Kathy I think you are personally being a bit hard on Kevin in many ways, I'm pretty sure he understands the importance of owners and he would have had dealings with owners at the races being travelling head lad.
The problem is it all depends on certain owners. The general fact is many owners would like to be competing for more money but don't see it as a be all and end all.
No one is expecting big sponsors to drum up sponsorship for lesser races. I see how Kev has looked at this as "trying to help the smaller trainer" but if you look at reality, if a 3k maiden becomes a 5k maiden this means better horses will run in it, this doesn't help the smaller trainer as in a ballot a horse of Sir Michael Stoute will always get preference over say Brendan for example. That being said it is apparently random (random my arse !!!!). Also if you have more money in 0-60s and 0-70s it will only encourage the bigger trainers to keep training lesser stock. Had their been 4 or 5k on offer for 0-60 handicaps I doubt Roger Charlton would have sold us Stargazy, especially for £5000. You have to remember the bloodstock market is at a low and value in purchasing is being restored and if you go to South Africa or America you are getting much more for your pound now. The fact is whilst the big owners are letting stock go to ease funding the smaller syndicate is regaining strength as its easier for ten men to find a grand at present than one to find 10k. This is enabling better stock to go at the lower end of the markets. This wont happen if prize money goes up as your bigger trainers will happily keep training the 10-20k horses if they can pick up 4 or 5k for winning. How does this help the smaller trainer, it doesn't.
Prize money is a core basis and I sometimes wonder if our racing system is designed all wrong. Take a look at it in footballing terms. I play for a Sunday league team who ain't half bad for our league and we all get paid £25, plus £5 win bonus or £2.50 goal or assist bonus. This means a good week your contract is £35. We are some 5 leagues off the Blue Square South but we are effectively your banded horse. In the Blue Square my cousin plays for Grays Athletic and he is on £170 a week. Nothing he can live on but it supports his other job. Then into league One (3rd highest tier) where my other cousin plays for yeovil, he is on £1000 a week. Now I know when you get to the prem the wages are outstanding (for some) but look at this big picture. the real factor is down the bottom its pretty dire. If you take a percentage scale to my level £35, to Joe Cole's level 100k, we are on 0.00035% of Premiership wages and 0.035% of league one wages, now when you consider the Derby at 500k as compared to the banded race at £1400, you get 0.0028%, now this may not sound a lot but its still higher than the footballing pay structure from bottom level to top. Now if you consider the average premiership player to be on £20,000 their comparison to the bottom is 0.00175% but the average big race is £45,000 compared the banded race of £1400 is 0.031%. Now it clearly identifies to me that that in relation to football the bottom grade racehorse is earning more than the bottom paid footballer, so ask yourself is it wrong, and this is before you say footballers are on too much. This is clearly an indication of maybe compared to racings elite to racings bottom basement they are.
I'm not saying the prize money is good but lets be honest, Fudge answer truthfully. Say 5 years down the line you have your license. You train say in Newmarket. For 2 months over the cold winter mornings you have this 51 rated 5f handicapper that needs a bit of juice in the ground, a nice level track and is not a great traveller. On Easter Monday you spot a 0-52 5f handicap at Yarmouth. £2,300 to the winner. Now this horse is owned by some loyal owners that always pay their bills early and loyally support you despite not having massive amount of funds, but always come up trumps on pay day and leave you to train their horse and get enjoyment out of it running. Now chances are you've noticed this race some 1 month in advance and had told these owners this is the likely race day. However 5 days before this race which is perfect for your moderate animal, Mr Wall or Mr Haggas approach you upon first lot and say see this 0-52 handicap for £2,300 at Yarmouth which we have no intention of running anything in, well we want to make a protest about prize money being low and want you not to run. Think carefully now, this horse has been targeted at this race, the owners know, the horse is 100%, its local and gonna cost you no more than £300 - £400 to go there, meaning owners can get a nice £1,600 - £1,800 if it wins profit for going an hour up the road, and your horse is not a great traveller. Are you telling me you would not run this horse, if that is your answer you will be in for a rough ride as the owners wont be happy, you would have canceled their planned day out, but most of all the one race you have targeted at for this horse, is now smoke and mirrors, all that hard work for weeks is canceled out because the hierarchy of British trainers feel they need to make a protest which has no bearings on them whatsoever. These trainers really have gone about it the wrong way and I for one can't see how you can't see that.
