by Brian de Lore
Published 25th June 2021
Melbourne trainer Mick Price poignantly reflected the needs of the racing industry earlier this week when quoted in ANZ Bloodstock News as saying, “…ideally more could be done to help owners recoup their costs at the beginning of a horses career, which is imperative to keep owners in the sport.”
His comment came after Racing Victoria announced a $16 million injection of prize money for 2021-22 that failed to increase midweek racing in Melbourne where city-trained horses are likely to commence their racing careers and either graduate to Metropolitan Saturday racing or descend to country racing.
Even though a midweek maiden at Sandown is unchanged from the current season for 2021-22, the prize money is a $50,000 minimum. Racing Victoria has elected to leave metropolitan midweek as is, but increased metropolitan Saturdays from $125,000 to $130,000 and country TAB meetings from $23,000 to $25,000.
For New Zealanders, the $50,000 Sandown midweek is a comparative luxury when we line up for only 20 percent of that figure (exchange rate not considered). The cost of training a horse in Melbourne is around $68,000/year, which former New Zealand trainer Mike Moroney says covers everything, whereas a full year’s fees in a Matamata stable gives you no change from $40,000.
If you accepted that Matamata is a Sandown equivalent, racing for 20 percent of the stake when you’re paying 60 percent of the costs is a thrice worse situation here compared to Melbourne, and yet Mick Price is saying it’s not an equitable situation for them and the majority of owners are neglected.
Price strongly argues that most owners fall into the maiden and benchmark 70 (R65 equivalent in NZ) category, and after talking to the participants, he thinks it’s best to increase prizemoney in that majority group than see fewer horses in training from the depletion of owners. How can you argue against that view?
The luxury of Victorian racing is the number of options available below midweek metropolitan racing. Country racing this coming season will offer a minimum of $25,000, and below that, a non-TAB meeting minimum is $15,000. The lowest rung for the slow ones, picnic racing, provides no less than $5,000 a race.
Comparing New Zealand to Victoria, the biggest disparagement is in the maiden/R65 group. We know most owners will lose because the majority of horses going to the races are hay burners that will never pay their way, but to disincentivise the losing owner from coming back into the next horse by failing to increase the minimum is to shrink the ownership pool.
Last week, this column supplied evidence of the diminishing broodmares bred and lowering of the foal crop. The breeders are also racehorse owners by necessity, just as we have seen growing ownership from within the ranks of trainers – it all points to a shrinking industry dying because prize money has failed to keep pace with rising costs for the casual owner.
On June 1st, NZTR CEO Bernard Saundry said on ‘Weigh In,’ “the board would like to see support in the midrange and at the same time how do we build up the top end – three years ago, the money went into the bottom end.”
Last week in a chat with Bernard Saundry, he said, “Nothing’s been decided by the board yet, but they are meeting on Wednesday (June 16th). There have been numerous discussions for the top, middle and bottom.”
As we’re now into the last week of June and little more than a month from the new season, it’s about time NZTR let the industry know where it stands. They are apparently waiting to see how much is available for stakes in addition to last season’s meagre $53 million. Whatever they decide, it’s known they will reserve the right to review it before Christmas in case the TAB performs poorly in the second half of the year.
The talk on racecourses is that the board favours injecting extra prize money into the middle and top, reflecting Bernard Saundry’s Weigh In comment. But to suggest the minimum won’t go up because the lower end had its turn three years ago is laughable when you consider the alarming rise in costs during the same period.
Owners costs continually rising
Most clubs have increased track fees; transport costs never stop rising; horse feed companies have regularly passed on increased costs; the jockeys riding fee has gone up, and every other rising expense always finds a space on the owners’ invoices at month’s end.
Increased prize money only for the middle and top races would benefit the bigger clubs and a much smaller pool of owners. It should be noted the NZTR board is top-heavy, with the majority Auckland-based, all appointed by a Members Council dominated by the major clubs.
Racing has to be administered fairly for all stakeholders and needs to be seen to be acting fairly. What’s fair is the question? Are all groups with a vested interest represented? Far too often, we hear narrow, provincial viewpoints and subjectivity dominating discussions on administrative matters.
The concept of the Auckland Racing Club joining forces with Counties (and possibly Avondale) and pooling their resources to build a StraithAyr track at Ellerslie to run 32 odd meetings a year offering $100,000/race minimums should be embraced by every racing person wishing for a sustainable future for New Zealand Racing.
Its eventuality will raise the bar for everyone in the game, entice investment from owners, and bring new players. It would also profile Ellerslie to a standard currently enjoyed by Randwick in Sydney and Flemington in Melbourne and provide a high level of racing on a consistent surface for marketing to betting markets outside New Zealand – deriving increased income for stakes.
In the meantime, let’s stem the bleeding and arrest the declining number of owners. NZTR injecting extra prizemoney only into the middle and top, benefits only a minority of owners.
I have a question. The sale of the Ellerslie hill is touted as going to enable $15 million a year to be re invested into stakes at Ellerslie and Pukekohe giving minimum stakes of $100k. They are saying 32 meetings at Ellerslie , and lets say 8 meetings at Pukekohe , each with 8 races , equals 320 individual races. $15 mil divided by 320 equals $46,875. Where is the other minimum $50k per race coming from? There is nowhere near a $50k per race being contributed now.
