HRI unveils plans for Tipperary all-weather track and €12,500 minimum race purse
A second all-weather track in Ireland is seen as a key milestone in the plans of Horse Racing Ireland, chief executive Brian Kavanagh revealed this afternoon at the Curragh Racecourse.
Having just one such venue, which hosts less than a quarter of all flat racing in this country, leaves us “behind the international curve” and is seen as a risk by HRI.
Tipperary is set to be the venue for the track, which is hoped to be in place and up and running by 2022. HRI sees this as more than just a racecourse. It’s “a different type of project” according to Kavanagh, who explained that it will be “worked on jointly with Tipperary County Council and will be a community-type racecourse”.
It will also be a starter centre for young trainers to get going, and for a lot of non-equine activities. Proposals have been submitted to the rural regeneration scheme for funding assistance.
Improved welfare is also a key goal in the plan, with a new equine health and welfare campus to be started next year and completed by 2023. Along with continued assistance to racecourses through the grant scheme, this is one of the major capital investments of HRI over the next few years. With further investment in existing racecourses, the goal is to have one stable per horse for runners at all racecourses by 2022.
It is also planned to increase the total number of horses in training per year from 8,561 to 10,000, and to increase the number of race meetings per annum from 370 to 416 by 2024. In doing so, and by increasing the minimum race value from €10,000 to €12,500, for a total prize fund of at least €90m, HRI plans to offer a competitive race programme which allows all owners and trainers the opportunity to progress.
It is also working to increase employment in the racing and breeding sector, from 9,5000 to 12,000, with a increase in total employment to 35,000 from a current figure of 29,000. Total expenditure will increase from €1.8bn to €2.5bn.
The industry currently receives €67m through the horse racing fund and hopes to increase that figure to €98m by 2024. As Kavanagh explained, detailing increased government income from betting duty as just one factor: “We are not just coming with a begging bowl but coming with a basis by which that can be achieved.”
HRI Chairman Nick Hartery added: “It’s all about growing the grassroots. This industry gives significant return to the government. The most recent analysis shows that for every euro of government support the racing and breeding industry receives, it returns over €30 to the economy, mostly in rural Ireland.
“Following a series of changes in betting tax arrangements, off-course betting duty collected by the government in the year amounted to €94m in 2019. The figure comfortably exceeds Exchequer funding provided to horse racing and a projected growth in these receipts in the coming years will allow for a progressive increase in funding to €98m by 2024 at a reduced cost to the Exchequer.”
