Inflation – What’s That?

[apracing]

At the end of August the BHA issued a press release boasting about increases in the minimum prize money values for all classes of race.

The official program book for January has just been published and it shows prize money will be lower than it has been this year for almost all races.

E.g. my own horse, Love Dreams, runs in a class 5 0-75 handicap at Kempton tomorrow evening. These are the penalty value figures for that race and an identical race at Kempton in January:

2022 Total race value £8000
Distributed in accordance with Stakes and Prize Money Code
£3996 to the winning horse
The second to receive £1875, the third £938, the fourth £469,
the fifth £300 and the sixth £300

2023 Total race value £7350
Distributed in accordance with Stakes and Prize Money Code
£3846 to the winning horse
The second to receive £1805, the third £901, the fourth £451
and the fifth £224

It’s much the same across the board, with class 4 total money down from £11,000 to £10,350. Class 6 races will be run for £5,350.

Only when you reach class 3 races or better, is the total money the same or better than this year. This is apparently going to discourage owners from selling horses to race abroad. Good luck with that, when Arab and Australian buyers are paying six figure sums for any 2yo or 3yo rated over 80 with recent good form.

Just as an example, a 2yo called Hello Deira, that I saw at Salisbury when he was beaten at 7/2 on in a novice stakes in August. He went on to win two nurseries, one at Redcar, one at Kempton, after which he was rated 86. He’d won a total of £16,000 in five starts. He sold at the Autumn HIT sale for 180,000 gns and will continue his career in Qatar.

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