Also , What has happened to the money from the sale of Takanini? How much was it sold for and how much is still there?
As usual so much commonsense. Although much of the problems long pre-date the 1990s, the real damage was done in the immediate post-yuppie years, years I might add that did not do any favours to racing’s image. even if the real culprits had never patted a horse in their miserable lives. I know, as I survived as a bloodstock agent by being extremely busy trying to extract participants in shonky partnerships from their greedy follies without doing further harm to their inflated incomes!
I went on my own an an agent with Dalgety Bloodstock’s demise in 1983 and for the next 15 years experienced the highs and lows of a perilous profession. For 3 or 4 years towards the end of and after the yuppie era, I made quite briefly a very good income specialising in stallion imports and the smaller and medium breeders needs, especially farmers many of whom had a mare in the front (or back) paddock. Almost suddenly, early in the ’90s my income dropped to a fifth of what it had been and the reason was clearly the disappearance of the small/medium breeder who could quite obviously could no longer stand the heat in the kitchen. A second reason was the phenomenal growth of the large studs (the smaller and medium ones had also gone) who tended to do their own thing with a band of new ‘expert’ advisors in tow. Although I had imported sires (7 in the last year I brought any in) inc. such as champion Pompeii Court, and sires of Melbourne Cup, Golden Slipper and classic winners also major jumping sires, the sire market suddenly dried up as well – simply put – Coolmore, the Arabs and many fewer studs. In 1984 when I did the compilation of the NZ Stallion Register for the fourth time, I had 247 stallions in the full page section – by 2020 there were much less than one third! Surely that tells its own story.
I know I have said it a few times before but maybe it is not too late (and at almost 85yo I have absolutely no axe to grind). We, as an industry owners, trainers, breeders, jockeys) should have gone ON STRIKE for a month during the depth of covid. Get real – they will never listen to us until it hurts THEM.
I make no apologies – just a sadness as to what has occurred to a wonderful heritage in a wonderful (if adopted) country. Come on you young professional racing guys show some Black Cap tenacity and become militant. The alternative is emigrating and remain POOR.
Are they in cuckoo land saying not looking that hard with regard to the bottom end eg maidens. Maiden stake money to placed runners is down 20% because all runners are now paid an appearance fee.
Today at Otaki maiden winning stakes for two races differs by $400 due to one field safety limit is 2 more than another due to race distance.
NZTR retain any appearance money when a field doesn’t have full numbers. Word is the pool of reserves is around a million so why don’t they use some of that reserve to ensure no maiden winners receive less on a race card solely due to safety field size limits. Guess you can only put it down to the fact their obviously not the brightest team around.
Where has everyone gone? And I mean everyone who should be concerned at the shitty state of our industry and the even worse potential of much that has occurred post-Messara. Cannot this superb country manage to produce someone of the calibre of JM to drag this industry by its jodhpurs into this century and in step with the better administrations elsewhere (and I do mean Australia). Why is it that young ones with balls (of either gender) have not pushed their barrow forward? Yeah I know most of them have gone to Oz and one can hardly blame them – like some of our best trainers, jockeys and increasingly owners. Get real, you so-called administrators, if this goes on we won’t have an industry worth having. Is it now? I know dozens and dozens who have got out because it has become financial suicide. And think you silly civil servants if this happens and believe me it could, you won’t have a job on Lord knows how many 100Ks per year and most of you have probably already been banished by your political masters to the dead-end job!
I have been involved in this industry in both UK & NZ for nigh on 75 years since I first went racing. I have seen an inept JC admin. in UK make a mess of things but since they seem to have got that just about sorted now. It won’t sort itself – we need young guys to take the reins. You young guys if you read this should realise how privileged you are with your scholarships and opportunities. The likes of Brian and I, had to make our own way in the industry, no courses or scholarship placings for us. In UK if you were not an ex-Army Officer you had not a hope in hell of getting a job that was worthwhile,and little doubt there plenty of obstacles here too and few jobs.
I make no apology for my continual rants – and surely it is high time someone”up there” listened to Brian’s excellent blogs. Some hope!!!!
Nice article and fair responses….however you all fail to understand the concept that punters pay for the industry. The lack of understanding by virtually everyone in the thoroughbred industry of this one simple fact is astounding.
If the quality of horses racing in NZ keeps diminishing, punters walk away. What has been happening for the last 15 years? Punters don’t invest, prizemoney doesn’t keep pace, owners walk away, breeders scale back.
The fact the industry & NZTR sanction the amount of trials every week is again testament to the fact, they have little understanding of how the industry is funded. You can’t get decent race fields for punters to invest on, but trials numbers would fill 2 extra meetings a week…and as we know many of the trial winners don’t even hit the local tracks. The lost revenue to the TAB is significant, but what racing administrator has identified this?
Your industry is in a mess of your own doing, in conjunction with administrators that don’t/didn’t have the capacity to understand a few basic concepts. However when you give some stakeholders too big a share of the decision making, then self interest becomes the only interest…what do they say about generations?
NZ had a wonderful, powerful thoroughbred industry, but alas, it will be gone in 5 years…