay over the odds for food and drink and are offered betting products which in general fall some way short of what is available either off-course or online.
Punters are treated differently to owners but in reality most owners are simply punters that bought a horse. It is the thrill of backing horses that first got many owners hooked on racing and the dream of one day owning a winner burns bright for every punter.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the industry acknowledged the contribution of the ordinary punters and gave them a little of the VIP treatment. This could be achieved through loyalty schemes and might even give a shot in the arm to ailing on-course bookies and Tote if punters were incentivised to bet with them rather than on their phones.
I recently read a comment from a prominent industry figure bemoaning the fact my employer, The Irish Times, and other national newspapers were giving poor coverage to racing in comparison to other sports. He also foresees a time when the race cards will be dropped from the ‘Dailys.’ This is an area where racing may be missing a trick.
Newspapers and all other media outlets pay significant fees for publishing race cards and results. This is one of the biggest costs for irishracing.com annually. In a time when most of the Media, and print in particular, are struggling to make ends meet a deal could be struck whereby some of these charges are waved in return for a guaranteed level of coverage for racing.
Looking back to the marathon Galway Festival I noticed some surprising stats from the week. Not regarding the usual attendance and betting figures but around the aids used by trainers in an effort to eke out improvement in their charges.
More and more horses are running with aids such as tongue-straps, blinkers, cheek-pieces, hoods and visors but do they really work? Well it appears not when it comes to Galway. Of the 74 horses fitted with cheek-pieces only two were successful. A further four managed to win wearing blinkers but the vast majority of races, 39 of the 52, were won by horses sporting no aids at all.
Another remarkable aspect of these stats is that, while there is a tendency to try something new for big races such as those at Galway, no horse won at this year’s meeting in any first-time gear. 66 horses wore first-time aids at the Festival, 18 of which went off at odds of 10/1 or less, but not a single one managed to win.
Lastly, it appears a growing number of racing fans are getting involved in Racing Clubs. While I’m sure these fans join the clubs with their eyes open and the clubs themselves do go to great pains to explain both the format and T&C’s involved in membership I find it somewhat puzzling that HRI is endorsing these clubs as a form of horse ownership. In many cases these Club members don’t own any part of the horses running in the Club colours and receive no share of prizemoney won. Not quite my idea of ownership.
Brian O’Connor is on annual leave and his regular blog will return next Monday.
