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The win prize money for the last two races at redcar today does not even reach £2,000.
Even £2,000 is derisery in this day and age.
Costs of keeping a horse in training and racing are rising all the time but the prize money seems to be dropping.
The win prize money of £1,943 does not auger well for the sport in any way.
I haven’t given what i’m gonnae say much thought so it will probably be nonsense, but couldn’t the BHA put owners supplement fees into helping some owners with small stock get from A to B ? sometimes you see owners paying 100 grand to enter a horse into a race, and you have to woner where it goes. The same goes for fines.
Graeme
I would presume that since there is no shortage of entries for the prize money currently offered then extra incentives are superfluous.
Rob
Tom,
Any actual ideas, like what the minimum prize money should be, how such an increase would be funded etc.
Also bear in mind that even if prize money was somehow doubled overnight, owners certainly wouldn’t benefit by that much. Simple economic theory tells us that if more prize money was put into the system, trainers, jockeys, stable staff, vets, farriers, feed merchants, horse transporters and racecourses (via entry fees) would all want a share of the action.
"It should also be noted that both races had 40 runners declared between them."
I know, and that shows us that owners are willing to run for peanuts.
Quantity not quality rears its ugly head again.
and?
Your original post stated:
"Even £2,000 is derisery(sic) in this day and age."
Clearly 40 owners or sets of owners don’t think so, or don’t care.
Rob
Bob
Didn’t say it was, but those 40 owners don’t seem to mind!
The way to attack the problem seems to be to encourage more selective breeding. It’s a more practical way of cutting down racehorse numbers than finding whether or not horses are slow and then getting rid of them. But breeding is an inexact science and limiting breeding doesn’t necessarily guarantee better quality, though breeding from more robust proven stallions might conceivably provide more robust stock in the long run.
Clearly as things stand there is a market for the horses that are being bred.
Rob
As anticipated, Tom is happy making doom laden pronouncements, but offers nothing as an alternative.
As for owners ‘willing to run for peanuts’, if the choice is run for peanuts or don’t run at all, which would you expect them to choose?
As anticipated, Tom is happy making doom laden pronouncements, but offers nothing as an alternative.
As for owners ‘willing to run for peanuts’, if the choice is run for peanuts or don’t run at all, which would you expect them to choose?
Quite. We’ve been looking for a straight 7f on a flat course and the only option was to run today at Redcar. I agree that the prizemoney is derisory and if we had an alternative we certainly wouldn’t be running. As Alan says, we would rather run for peanuts than not run at all. It costs the same to keep the horse in training whether she runs or not.
Rob North wrote:
‘The way to attack the problem seems to encourage more selective breeding. It’s a more practical way of cutting down racehorse numbers than finding whether or not horses are slow and then getting rid of them. But breeding is an inexact science and limiting breeding doesn’t necessarily guarantee better quality, though breeding from more robust proven stallions might conceivably provide more robust stock in the long run.’
Agreed.Too much racing which IMO is going to kill the sport eventually.
Issues like stable staff wages,horses running on their merits and not least horse welfare are all potentially negatively affected by too much racing which I believe poor prize money is a reflection of as Doublethetrouble has illustrated so simply (above).
At the other extreme £567k for winning what turned out to be an under supported King George ( so its not all about prize money) but less than 2k for winning a maiden shows a sport that has unbalanced financing while the breeding industry continues to hit and hope with over production like Rob says and no good can come of it.Agreed.Too much racing which IMO is going to kill the sport eventually.
Can you give us your ideal scenario Bob? Meetings per day, minimum ratings for entry, minimum prizemoney etc…
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