Great British Racing – But Still Dire Returns for The Diminishing Number of Owners

Many of our owners make an annual pilgrimage to the Knavesmire for the Ebor meeting, and this year was no exception. To many eyes it is the best track in the country, fantastic racing, hugely knowledgeable crowds and without any doubt the cheapest and highest quality Champagne on any racecourse in the land. Delighted to see The Fugue bounce back in the Darley Yorkshire Oaks for her owner-breeders, the Lloyd-Webbers, and she may now be off to either the Arc, the Prix Vermeille or the Breeders’ Cup. I was always a big fan of Rock Of Gibraltar, and Declaration Of War seems to be very much in the same mould – a huge, tough horse who really dominated the Juddmonte International. He could be a great stallion in time, and is one to keep an eye on.

However, the result that really pleased me was Tiger Cliff winning the eponymous race itself. When I lived alongside Paul Cole’s gallops on Woolley Down, I often used to meet Henry Ponsonby walking his dogs. Indeed, the very first time I met him, he managed to sell me a share in Bonchester Bridge at Nicky Henderson’s, which is how I met Jamie Snowden, now one of our trainers. On occasions Henry can be an irascible devil, but if you share a magnum of claret with him he is one of the best raconteurs in the business. A typical tale involves an encounter with a naked but well-known author. She obviously forgave him because Henry makes a proud appearance in one of her recent novels – maybe surprisingly, with his clothes on. His partner, Kish, has not been at all well recently and this victory must have been a huge tonic. To land Europe’s richest handicap and bag £155,000 for the syndicate owners was a superb triumph. Apparently Tiger Cliff is due to head to Alan King, so who knows, we may see him pop up in the Supreme Novices at Cheltenham next March.

Finally on this Yorkshire theme, it was also great to welcome back Karl Burke as the designated trainer at Spigot Lodge after 1,491 days. The whole Burke family is completely dedicated to making this yard a great success, so nothing really is going to change, but Karl must have been very pleased indeed to pick up his first winner within a few days of regaining the licence. It was a long time to be on the cold list! By coincidence, Henry Ponsonby, when he lived in Wensleydale before being banished to Lambourn, used to ride out at Spigot Lodge. Our sport can be a close network.

Back though now to the economics of racing. I suspect not many of you have ploughed through the 50+ pages of the Deloittes report, The Economic Impact of British Racing 2013. I have now, and it provides a good reference point (figures relate to 2012). I’ll be coming back to it a lot over the next few blogs. Here are some facts and figures to consider:

• Contribution of horse racing to the UK economy: it is the second-biggest sport after football. Around 6 million people go racing every year. The net worth / total economic impact of racing is £3.5bn. There are 20,000+ people employed directly in racing. If you include betting operators and other parts of our sport, there are 85,000 jobs at stake. The industry generated over £275m in tax for the Exchequer.
  
• Owners’ contribution to the sport: in 2012, 8,215 owners spent £369m in direct training fees and racing expenditure. If you add in the investment in bloodstock, it was £470m. Prize money won was £78m. With sponsorship included, the return on ownership (ROO) was £85m – a miserly 20%. The number of registered owners has dropped by 14%.
  
• Racecourses’ contribution to the sport: there has been £950m of unprecedented capital investment over the past decade. Media operations generated £173m in revenues. Media rights are booming and are expected to exceed £100m in 2013. Income from racegoers, sponsors and corporate customers was £371m. Prize money was lower in 2012 than in 2004.
  
• Bookmakers’ contribution to the sport: their gross win in 2012, i.e. the amount lost by punters, was £710m. Racing received £75m via the statutory 10.75% levy applied to their “profits” on this sum. Levy has fallen sharply (from £150m) as bookies have gone offshore to evade tax and the levy.

I’ll come back to some of the issues that naturally flow from these figures in the next blog. At the moment I think a tentative title could be “Milking the 8,215 Cash Cows (Owners) Dry”. More on that next time.

Derby Day – Everything Crossed for the Burkes and Libertarian

By the time you read this, the result of the Derby may already be known. It is always one of my favourite races of the year, and it is great to have something to cheer about, after all the doping and corruption revelations of the last couple of weeks. It has had a special place in my heart ever since, as a student, I backed Morston at 25/1 just after completing Finals. I think I probably have fonder memories of that betting slip than I do of my degree certificate. It certainly guaranteed an enjoyable summer, with student days behind me. 33 years later, I ended up living alongside the Woolley Down gallops where Morston and Blakeney were trained – so, happy memories.

This year, I suppose everything depends on whether you believe Dawn Approach will stay, or not. With a few exceptions such as Sea The Stars, not many Guineas winners have done so; I think he may be a doubtful stayer, and definitely far too short a price. The Aidan O’Brien runners are bound to test him. Battle Of Marengo may be his best, but he seems quite exposed. Are Ocavango and Chopin any good? I liked the way Ruler Of The World won at Chester, and he is on my shortlist, but without any doubt the Owners for Owners community is bound to be behind Libertarian.

We had our final “Meet the Trainer” morning at Elaine and Karl Burke’s stables the day after the Dante. Most of us had backed Libertarian at 33/1, so it was a real privilege to be able to stand alongside the horse at Spigot Lodge. There may only have been a few of us there, but we had a terrific morning. I hope everyone else was forming an orderly queue outside various bookies, lumping on at 20/1+ for the Derby. We saw our horses Paradise Spectre and Aran Sky up on the High Moor gallops, did the posing with Libertarian and then took Karl and Elaine off to the Wensleydale Heifer for a good lunch. Amazingly, it was Karl’s 50th birthday as well, so there was a lot to celebrate. When we expressed amazement, he came out with the great line: “You don’t think I’m 60, do you?”

Anoraks like me love stats and history. Libertarian is the first Yorkshire-trained horse to have won the Dante since Dante, so it was a fabulous achievement by the Burkes. They bought him out of a breeze-up for 40,000gns. Despite having done the slowest time at the sales, he is a lovely, strapping son of New Approach and no matter what happens today he can only improve this season, and into next. Elsewhere on the web site I have sung the praises of Karl Burke and Lars Kelp in spotting high-potential horses. Look no further for proof. By the way, Spigot Lodge is named after Jack Spigot, the 1821 St. Leger winner, and The Flying Dutchman won the 1849 Derby from these stables, before his famous match against Voltigeur on the Knavesmire at York in front of a crowd of 100,000. But I bet you knew that anyway. The BHA’s Great British Racing campaigns have got a bit of catching up to do!

However, the main reason I’ll be cheering Libertarian home today is that it signals the return to the top flight of training for the whole Burke yard. Back in the dark days of 2009, when Karl was warned off for a year for passing information to a very dodgy character, Miles Rogers, there was a possibility that all their hard work and endeavour would have been in vain, with their whole livelihood falling apart. Karl had just won his first Group 1 with Lord Shanakill at Chantilly, and was on the point of breaking through to the top ranks of training. Within weeks the number of horses in the yard had dropped from 90 to 25, and most of the staff were laid off. It was an agonisingly sad time for everyone. We kept our faith in and support for the yard, and nothing will give me greater pleasure than seeing a good run today from Libertarian. Everything crossed. As a horse who will only mature with time, there is always a risk that he may not have the necessary luck in running at Epsom. Let’s hope that he breaks well and William Buick is able to have him in a forward position at the top of the hill. If not, never mind - his day is bound to come. I’m already on for the Leger!

Hats off to Karl, Elaine, Kelly and Lucy Burke and all the crew up at Spigot Lodge. As Derek Thompson would doubtless say: “Enjoy the moment.”