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Statistics Reflect Steady Growth In Irish Racing And Breeding

Most key statistics for the Irish Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry showed significant gains when compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, as the full-year statistics were released by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) on Thursday.

In the areas of ownership (+17.1%, 4,757), horses-in-training (10,208, +14.1% on 2019), Tote betting (total Tote betting rose +18.3%), and bloodstock sales (€215.4m, +30.3% on 2019 and +17.8% on 2021), figures are well over 2019's. Owner retention rate is now 72.8%, with the number of syndicates increasing for the fourth consecutive year to 825 (+3.4% on 2021 and +24.2% on 2019). 2022 fixtures decreased to 388 from a record of 394 in 2021, but the first half of 2021 saw a readjustment to accommodate point-to-pointers on the racecourse. For the full statistics, please click here.

Suzanne Eade, CEO of Horse Racing Ireland, said, “A strong and stable racing industry reflects well on rural communities in every county on the island and a key driver of our success is the number of horses-in-training which leads directly to employment in the country's racing yards. While the overall number is down slightly on 2021, the figure of 10,208 is well ahead of the 2019 figure which bodes well as we start into a new year.

“Almost seven out of every 10 runners in Ireland (69.8%) won prize-money in Ireland in 2022, 5,686 horses in total, and that's the highest number we've ever reported in this category. It's an important indicator for us because we acknowledge the incredible loyalty displayed by owners to Irish racing during the Covid pandemic.

“While the cost of living continues to be an issue for all industries, we can be confident heading into 2023 that racing remains extremely popular in Ireland with attendances rallying strongly in the second half of 2022. Attracting more than nine out of every 10 people that went racing before the pandemic, back to the racecourse, is a tribute to the work put in by the tracks. It was encouraging to see such strong end-of-year crowds at Navan for Troytown Day and at Fairyhouse for the Drinmore meeting, at Naas, Punchestown and Down Royal to name just a few, and of course a very strong performance at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival. 2023 got off to a great start with an incredible day at a well attended Tramore.

“A number of strong public auctions helped push the overall bloodstock sales figure past the €200m figure for the first time and a return of €215.4m is 30.3% ahead of the 2019 figure and 17.8% up on 2021.”

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The Week In Review: For Syndicate Partners, What’s In A Name (Or Ten)?

Right now within TDN's Top 12 rankings for the GI Kentucky Derby, seven horses are owned by multiple-entity partnerships. One syndicate maxes out at 10 individual owners, another at eight.

If the horses from those larger partnerships (or other syndicates-there are plenty of them and they are growing in number worldwide) make it into the Derby field, they won't have to worry about getting the satisfaction and distinction of seeing their names in print as owners. But that's only because as a courtesy, Churchill Downs takes the extra step of hiring a graphic designer to rework the traditional program page for America's most historic and important horse race so that no owner of a Derby runner gets left out.

Technically, that practice is at odds with a Kentucky regulation that limits the number of individual owners who can appear on the printed program page to five. At a meeting last week of the rules committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC), commission staffers and industry stakeholders tried to take a first pass at updating that rule so that every member of a syndicate (or at least more of them) might get recognized as listed owners in all Kentucky races, not just on Derby day.

“I've been approached by several ownership groups that we make room for more names,” said KHRC commissioner Charlie O'Connor. “As syndicate groups in this country are becoming a big deal, [people] who invest their money in the horse business want to see their name on a program.

“These ownership groups and syndicates are spending a large amount of money in Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton and all the sales houses around the world, and I think it's a fair thing for them to ask for their name to be on the program, and I think that we should be able to accommodate it without any huge, big issues,” O'Connor said.

Others in on the discussion thought so too. But it turns out there are practicality limitations and potential unintended consequences that come into play if the KHRC paves the way for more individuals to get inked into ownership lines.

