Here’s a true story about a middle range trainer with a top class chaser in his yard. The owner of said horse approached another trainer to see if he’d want to take on a bumper horse with dodgy legs. This trainer was happy to do so, hoping it might lead to bigger things in time.
When the owner asked about costs, the trainer quoted his usual terms. What about expenses said the owner. Don’t understand said the trainer.
Whereupon the owner explained that the trainer of his top class horse had charged him £5,000 expenses when the horse ran at a big NH festival in order to cover the cost of a private box for the trainer, his family and friends. The owner, chuffed to bits at winning a big race, assumed this was normal business and paid up.
When this was repeated later the same year after the conversation reported above, he decided enough was enough.
Not all trainers rely on the weekly fees ……………