TROA NEWS: 15 March 2010
Ownership Should Have Its Privileges
The latest statistic released by the Australian Racing Board showed that in the 2008/09 season 31,659 horses went to the barriers carrying the hopes of their owners.
Sadly, 7706 of those horses did not earn one cent in their endeavors. Mind you, that was a much better result than the previous year, when 9822 failed to earn.
The stats would hardly encourage financial planners to point you the way of racehorse ownership as a means to a lifetime of monetary security.
In fact, just the opposite.
For the record, 14,594 of the horses that raced last season earned up to $9999. Which means that more than two-thirds of the owners that raced horses last season lost money (you should budget around $25,000 per annum to have them trained).
Just 8685 horses earned between $10,000 and $100,000 in prizemoney. For the lucky ones, some 47 horses topped a $500,000 return.
But despite the gloom of a global financial crisis, more people are racing more horses for more prizemoney than ever before.
Racing NSW argued to the Productivity Commission that owners subsidise racing to the tune of some $200 million (thereby suggesting all recreational investments should be returned 100 percent - that's a good one).
Putting that aside, how is the industry treating its owners and seeking to create a broader interest in the sport?
Winning Post and TVN's Racing Review have received anecdotal evidence from a number of owners in recent weeks outlining their unsatisfactory experiences and, as importantly, the frustrations preventing them enjoying their investment in the sport.
Laurie Macri is an executive director in the Deal Organisation and Distribution department of Macquarie Equities. So he's travelling well, but he has also a hefty portfolio of racehorse investments and a love for the game. It's not his business, it's his recreation.
As he said: "I'm lucky enough to have the financial resources and blessing of my wife to race horses but there is a limit."
Macri recently had a runner in the Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield. He owns 20 percent of the horse. He was offered two members' tickets and one mounting-yard pass.
He travelled to the races with his wife, who was seven months pregnant. He incurred costs of flights, accommodation, taxi, a racecourse restaurant and babysitting. Not to mention the costs to train the horse.
"To have to start your day at the races arguing with an official who's under instructions not to give out tickets is hardly conducive to a good day out," wrote Macri.
"To be offered one enclosure ticket when clearly some horses seem to have up to 40 connections in the enclosure is disappointing. Given how good the coverage is on TVN, I might just stop visiting Caulfield.
"Why not give me 10 tickets to both (members and mounting yard)? That way, I could do marketing on behalf of racing by inviting friends.
"Whilst I am sure there are issues of safety and potentially inadequate enclosure facilities, let's invest the money and try something different.
"There is no better way to introduce new participants to racing than being up close and personal with the trainer and jockey. I am certain the trainers would welcome the marketing opportunity. Let's face it, most people race horses with their friends - let's try to increase that circle!
"Developers build display homes so that prospective buyers get to feel and then visualise the dream home before buying the dream house. Why doesn't racing learn from this very straightforward marketing strategy and introduce a similar campaign?
"The bottom line is simple - give owners greater entitlements and they will increase raceday participation and potentially increase ownership.
A question of space
The Melbourne Racing Club policy on entitlements is similar to those of all Melbourne metropolitan clubs.
Put simply, the club allocates 10 mounting-yard passes and 20 members' reserve tickets per runner in the event of a full field. If there are fewer than 16 horses, or horses with fewer than 10 owners, the MRC says it uses discretion for horses owned by syndicates.
"Our obligation to offer more than that to appease people outside the ownership of the horse is debatable," the MRC told Winning Post.
"We still want to encourage owners to become club members too.
"If we give 20 members' reserve tickets per horse on a day where we have 150 horses running, that increases our members' reserve crowd by 3000, which is a fair few extra (people) crowding an area that we charge members for the privilege of using."
Moonee Valley has received many compliments for its efforts to look after owners.
Trainer Tony Noonan recently wrote to Winning Post to praise the club, which has recently introduced the Eliza Park Sunline Suite as a home for owners and trainers as well as Victorian Owner's Gold Card holders on race days and nights. (Gold Card owners also receive free entry at Caulfield.)
Sole owners with a runner on the day/night are extended admittance and members/mounting yard passes for four people (including themselves) while all other named owners are afforded admission on course for themselves and a guest. For the treasured mounting yard, Moonee Valley provides 20 tickets per horse.
The VRC policy for Flemington is this: "Ticketing is made available to owners on the basis that individuals that contribute to the horse being at the races should, within reason, have the enjoyment of the raceday privileges.
"If there are 10 owners it is reasonable to offer 22 tickets. A sole owner is offered five members' guest tickets; to offer one person 22 tickets is not considered reasonable."
The VRC told Winning Post that for the "finite space" that is the mounting yard the safety limit is 160 owners and guests so a field of 10 would allow 16 mounting-yard tickets per horse.
Get them in and keep them
Alan Nightingale runs a fledgling syndication company out of Queensland. He also wrote on this topic to Racing Review.
"In the past six months we have attracted over 170 new owners to racing," Nightingale wrote.
"It is interesting that RVL and Queensland give every owner a pass to every race meeting held in that state regardless of whether your horse is racing or not.
"The horse doesn't even need to be registered in Queensland for them to give a free entry to every race meeting there.
"Racing NSW and a few race clubs are hell-bent on deterring participants in NSW.
"They should give me 200 tickets and try to get people to participate in this great sport.
"Racing NSW should give a pass to every person who is registered as an owner to gain at least entry to the public area of every meeting.
"Owners should expect more and they deserve more."
Then there's the issue of the very familiar faces in all mounting yards who do not race horses (media included).
The upshot of all this is that if racing is to attract new participants, keep them happy and grow the sport, perhaps we need to think of a new way to deal with owners and their entitlements on a race day or night.
Reproduced from Winning Post article by Bruce Clark, 11 March 2010.
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