As for the existing rule itself, KHRC chief state steward Barbara Borden explained it this way: “Currently, our regulation says more than five individual persons shall not be licensed as owners of a single horse. That's why we have limited the number on the program to five. It goes on to say if more than five individual persons own interests, then they shall name one person to be the licensed representative.”

Signator | Chelsea Durand

Still, even within that parameter of five, the ownership line on a Kentucky program does get crowded. Several stakeholders at the meeting referenced the trouble being related to a 200-character limit that is a requirement of the Equibase system. The number for that data field was selected some time ago, well before the proliferation of partnerships in roughly the past decade, and it was once reasonable to assume every ownership entity would fit within that amount of space.

But that equates to just 40 characters per syndicate member if five owners are listed, and even then, to make everything fit, the characters are often squished together without spacing to the point where, as Borden said, the line is “illegible” to anyone trying to decipher the program.

“Part of the problem is two things,” Borden said. “First of all, the owners that want to see their names, they might know their name is on the program. But you can't read it, and neither can anyone else. And the other thing is, the reason we put the ownership on the program to begin with, is for public disclosure. So if it's not legible because we have too many names or the font is too small or whatever, we're defeating our purpose of listing the owners at all.”

Frank Jones, Jr., a KHRC commissioner who chairs the rules committee, wondered if it would be feasible to include a “side document” in the program that would fit all the names in full, while the program page itself got printed in a less cluttered way.

Anna Seitz, who works with Fasig-Tipton and with international syndicates, said that in Australia, “they list all the names. They just do smaller fonts. I know it makes a huge difference. Those owners, that's part of the reason they buy in, because they want their name on there.”

Gary Palmisano, Jr., the executive director of racing for Churchill Downs, Inc., said his company is “all for” syndicates. “But just understand that it is space-limited” and the issue is a “bigger-picture problem” than just learning to deal with the limitations of 200 characters.

“We live this every year with the Derby,” Palmisano said. “Obviously, in the Derby, every owner partnership wants to see their names. Equibase currently doesn't have the capability of putting in more than 200 characters. So we have to physically, manually, white-out portions of the owner [line, and then string together] the text, and try to put it in [with everyone listed].”

But if the rule got changed to list more owners, Palmisano cautioned, “tracks every single day are going to have to have a graphics design person, as we do for the Derby, [to] recreate the program line. [That task] is certainly something that takes our team, manually, a lot of time to do for the Derby program.”

Palmisano continued: “Right now [the rule] says five [owners are the maximum listed]. With the racetracks, assuming Equibase can help us with the language, we can figure out the program piece. We're already actively engaging with Equibase to try to figure out the program piece. But I think the [rules] committee, more so than looking at the program piece, should take a hard look if it should be five, eight, seven, ten [owners listed]. Because that helps us frame what we need to do with Equibase.”

O'Connor said 10 names might be the sweet spot, because he's seeing many partnerships now constructed at the 10% buy-in level aiming for 10 syndicate members.

Borden said that brings up another issue related to disclosure.

“This takes us back two years ago when we had partnership forms, which we no longer require,” Borden said. “Every syndicate would have to report to us all the participants in the syndicate.”

While the partnership forms might raise the unwelcome prospect of more paperwork for everyone involved, Borden said there is an upside to those forms that relates to better transparency.

“We currently don't always know the exact ownership of every horse, so that would probably be a bonus for us,” Borden said. “But it would entail us being advised of all the ownership and the [percentages each entity owns].”

But, Borden said, no matter what expanded number the rule night eventually state, common sense inevitably has to intervene.

Gulfport | Coady Photography

“At some point there has to be, in my opinion, a limit,” Borden said. “It's not infinity. If 100 people own a horse, we can't put 100 names on there.”

Keeneland's vice president of racing, Gatewood Bell, raised another potential red flag related to numerous owners being listed: Although Kentucky has recently loosened its rules regarding coupled mutuel entries in an attempt to bolster field sizes, a single owner still can't run two horses in the same race if it excludes another owner's horse from getting in. So what if one individual was a small-percentage owner in one syndicate and owned another horse either outright or as part of a second partnership? How would preference be fairly determined?

