Bookmakers off course with HRI criticism
They were putting in all these figures but they seem to have forgotten was that there has been a huge level of improvement at a lot of the racecourses and stable yards in that time as a result of that expenditure.
Leopardstown, Fairyhouse and Punchestown are just some examples of courses where significant improvements have been made, improvements that were very badly needed.
The IBA referred too to money paid to HRI executives. But what are the bookmakers paying their executives? Did they ever discuss that? You can take figures and make them look good or bad. You throw out figures of so many millions and they make a great headline. People look at them as one huge sum as if it was all spent in one short period rather than an accumulation over a long period of time, which is the case here.
I would agree with Brian Kavanagh and Barry Geraghty that this is just a smokescreen. The bookmakers don’t want the betting tax to be increased, but that’s what’s needed. It’s the only way that racing can become self-sufficient, that it can run itself without having to rely on handouts from the government.
This way, money spent in racing would stay in racing. There has to be some way of getting a percentage of the offshore betting and the betting exchanges. If you can get the necessary legislation for that, racing will have a healthy future because we can have more improvements.
The real point here that the bookmakers are missing and that I think a lot of people in general don’t think about, is that there is so much more at stake here than a day at the races.
Racing as an industry employs more than 20,000 people and most of those are based in rural areas. If racing was to go in the morning it would have a terrible effect on the countryside.
This is about supporting rural communities as much as anything. Apart from the employment that is provided in rural areas, you have the people in the yards doing their business in there. They go to the local grocers, the local pub, the local petrol station.
That is the nub of the matter. Some people view racing as this upper class hobby and everyone having a great day at the races, but it’s not just about what happens at the track, it’s what happens behind the scenes.
So many different people deal with a horse from the time it is a foal to when it runs its first race… the vet, the stud staff, the farmer who owns the mare, the farrier, the sales reps and so on and so on.
So it’s a much wider industry. And because it is a rural industry and keeps people in the countryside, it just has to be retained at its current level if not improved further. And with an increase in betting tax, which can be ploughed back into racing, we won’t even have to get money from the Exchequer to do that.
It was nice to be nominated for the Best Achievement category of the HRI awards during the week, and for Pathfork to get a nomination for Horse of the Year where the competition is very stiff. He wouldn’t have the profile of those he’s up against but it’s a good sign his achievements as a two-year-old have been acknowledged.
It’s great that the industry has theses awards, the same as the GAA has the All Stars and Player of the Year. We combine horses, trainers, jockeys, flat, national hunt and point-to-point and I’m looking forward to the day.
Before that, I have another night out, with Pathfork and Laughing Lashes having been nominated amongst the top five in the two-year-old colt and filly categories respectively for the English awards, the Cartiers. I fly over for those on Tuesday and again, it should be good fun.
Looking at the Breeders’ Cup, I obviously took a keen interest in the Juvenile race as Pathfork had been due to take his chance before his setback. Uncle Mo was very impressive and they’re talking about him as the American version of Frankel. It wasn’t a good two days for Europe but Goldikova was very good.
All the talk was about Zenyatta and I seem to be in the minority when thinking that rather than the jockey being at fault, she was acting the madam a bit after getting a mouthful of dirt coming out of the stalls. She just didn’t fancy it coming out of the stalls and wasn’t going. Once she decided she was though, the ground she made up was incredible.
I was very happy with Saludos winning a good beginners’ chase on Saturday. He battled well and put Lucky William under pressure, probably causing his mistake at the last. I think our horse would have won anyway. He probably needed that run the last day and will head for Leopardstown over Christmas now.
Roberto Goldback delighted me with his second, particularly as he jumped well while Bob Le Beau got upset in the stalls and made up an amazing amount of ground to be second in the listed race at Dundalk. Shane Foley lost his whip as well so with almost everything going wrong, it was a great run and we can look forward to him next year.
After having so many runners last week, it’s quieter this weekend. Bostons Gift is a half-brother of Bostons Angel but has been very disappointing. We’ll make a decision about him after this. I would be hopeful Oscars Well will go close though.
