Jockeys Accident Fund recorded a loss of €610,000 in 2022

In 2021 — its first year of existence as a company rather than a charity — the Jockeys Accident Fund recorded a surplus of €180,000. Its latest accounts show a loss of €610,000 in 2022, Stock picture: PA 

A company established to assist injured horse racing jockeys recorded a loss of €610,000 in 2022, following a surplus of €180,000 in 2021, its first year of existence as a company rather than a charity.

The Jockeys Accident Fund (JAF) provides benefits to professional jockeys and apprentices injured during work and emergency costs to riders from other jurisdictions injured racing in Ireland.

Its latest accounts show the company recorded a €351,000 increase in administrative expenses and a €333,000 negative adjustment in the “fair value” of financial assets in 2022.

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) website states that income for the JAF is “derived from owners and jockeys’ levies, a portion of jockeys and apprentices’ annual licence fees, stake percentages won by Qualified Riders, investment income and voluntary donations.”

The JAF funds research into jockeys’ health. It receives some funding from the IHRB, which is itself partially State-funded.

The fund was originally founded in 1933 and was listed as a charity in 2014 when the Charities Regulator was established.

However, it was removed from the Register of Charities in April 2021.

The JAF’s official registered address is at the headquarters of the IHRB, at the Curragh, in Co Kildare.

It is one of at least five similar funds — the Irish Jockeys’ Trust, the Jockeys’ Emergency Fund, the Irish Injured Jockeys Fund Ltd, and the Qualified Riders Accident Fund, being the others — listed or previously listed with the Charities Regulator.

The IHRB is the regulatory body for horse racing in Ireland and is also funded by the sport’s administrative body Horse Racing Ireland (HRI). Some €76m in State funds was allocated to horseracing in last week’s budget.

The IHRB’s most recent accounts state that the board “provides the personnel free of charge” to administer the JAF, while the board paid a total of €159,000 in licensing income to the fund in 2020 and 2021.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner, the IHRB explained that the JAF is a recipient of mandatory contributions from licence fees paid by jockeys and qualified riders and that the funds were transferred to the JAF by the IHRB under the Rules of Racing but added that the organisation was not “decision maker” in relation to how the funds are used.

“We receive money on behalf of the JAF and we transfer it to their account.”

The JAF’s secretary for the 2022 accounts was Donal O’Shea, the IHRB chief financial officer. He is on voluntary leave from his role at the IHRB without prejudice to his position, pending an investigation into a financial matter.

The financial situation at the IHRB is the subject of a review by Mazars.

Asked by the Irish Examiner how it should contact the JAF, given it is registered to the IHRB, the spokesperson suggested that the query be directed to the JAF via post or email to the IHRB, which would then “redirect” the query.

The Irish Examiner also put queries about the €610,000 to Horse Racing Ireland, whose board members on the JAF include both its own board member Caroline Corballis and the HRI’s nominee, its head of risk and compliance, Claire Rudd.

A HRI spokesperson replied that the queries are a matter for the IHRB and “the boards of the individual entities”.

“Horse Racing Ireland does not wish to comment on those matters,” they said.

When the Irish Examiner pointed out that both Ms Corballis and Ms Rudd are on the board of the JAF, the HRI spokesperson said that “the JAF have reverted and confirmed that there is no comment at this time”.