Kathy is 100% right in the fact that she says owners employ a trainers services. I have been delighted to have my horses with Bill Turner, someone who I got on well with whilst working in racing and always offered a hand with a spare lead up in my time when he was stuck. When I offered him two what were in his opinion 2 lovely horses last year he was delighted.There are 17 trainers within 25 miles of where I live but I selected him because with what I had he was ideal. I have struck up a good rapour with Bill and get on very well, we chat at the races, I help him saddle at other meetings, got pally with his owners, get on really well with his staff, I go down once a week. We chat about all his horses and ideal races, even chat about friendly things. This is all you can ask for in a trainer. I pay my bills on the 1st of the month and never qualm if he wants to go to wolves and I want to go to Ascot, so to speak. He lets me do my own entries but then we look for whats best with the horse. I can safely say I would happily support Bill from now on and hopefully Star will still be running in 5 or 6 years at the ripe old age of ten, he would make a fantastic daddy for the babies in years to come and I would be delighted to help Bill out in anyway. For a small trainer you can't always find these owners and when they come along you take them with open arms, their input not just financially is crucial in a small yard. Those that get on well with lads and go out for nights out with them, leave drinks in the yard, the lads are happy to see as they know they are not looking down on you, you also find it creates a bit of happiness in a yard even when the chips are down. I don't own no superstars or any world beaters but I haven't the money to purchase that caliber of horses and even if I did I probably wouldn't. I have my couple of horses there which are loved by the lads and are actually trained. My trainer aims my horses are their standard of races, there is no big line production as there is in big yards where the rich get richer and the ###### get sold. Each horse has every angle covered to try and achieve the best possible. My only chance of a cut at the big pie is if a horse I've bred comes good or my horse that was once in a big yard really does come good. Its not impossible or likely but you never know. The fact is my £2,600 a month would mean nothing to the likes of Sir Michael Stoute or Henry Cecil or probably even Chris Wall for that matter but the difference is they wouldn't want to train my horse, so why should they be interfering with the prize money that I want my horses to run in.
If my trainer is happy to run in these races and so am I the owner I don't see what it has to do with the big guys in the Al Bahathri club. If prize money increased to where it attracts big yards, all it will do is finish off the small man, also remember if horses are competing for more , trainers will feel they can push their prices up as a reflection. Then this may force me to have one horse instead of two, and it will do the same to many owners.
Take a look at the likes of Kathy and myself, we're the people with horses running at this level and for this standard of prize money. if we weren't happy we would be clubbing together with many other small owners and saying lets boycott Saturday night at Wolves because the prize money is poor. The fact is the average racehorse owner is not concerned with the level of prize money. You don't go into this game to make a profit. For an owner it's not a business, a trainer yes it is, but not an owner. If suddenly 3k races become 5k races, sponsorship will have to double. I'm paying £1200 to sponsor a 0-70 handicap this season, where the prize money is £5,000 added and £3,300 to the winner. now if this increased to £7,000 added, the racecourse would probably want £2,000 off me, which would probably make me not want to sponsor the race. Pontins are sponsoring near on every race at Wolves this winter, not because they are paying £1000 a race like if you or I sponsored there but because Wolverhampton racecourse have accepted an offer for sponsorship of say 200 races which benefits them.
To be honest Kevin when you start training you need these races to put yourself on the map, if every race was fiercely competitive with the big yards filling them up all the time, a, you would never have runners and b, you would never get many winners. That will result in no horses and no owners. Ask yourself anyway why would Mark Johnston want a 0-55 handicapper ?, there much harder to train than a 80 horse.
Also these big yards are targeting maidens and not handicaps for a reason, this is because they have 100 new maiden's a year, and want to win as many races as possible. Why should the Levy and the BHA fund their greed. why should Stoutey be able to run a 500k colt at Wolverhampton against the lesser mans future 60 horses, the reason is he won't if the prize money is 2.5k to the winner, make it 4k or 5k he will come. Theres only one loser if they increased prize money the way the big yards want and thats the small trainer. Ask yourself something why despite your trainers position on the NTF, why would he seriously want to help a small trainer, when he deep down knows he has no intentions of running in these races unless prize money goes up, that tells you something already and I'm sure many owners like myself will totally agree with me. I know 3 trainers that also agree with my comments, you would be surprised but this is the general feeling in the smaller yards and believe me your stay away tactics from the small races will not deter the small trainers, the big boys can all stay away and wait for the Newbury's, the Newmarkets and the Ascot's many small trainers will feel its better that way anyway.
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