Spare a thought for the trainers with no runners at Cheltenham

Next week the Irish horse racing industry will rightly be laser focussed on the successes of Irish-trained horses competing at Cheltenham. The four-day Festival is the biggest shop window for the sport, a time when a broad cross-section of the population becomes fully engaged with horse racing and the sport is headline news across mainstream media.

Dozens of Irish trainers, spearheaded by the all-conquering Willie Mullins, will send their very best horses over to the Cotswolds to compete on the biggest National Hunt stage and each and every victory will be lauded by both the media and racing industry back home.

But, amidst all the euphoria next week, spare a thought for the 300 other trainers in Ireland who don’t possess a horse capable of going to Cheltenham. The vast majority of Irish trainers, both on the Flat as well as over jumps, are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living from the sport.

One trainer rang me last week to highlight the fact that many, including himself, are seriously considering getting out of the game. He rattled off the names of several other trainers that have decided to pack it in and not to renew their licenses, and this did not include the recent high-profile retirements of Michael Hourigan, Michael Halford and Pat Martin.

The trainer I spoke to is going to give it one more year to see if his fortunes change, but with just over a dozen horses, mostly handicappers, in his care it is difficult to see his situation altering much in the next twelve months.

The smaller trainers are increasingly becoming feeder yards for the bigger operations, as whenever they do unearth a good horse it is invariably snapped up by wealthy owners and switched to a leading trainer.

Selling on their better horses is the main way most of the smaller operations can keep afloat, but in the longer-term that approach cannot be sustainable.

Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) are acutely aware of the struggles facing many of the country’s licensed trainers and only last year instigated a plan to introduce 60 National Hunt races that barred the current top four yards from entering horses. Unfortunately this initiative met with strong opposition and HRI have since rowed back on that plan.

Moving forward HRI will have to come up with something tangible to support the lower end of the training ranks or else the current trickle of trainers leaving the sport could quickly turn into a torrent.

There must be many trainers around the country currently running their businesses at a loss, supplementing their income through farming or other related activities.

Aside from the industry needing these trainers that are struggling to make ends meet to remain within the sport, the industry also needs to continually attract new trainers into the game, but at this moment in time it must be extremely difficult for a potential new entrant to make a solid business case for taking out a licence.

We are constantly told that Irish horse racing is a multi-billion euro industry, but many working at the coal face are struggling to survive.

I see the Hong Kong Jockey Club has a number of measures in place aimed at making horse racing ownership a “value proposition.” This includes subsidising the training fees that owners pay. Perhaps HRI could look at incentivising owners who put their horses in training with yards that have less than a certain number of horses or have had a limited level of success in recent seasons.

These incentives could potentially be linked to the horse’s Sales price. If you purchase a horse for €50K or more you qualify for a reduction in training fees for the first year if you place the horse in training with a smaller yard.

If these types of support were in place, even for a short period of time, for struggling trainers, it could breed new life into their businesses and I’d imagine many owners would consider keeping their horses with these trainers on full fees once they had built up a personal relationship with them.

Changing the subject, bookmakers are rarely in the news for the right reasons, but full credit must go to SkyBet for renaming the Skybet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, which they sponsor at Cheltenham next week, to the Michael O’Sullivan Supreme Novices Hurdle in memory of the Irish rider who sadly passed away two weeks ago.

Replacing their company branding with Michael’s name on the race he famously won two years ago at the Festival aboard Marine Nationale is a lovely touch.

Lastly, it is great to hear that Jack Kennedy has recovered from his latest setback and has been passed fit to ride just in time for Cheltenham. The reigning Irish Champion Jockey rode his first winner at the Festival aboard Labaik in the 2017 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the tender age of 17 and has since added another 11 winners to his tally.

With a bit of luck he will ride some more winners at the Festival this year and he may even add the Champion Hurdle to his CV now that the exciting Brighterdaysahead has been confirmed for the Tuesday’s opening day highlight.