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Letter of the Week

UK not utopia

I think several assertions in Peter Battistella’s latest pro-punter, anti-tote rant (14/9) should not go unchallenged.

Battistella seems to work off the premise that racing industry "taxes" on the punter should ideally be kept to the bare minimum, reasoning that the resulting increased turnover will produce a total income for racing as high as would be achieved by higher takeout rates (notably through the totes) and lower turnover.

He also feels that owning a horse in Australia is too costly, with yearling prices and training expenses bearing little relation to prizemoney.

He says our racing is "nothing more than a jigged-up affair for studs", though last time I checked the prices of yearlings were not set by studs but by buyers at auction.

Presumably these buyers, optimistic though they may be, go into those auctions with their eyes open about the slim chances of recouping their investment via prizemoney.

Battistella gives no credit to the tote-funded model that built Australian racing into the position it enjoys today — as an industry that on a per-capita basis is several times the size of the UK version.

While I would never suggest going back to the days of the off-course tote monopoly, I believe the "mixed economy" currently in operation in Australia — with bookmakers and, yes, Betfair, contributing a decent chunk of their turnover to put on the show — serves the sport well.

I concede that race-fields levies are ultimately paid by the punter, but why shouldn’t they be?

Finally, Battistella’s assertion that "a UK horse generally has just one or a couple of mates as owners" surely belongs in the realm of fantasy — unless the "couple of mates" he’s talking about are Michael Tabor and Sue Magnier.

Racing at the top level in the British Isles is dominated by Coolmore, Godolphin, a few wealthy sheikhs and owners such as soccer great Michael Owen, who have made a lot of money in another sphere and are gradually working their way through it by blowing it on horses.

Perhaps these battling solo/mates owners Battistella mentions are sending neddies around on the Polytrack at Kempton but I doubt they’re making any more money out of it than us mugs in Australia.

I’d suggest the main reason that large syndicates are the norm in Australian racing is not unrealistic yearling prices — cheap horses are available — but the fact that training expenses are so great that you have to be on a very good wicket to have the disposable income to have a horse trained on your own.

These costs have spiralled in the last few decades, but mainly for unavoidable reasons, such as the need for increased insurance cover in an ever more litigious world and the modern inconvenience of having to pay stablehands a living wage.

I can’t see that reduced margins for punters are going to alter that situation.

Dale Scott
Cremorne (Vic)
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