The inaugural Irish Horseracing Awards ceremony took place in the Dublin today.
Paddy Mullins won the outstanding achievement award thanks mainly to the performances of Vintage Tipple (Darley Irish Oaks) and Nearly A Moose (Compaq Galway Plate). Mullins, who will turn 85 next month, was represented by his wife Maureen.
Dermot Weld was on hand to collect his Flat Award as were Barry Geraghty (National Hunt) and Padge Berry (Point-to-Point).
The awards were sponsored by Horse Racing Ireland in association with The Irish Racing Yearbook.
HRI chief executive Brian Kavanagh made a lengthy speech, firstly paying respects to Kieran Kelly, Sean Cleary and Timmy Houlihan, before launching a scathing attack on racing’s critics.
Having outlined the major highlights of the last year Kavanagh said: “ In recent years racing has been Ireland’s most consistently successful international sport.”
Against this background he addressed the negative comments made about Irish racing in recent weeks. “Whether they have been for political purposes, or by off-course bookmaking firms pursuing their own agendas, they have been ill informed, inaccurate and damaging to our sport.”
“The funding of €65 million for horse racing and greyhound racing industries should be considered against a background where the turnover in betting shops this year is expected to exceed €2 billion.”
“Research carried out by the Galway Race Committee this year showed that their festival alone contributed €60 million back into the local economy. Put another way, the equivalent of the entire funding for both industries was returned into the economy in one single week.'
In response to accusations that Irish racing has declining punter appeal Kavanagh continued: “ This year 1.4 million people will have attended racemeetings, the highest total ever. On average just under 5,000 people attend each meeting compared to an average of 590 for greyhound racing.”
“In the last five years on-course betting on Irish racing has increased by 42% and off-course betting on Irish racing has more than doubled. In these five years over €100 million has been spent on racecourse capitol developments and a further €100 million will be spent in the next five years.”
The final portion of his speech tackled the matter of taxation and he said: “Since the late 1960’s one element of the racing and breeding industry, namely stud fees, has been exempt from tax and this has resulted in the best stallions in the world standing here. Let’s be very clear however, that every other area of horseracing and breeding is liable for and pays taxes to the exchequer.”
