To hell with the golden knobs and get the basics right
According to the Post, HRI is “looking into the issue (of balloting)”. Excuse me for a second while I fall round the place laughing.
Morris is quoted as saying: “We held a board meeting on Monday and balloting was obviously discussed. It was recommended that a sub-committee be set up to examine the situation further and produce a report outlining what options might be available for the future and what measures can be taken.”
You’d imagine balloting had just recently reared its ugly head. It has been with us for years, for God’s sake, and appointing a so-called sub-committee, which will produce a report somewhere in the distant future, is about as useful as getting a fork with your soup.
Trainer Andrew McNamara, who recently called for a debate on balloting and has very much led the charge, yesterday hit out at HRI.
“This is an urgent crisis and needs immediate attention,” he said. “HRI is getting the money allocated to them all wrong. Too much is going into one bag and not enough into another.
“Could they not stall putting in the golden knobs at the Curragh and Leopardstown for a while and try to get the basics right?”.
McNamara hit out as well at the Trainers’ Association and the Owners’ Association. “I am underwhelmed by both, have they gone away?”, he asked.
To further emphasise the problem that so many trainers now have, McNamara cited a horse he has in his yard which was last seen in action at Tramore on August 15.
“I have entered him regularly since, but he keeps getting balloted out,” reported the handler.
Anyway, if HRI’s attitude continues then there is clearly going to be no effort made whatsoever to find a solution, at least in the short term.
Morris indicated as much in the Post, when he admitted “there is simply no prize money surplus around to allocate extra meetings.” And, with that comment, HRI is, apparently, off the hook. Yeah right.
So why is there no prize money surplus around? HRI’S annual report for 2004 tells us that prize money for the year totalled €51.46m.
Is anyone claiming, given a proper structure, that this massive amount isn’t enough to fund a civilised programme through the year?
What we have at the moment is chaos, utter chaos, typified by 151 entries for a maiden hurdle at Wexford on Saturday, a course which can only cater for 16 at a time. Farcical.
But trainers, who have long since given up on having any sort of plan for a lot of their horses, are simply forced to fire entries at every race available to them.
Look, you don’t need any sub-committee to conclude there is no easy solution to what is a major problem, but the whole allocation of prize money needs a massive overhaul.
Michael Hourigan, who is clearly going to have a lot more runners cross-channel over the coming months, summed it up when lashing out last Sunday.
Hourigan said he has owners who will race for three grand just as easily as ten grand. HRI must take that comment on board.
Very few people could find fault with the level of prize money in Ireland and that is hugely positive.
But it is surely the manner in which that money is being allocated which sees HRI with nothing left.
They must grasp the nettle and make the hard decisions. There has to be a huge reduction in the money for certain events and those Premier races on the flat should be the first for butchering.
Lots of contests need to have prize money drastically reduced. The money saved there should then be put into funding a lot more race meetings, particularly in the winter months.
Morris made the point that “we funded eight extra fixtures this season.” Feel another burst of laughter coming on.
Eight is nothing, absolutely nothing, a mere pebble in the ocean. It would be no exaggeration to say that an extra four meetings a week, for the next five months, wouldn’t go astray.
But it won’t happen, because HRI has no money, by its own admission, to fund them.
Andrew McNamara is right, to hell with the golden knobs and get the basics right.
Glance at the entries for England day-by-day and you will notice a growing trend as Irish trainers enter more and more horses.
Liam Burke, who is blue in the face from having his charges balloted out, has three runners at Taunton this afternoon and fellow trainer Rodger Sweeney has one.
The money on offer is moderate, but they haven’t gone for that, they just want to run their horses.
It is an absolute joke there is no meeting in Ireland today and an even bigger joke that not one National Hunt race was run this week from last Sunday until this Saturday. Mind you there is no shortage of racecourses advertising upcoming schooling races.
But why are we surprised, it isn’t the first Irish problem which has been exported to Britain.
