Trainers Under Pressure All Over The Globe

The financial burdens of training racehorses are catching up with trainers around the world. Small and large stables are affected.

Reasons given range from an inability to recover from slow or no business during Covid, rising costs, poor management by racing authorities, small fields, an inadequate handicap system and stakes that have not kept pace with the rise in costs.

In 2020, leading New York handlers Kiaran McLaughlin and Gary Contessa closed their barns and left the jobs they’ve held for more than 20 years.

In South Africa, longtime Top 5 coach Joey Ramsden gave up his license and emigrated to Australia, while former multiple national champion Geoff Woodruff closed his operations.

In Ireland, several coaches expressed concern about the escalating costs in a recent interview with the Racing Post, including Dennis Hogan, Liam Burke and Peter Fahey. In the UK, Lambourn trainers Harry Dunlop and Joe Tuite have both announced the dissolution of their activities.

Zimbabwe’s citizens have suffered under corrupt African rule for decades, but the loss of their top coach Gokhan Terzi last week is worth noting. Packing his bags due to a lack of holdings in their industry, he heads to Dubai to look for opportunities.

There are other stables in the southern hemisphere that are said to be on the brink of collapse, but the British and Irish coaches have been the most outspoken in their quest for support and change in the industry.

Veteran coach Kevin Prendergast, 90, believes the Irish handicap system needs an urgent review and told Racing Post that Ireland and Britain should start taking inspiration from systems in France or Australia when they train coaches in the UK want to keep business.

Prendergast argued, “In other countries, if a horse comes second or third, its grade is not affected until it wins.” In Australia, if a horse is handicap graded in a weight-for-age race and runs well, it must still run the same grade it had if it goes back into a handicap.

“The condition race might have suited him that day, but he might not have gained a pound so he needs to run the same mark as the handicap.”

In Ireland and Britain (and indeed the dubious controlled South African National Authority) keeping a horse competitive and earning checks is becoming very difficult. Prendergast said: “If a horse is doing well in Ireland, or even sometimes in England, he or she can move up in a race by any amount. These things make it very difficult to continue in racing. Until someone comes along and does something about it, it’s going to be an uphill battle.”

Tuite, former assistant to Mick Channon, cited financial difficulties caused by a fading string. He has been training successfully at Lambourn since 2015, but said: “I’m packing up. It hasn’t been a great season and the financial side of racing is tough when you don’t own your own farm.

“It was a difficult decision, but one I wanted to make before it was made for me. I won’t owe anyone any money when I’m done and that was important to me. I can walk with my head held high and no trail of debt behind me.”

The rising cost of petrol and diesel has made it difficult for coaches to cope.

Tiperary resident Dennis Hogan explained that he is now more selective about having runners in Northern Ireland because of fuel prices. “Our overall costs have increased significantly and we’ve been forced to increase our fees to make it work,” he told RP. “Fuel costs are so high that you might think twice about declaring a horse at one of the northern racetracks if you want it to be your only runner. You also can’t pass all the costs on to the owner. It takes a lot of planning and budgeting.”

Harry Dunlop, who was successful at Goodwood and Ascot that year, said the cost of feed, staff and transport, and the impact of Brexit were factors in his decision to change careers. He indicated that he would remain active in the industry in another capacity.

Dunlop had dropped from his previous average of 40 to 14 horses this season but big stables will not escape what he has been through.

Simon Dow, speaking to The Spectator (in Covid times), suggested that little trainers are used to living almost hand-to-mouth, in a ‘one week is good, next week is bad’ fashion, which he believed gave them a better chance of survival than the big guns, for which the expense of a single big patron can be catastrophic. This view is still valid when looking at the state of the industry globally.

Dow pointed out that resilience plays a role in horsemen and that they tend to adapt their operations to different economic situations.

A final word from Joe Tuite, who urged his colleagues to keep their options open and maybe believe in a bit of luck: “You never say never when it comes to training. You see what’s around the corner. I have friends who used to train and have since packed up and said, ‘Joe, remember there’s a big world out there that you forget when you train racehorses and you don’t realize it until you step out of it. ‘”

• International Racing Club Newsletter.