Sunday, December 10, 2017
A winter's weekend: hard frost on Saturday morning, snow on Sunday. Still, this is winter, and it hasn't been too bad, so that's fine. Conditions were not good on the Heath this morning, but I don't anticipate any problems tomorrow. I took Freediver out today and had to abandon plans to do some strong work as it was dicey enough doing slow work, but it's been thawing slowly through the day, and seems unlikely to refreeze tonight. Plus the Heathmen will be out on Monday morning to do what they can to make things safer, so hopefully we shall be able to exercise reasonably normally and reasonably safely.
Racing's big political news of the past few days has been the announcement that there will be some sort of performance-related appearance money in all (qualifying) lower-tier races next year. I haven't read the conditions as closely as I ought to have done, but I think that the gist of it is that every horse who finishes in the first eight will collect at least £300. I presume that means that if the prize money collected is £300 or more, then there is nothing added; but if the prize money earned is less than £300, it shall be topped up to that sum. So that's good. It won't turn any loss-making trip to the races into a profitable one, but it will mean that some horses will receive a decent contribution to the day's outgoings who currently are receiving nothing. And that is good.
I always work on the rough rule that the raceday expenses for every runner are approximately £450. This sum roughly pays for the hire of the horsebox plus the diesel; the entry fee and the jockey's fee; and the staff overtime and expenses. If the meeting is very far away, the expenses will be more. Similarly if the trainer uses a transport firm it will be more, or pays someone to drive the box, or sends a travelling head lad in addition to the horse's lad. So if one has a horse in one of the larger stables it will be more than £450, but in a smaller stable where the trainer drives the box himself, then that's a fair approximation. So the £300 for the unplaced runners will be very much appreciated. It won't make anyone run a horse who wouldn't otherwise have run, but it will be a big help.
The races which qualify will (I think) be any races of Class Four, Five or Six which are run at a value £900 or more above the minimum value for the class. I think that currently not many races are run that much (if at all) above the minimum, but I believe that the idea is that qualifying races will be at such a big advantage as far as attracting runners that racecourses will be keen to have their races qualify, so will increase the prize money. So that's a second (or, possibly, the primary) advantage of the new scheme. Mind you, Class Six races are generally oversubscribed (and run at the minimum) anyway, so whether the courses push the prizes up for these remains to be seen. But at least this is a step in the right direction, and a very concrete sign that Nick Rust's commitment to help the lower tiers (thus flying directly in the face of recent trends, which have been to ensure that all boosts go pretty much only to the top tiers) are indeed true. So that's very good news indeed. Good on 'im.
Rust never sleeps
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2 comments:
Great information and support that is well overdue, John. A bit unfortunate that the race has to be over the [poor] nominated level, but its beggars and chooser’s i guess and its a start.
I think the median rating for racehorses is about 65 [ you will tell me different if i have that wrong] so why are there not more class five and six races as they are probably the most numerous requirement by horse population. Most of the horses in ownership of clubs and associations are of that grade and are “cheap” for racecourses to feature, so why not more of them instead of keep getting balloted out ?
Full of admiration for you guy’s during the harsh winter months. The upside of leaving a warm bed and seeng the hoare frost in the bedroom is the memorable sunrises and the camaraderie with the horses themselves. Getting up myself at 4am for many years gives you a fundamental closeness with nature and makes a chore into a wonderful experience that lightens your heart. Enjoy John, as i am sure you do. And thanks for the great photographs you post that allows us to share your days.
As a small owner ( only 5ft 7" !) who had a grade 5/6 stayer I would say this is welcome news. My view is that the capital outlay is the capital outlay and whilst you may recoup some of that it's probably wise not to expect so to do. However the recouping of more of the "running costs" would certainly make me , at some stage in the future, consider making a further capital outlay. So this move seems to be a good one and I hope racecourses respond by staging events at the funding level required.
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