Spread the wealth

Again we hear of the near-critical situation of mounting debts owed to trainers and the rest of the "supply chain" in the racing industry caused by non-paying owners.

This has become a perennial complaint and will continue to get worse. Yet it is all left to the trainers to sort out when there are obvious systemic causes to the problem.

We call racing an "industry" but it is still being run as a hobby. No industry can survive the way the funding in racing is managed. Far too many horses competing, with the vast majority failing to cover their costs. That is a statistical fact and it is simply not viable. If it was a commercial enterprise, it would certainly go bankrupt.

A year ago I heard this and had my letter printed in Winning Post. All I heard in response was that we don’t want to introduce "socialism" into racing. Now those very same people are complaining that they are going broke because their owners are not paying their bills!

I recently heard Peter V’landys, the CEO of Racing NSW, say that it costs more than $250 million to train all the racehorses in NSW, but only about half of that, $120 million, is paid out in prizemoney. The numbers in Victoria wouldn’t be too much different, at least proportionately.

Say a total of $500 million in costs and $300 million in prize money for both states. Close enough for my point.

Now, prizemoney for the winner of each race is around 60 percent of the total prize pool, and there are many horses that are multiple winners. It can only mean that the vast majority of horse owners are nowhere near getting a return, if anything, on their investment and are subsidising the NSW and Victorian racing industries by close to $400 million.

People will criticise the use of the word "investment" and say that people are in horse racing for the fun of it. Try telling that to the leaders of the "industries" and all serious stakeholders. Horse racing is big business, yet it is fundamentally subsidised by losers — big losers. It is no better than a casino.

Now, how much better would it be for everyone in the "industry" if horse owners were more equitably rewarded for their essential contribution? Try running a race program without horses!!

No, I am not asking for more prizemoney. I am simply asking for a more equitable distribution of prizemoney than the current antiquated system, changed little from the days when the original "sport of kings" only paid the kings.

Why not take a leaf out of every other sporting event that involves multiple participants, where the very numbers are essential for that sport? Could you just imagine if the Australian Open, the Formula One racing or the open golf championships paid 60 percent of their prize pools to the winner?

There would be no "opens" or "championships" because there would not be enough participants.

Whether the powers that be like it or not, that is happening to the racing industry right now and has been happening for several years.

Racehorse owners are cutting down on the numbers that they own, even to the extent of pulling out altogether — or, worse still, simply not paying their trainers.

All that would be required is for the percentages of the prize pool to be redistributed. Instead of 60 percent for the winner, why not 35 and split the rest proportionately down to sixth place? Keeping in mind that there is also a massive flow-on effect to those winners, with significant increases in their individual value and also that of their entire family.

That would release over $100 million to the "non-winners" and significantly improve the returns to those owners, their ability to pay the ever-increasing charges and the retention rate of owners in the industry.

When does "fun" stop being fun? Just ask the thousands of racehorse owners that are perpetual non-winners!