“You wouldn't want to discourage the owners from joining these syndicates and also having horses on their own,” Bell said.

Borden pointed out that any overlapping ownership in a single race, even a tiny percentage, still counts as an owner having an interest in two horses.

The committee ended up not proposing or voting on any rule change. Jones, the committee chair, said the entire issue needed more study, but that it would likely be brought up again in the near future.

“The more you listen, the more you see how complicated a problem this could become,” Jones admitted.

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Interest in Horse Racing in Ireland Increasing

Following a nationwide poll, interest in horse racing in Ireland has increased, Horse Racing Ireland announced on Wednesday. A poll of over 1,000 people, conducted by the Red C research company between Feb. 8-Feb. 15, aimed at understanding the adult population's attitudes toward horse racing. The results are as follows:

In 2021, 39% of the population have an interest in horse racing versus 23% last year
A total of 85% of racing fans are missing attending race meetings
19% of racing fans plan to attend more race meetings than previously
27% of 18-34 year-olds plan to attend more race meetings than previously
40% of the population would have some interest in joining a racing syndicate or racing club.

Brian Kavanagh, CEO of Horse Racing Ireland, said, “The results of the poll demonstrate that interest in horse racing has increased through the pandemic. While racing has been held behind closed doors since March of last year, it is heartening that such a large percentage of racing fans are eager for a return to the racecourse.

“The numbers of people getting involved in racehorse ownership continues to rise and the survey results reflect this increased appetite. Racehorse ownership is the key catalyst for growth at every level of the industry.”

Paul Dermody, CEO of HRI Racecourses and HRI's Director of Commercial & Marketing, added, “The figure of 60% for people who follow the sport on a weekly basis is well up on the 2020 equivalent of 47%. The feedback shows that HRI's 'On Your Terms' television ad campaign has performed very well among sports and racing fans.

“It is such a positive that there has been an increased number of racemeetings broadcast live on terrestrial television and this has been very well received. We are grateful to both RTÉ and TG4 for their increased commitment to Irish Racing.

“Indeed, the new broadcasting deal with RTÉ for live coverage of Irish horse racing for the next three years will deliver a record number of free-to-air live racing days in Ireland.”

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Op/Ed: Owning Horses and ‘Buying’ a Dream

Sam Hoskins, an owner, breeder, syndicate manager and ROA board member, gives us his view of how the reduced prize-money will impact racing in Britain

From where we were back in the spring, to get racing back on was an incredible achievement and obviously everyone understood then that prize-money was going to be hit. Horsemen accepted that up to the point when it became clear that, despite media rights flowing, there was going to be largely no executive contribution from the majority of racecourses. The call for transparency over media rights payments has been around for a while now and it has become more widespread and vocal lately as horsemen have rightly sought to establish the full, if bleak, picture of this main source of industry funding–one that should be co-owned by racecourses and horsemen in my view. For a while now, the ROA board has been aware of the figures cited in Project Enable which points to an unaccounted sum of over £100m between the gross total media rights and the amount paid to racecourses. Hopefully this all becomes clearer in due course.

It has obviously been great to get a few owners back on track slowly but surely. Some racecourses have made a fantastic effort but there are others who’ve done the bare minimum and, frustratingly from my perspective, haven’t shown sufficient flexibility regarding badge allocation. I run two syndicates, Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds and Hot To Trot Racing, and the key to success isn’t always about winners–it is about giving everyone the best time possible and making it fun. The problem to date this summer, despite some wonderful television coverage by ITV and RTV/SSR, there has been little fun to savour on the racecourse. While we’ve done our best to convey that excitement via new communication platforms, ultimately mornings on the gallops and days at the races form a huge huge part of racehorse ownership, and indeed being part of a syndicate. At the moment, as well as running for peanuts, syndicates are being vastly restricted in terms of numbers being allowed on track while all owners are finding it tough to accept an owner’s experience with such limited interaction with trainer and jockey. Many are choosing to stay at home and watch it on TV, which is fine but a bit sad I feel. People do understand the restrictions have been imposed by government but with so many mixed messages it is getting harder to understand why racing, which is fundamentally an outdoor sport, has taken so long to welcome back crowds, even if they have to be reduced in number in the short term. I feel perception is winning the battle over common sense right now.

