Talk around the new Irish horse racing program for next season has ramped up this week, with the news that four leading Irish trainers are unhappy and could take legal action against Horse Racing Ireland.
Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and Gavin Cromwell are currently dominating Irish racing.
Both Mullins and Elliott had over 200 winners last season, the 5th best trainer behind these four, Joseph O’Brien, had just 20. The gap from Cromwell, 4th with 72, to O’Brien on 20 is big enough, never mind what the big two are achieving.
But plans are in place to prevent them from entering a specific number of races next season, 60 to be exact.
The aim is to try and level the playing field in Ireland, giving the smaller trainers a chance to shine, and ultimately, spread out the prize money as much as possible.
While the top end horse racing trainers can make good money, those towards the bottom find it a struggle to manage increasing overheads, and tougher competition.
Sixty races on next season’s calendar fall under the new initiative, which would ban entries from trainers that had more than 50 jumps winners in either of the two previous seasons. In real terms, that would mean a ban next season for Mullins, Elliott, de Bromhead and Cromwell from entering in these races.
Irish Racehorse Trainers Association Back Changes
This is clearly a situation that could get very messy for Horse Racing Ireland, and the situation is made even trickier by the fact that the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association has already chosen a side to back.
In a Racing Post report in July, it was made public that the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association would back the proposal to extend the restricted race program out to 60 races next season.
To put this in more simple terms, the IRTA, an organisation set up to look after the interests of racing trainers in Ireland, has agreed and welcomes proposals to ban its biggest trainers from entering runners in 60 out of around 1500 races, which is 4% of all races in Ireland.
Currently, a series similar to the one proposed is in place, but only for 17 races. The new proposal would cover all types of races, including bumpers, maiden hurdles, beginners’ chases and handicap hurdles.
Ryan McElligott of the IRTA has expressed concerns around the state of Irish racing at present, and downward trends that are currently being seen, as his reasoning behind supporting the initiative.
Will the Big Boys Get Their Own Way?
This is going to be a fascinating watch for horse racing fans and could have huge implications on both sides of the Irish Sea. Of course, the first question is, will the big boys get their own way?
The initiative would be the football equivalent of banning the top four teams from competing in the FA Cup, in a bid to stop their monopoly and have success and prize money going to others further down the pecking order.
The HRI initiative to exclude certain trainers from races not only discriminates against trainers but owners too! What an ill thought out poor initiative. It’s actually insulting to smaller trainers one of whom won the Irish National for us with Intense Raffles. Sport is all…
— Simon Munir (@simon_munir) August 15, 2024
But of course, racing is not football, and those towards the bottom end of Irish racing are struggling to make a living in the current climate.
Irish racing does need to be careful, though. The four stables named, in particular those of Mullins and Elliott, are four of the biggest employers in Irish racing, the star names that the public wants to see, and huge income generators.
Whether it’s the money the spend at the sales, or added ticket sales when they send big name runners to the course, this is all money in Irish racing that the big names generate.
If this goes wrong, which I don’t think it will, but it’s a possibility, then there is a real danger that at least one of the four would cut back their support for Irish racing.
This could be something small, such as more entries over in the UK, but if they wanted to really make a statement, the opening up a UK satellite yard, or worse, moving their entire string to the UK, could happen.
A battle for Irish racing looks to be on the horizon.
Keep the top happy, so they stay, employ people and promote Irish racing as being some of the best around while also looking after those lower down, keeping people in jobs, and spreading out the winners and wealth.
And I for one, wouldn’t fancy being in charge of trying to find the solution.