Owning a racehorse can be a very expensive pastime Irish Champions Festival takes place this weekend with a total prize pool of over €5 million. It is an international showcase event where Irish horse racing is firmly in the spotlight with the highest possible quality of racing taking place across the two days at Leopardstown and the Curragh. The participants, not just the horses, but also the jockeys, trainers and owners that take part in the event are at the elite end of the spectrum. If you are lucky enough to be competing at an event like the Irish Champions Festival you are most likely doing pretty well. One win for a horse at this level will cover training fees for several years and in the case of the six Group 1 contests, a victory can cement the horse's future at stud, unlocking another lucrative revenue stream for those involved. There is a lot to play for. Take our State of Racing Survey for a chance to win a €50 Amazon gift card The economics of elite racing The prize pool over the two days equates to over 7% of the annual allocation of prize money, but because of the elite nature of events like this not everyone gets invited to the party. Those involved at the lower end of the sport are just spectators this weekend and for the owners of the many thousands of racehorses that are not good enough to run at the Irish Champions Festival it must be a tough watch. Take an example of a horse at the other end of the racing spectrum, The Bog Bank. The Bog Bank is the sort of horse most people could only dream of owning. She registered her eighth career victory last week when scoring at Gowran Park. This low-grade handicapper has been a credit to her connections, in particular her trainer Tom McCourt. All her victories have been achieved in big field handicaps competing off ratings ranging from 48 - 61 and she has amassed a total of €87,575 in prize money. This is no mean achievement with a horse plying its trade at the ultra-competitive lower end of the sport. Article highlights: Even successful horses like The Bog Bank with 8 wins and €87,575 in prize money fail to cover their training costs Owners only receive 72% of prize money won by their horses Nearly 25% of trainers win no prize money annually, and more than half of all horses never win a race Prize money has remained static for a decade while training costs have risen sharply But, and this is a big but, while she is bound to be the apple of her owners' eyes, she has been an expensive pastime for them, despite all her success. Barring a couple of small breaks, she has been in training for five years and has raced a total of 85 times at 13 different racecourses. And that all costs money. The real cost of racehorse ownership Besides a purchase price and fees for the registration of colours and the cost of getting a set of silks made at the beginning of a career, the cost of five years training fees won't be far off The Bog Bank's total earnings. Even taking the cheapest training fees available (€40 a day) it will add up to around €72,000 at the end of five years. Jockeys' fees alone for 85 races tots up to around €17,000, depending on whether the horse is ridden by an apprentice or a fully-fledged jockey (over jumps it would be considerably more). Then add in all the vets bills, farrier bills, transport costs, entry fees, etc over five years and you quickly realise that The Bog Bank's eight career victories come nowhere near to covering her costs. Then there is the fact that the total prize money she has won doesn't go directly to her owners either. The owners only receive 72% of this money as there are a myriad of other individuals, organisations and charities that get varying slices of the pie. In the case of The Bog Bank, the owners will have received €63,054 of the €87,575 she won in total. An industry under pressure The Bog Bank is however something of an outlier at the bottom end of the sport. Very few horses achieve the level of success she has had, yet even she is nowhere close to being a financially viable investment. Each year nearly one quarter of all the trainers that have runners in Ireland win no prize money for their owners and more than half of all horses in training never win a race. Even The Bog Bank ran in 30 races before she eventually won one. It is not surprising we are constantly hearing owners and trainers complaining about the levels of prize money when you take an example like this, of one of the more successful horses at the lower end of the sport. In the case of the majority of races run in Ireland the prize money has remained more or less static for a decade, while all associated costs of having a horse in training have risen sharply. Currently prize money in Ireland is made up from the following sources: HRI Funding 61% Owners contributions 25% Commercial Sponsors 9% European Breeders' Fund 4% Northern Ireland Fund 1% No quick fix in sight It is an unenviable task for HRI to determine how and where they distribute the tax payers' money they pump into prize money each year. The governing body's annual contribution to prize money is €42.5 million of the €70 million total, money which comes directly from Government funding. Total annual prize money in Ireland is clearly not enough to keep the value of the elite races internationally competitive, while also ensuring that those at the lower ends of the sports receive an adequate return on their investment. We are already seeing cracks appearing in the top grade handicaps on the Flat, with relatively small fields for recent Premier Handicaps as many suitable horses are being sold abroad where prize money levels are considerably higher. With no quick fix on the horizon, it looks like the sport will have to rely on the goodwill of its current owners to keep the show on the road for a while longer.