Hopefully the forthcoming racegoer test days will give rise to the above because ultimately we are an entertainment industry. To a certain extent you could say that prize-money doesn’t come into that part of the business, but there are many reasons why prize-money is important. Firstly, having some reward for your investment allows smaller owners and syndicate members to subsidise their reinvestment in the sport year after year. Then of course there is the competition we face from fellow racing nations such as France, Ireland, America, Hong Kong and Australia, where the prize-money pools are far greater. [Editor’s Note: The pilot project for fans at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting was cancelled after Wednesday’s card due to government directives.]

As John Gosden has already warned so eloquently, we run the risk of becoming a nursery for other nations, and it is clear that an increasing number of good horses are being bought to race on overseas. It is vital for Britain’s stature in the racing world that we are able to retain a far greater number of our better horses, not only to put on the best racing, but eventually for the best of them to join the breeding pool. Prize-money is also vital for trainers, jockeys and stable staff and without their percentages, training fees may be forced even higher than they currently are.

Most owners realise that if they have a bad horse they are going to win little or no money, but if you are lucky enough to have a horse rated 90 or 100 on the flat and you are running for £10,000 to the winner, then even if you win you’ve barely paid half of your annual training fees. This is very far from the situation experienced by owners in most other racing nations, where they can at least cover their annual costs with a decent win or two.

If owners felt confident that the racecourses, especially the big racecourse groups, were doing as much as they could to ease the situation then that would be fine, but there’s been a lot of uncertainty surrounding the funding mechanism and size of the growing media rights pot for years, not just since the onset of COVID-19. The lack of transparency over media rights and what the racecourses are actually being paid for owners running their horses at their tracks remains a sticking point. Some independent racecourses have commendably opened their books in recent times but the large racecourse groups continue to frustrate, not least as the business model for some of their tracks (i.e the all-weather tracks) hasn’t actually changed as significantly as it has for the majority who rely so heavily on crowds.

I know racing can be perceived as an elitist sport but we need people to be involved at all levels and for more owners to be brought into racing. For that, we need to support the grassroots of the sport and provide the appropriate aspiration to own horses and ‘buy a dream’. It will be interesting to see how the field sizes hold up this autumn when the fixture list resumes as normal. To be honest, a reduced pool of horses and resulting increased competition for runners going forwards could be a good thing as, while price elasticity isn’t exclusive to racing, it might force some tracks to prioritise executive contribution into prize-money.

From the syndicate members I have been speaking to, there is a concern about coming back in next year, especially if they feel that they will be unable to go to see their horse run, and at the moment, only a handful of syndicate members are granted access to a racecourse even if they have a runner.

I have a few shares in horses myself in France but I could never afford to do that here. In Britain, we are never going to have a Tote monopoly like they do in France, but there are a few things they do there that we could try here. For example, the Quinté + handicap which is run in France every day. I don’t see why that wouldn’t work here, to have a feature handicap that is a daily betting focal point, with a premier race and a secondary race, and guaranteeing 16 runners and good prize-money.

Ultimately, of course, it is so important that horsemen, racecourses and bookmakers all work together. It is very easy to criticise but it’s so much harder to come up with solutions. One point that I feel sure horsemen and racecourses can certainly agree is a push for levy to be collected on a percentage of turnover rather than profits and for levy to apply on overseas horse racing bets. That would make a huge difference, and it would benefit racecourses as well as horsemen.

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