Where will the money come from? Aftercare centre for ex-racehorses struggles to keep going
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Times are hard at Racehorse Relief, a 12-year-old retraining and rehoming centre for ex-racehorses near Helston in Cornwall. Jo Massey, its founder and chief executive, tells the Front Runner she has been spending this year seeking new sources of funds, having found herself for the first time unable to prop up the charity on her own.
Do you remember Pivoine? Perhaps you were on at 14-1 when he won the John Smith's Cup at York in 2019. He's among the dozens of former racers to have passed through Massey's hands on their way to something different and a slower pace of life.
"He's so sweet, the sweetest horse in the world," she says of Pivoine, now nine, who last raced at the start of last year. "He's gone to the mother of an ex-member of staff who wanted to learn to ride.
"He's that quiet, the perfect horse for that. They love the bones of him. For a horse that was as good as he was, he's like a dope on a rope."
Counter-intuitively, she has found that many ex-Flat runners can adapt very readily to the quiet life. "They're so laid back, they're horizontal.
"I'll tell people, this was a winning racehorse! And they're like, 'Really? I was expecting him to be a lunatic.'
"I think they feel, 'I've done my running. I'm quite happy to just doodle about now...'"
Pivoine and others are not sold on. Rather, they go to their new homes on a permanent loan basis, so that they can always be returned to Racehorse Relief if things don't work out.
Cleonte, a Royal Ascot winner, and the prolific winning sprinter Line Of Reason are others that Massey mentions as having been through her centre en route to what will hopefully be happy lives beyond the great game. But whether she can continue this work is now in doubt.
"Our centre and others have started to struggle. We are pulling out all the plugs that we can to try and keep our heads above water.
"How I've funded this charity is that I'm fortunate enough to have a 25 per cent share in a software company. That company was profitable and I used my profits to plug the charity's funding gap.
"That company is currently not profitable, or not profitable enough. We're hoping that will change but for the time being I'm unable to plug that funding gap.
"We've been doing what we can, crowdfunders and trying to get people interested in our cause. We do a bit of fundraising but holding an open day and earning a few hundred quid doesn't really scratch the surface and is quite a lot of hassle."
She now asks for donations from the owners of ex-racehorses as a condition of accepting them. While some have baulked and looked elsewhere, those who were keen on their horses going to Massey have paid up to £5,000.
Even that doesn't match the £7,500 which she says is the typical cost of retraining a racehorse to do something else, assuming everything goes fairly smoothly. And she has to accept much smaller contributions in cases where ex-racehorses come to her from private homes who have got into difficulties, rather than coming direct from the sport.
Her website offers potential donors the chance to sponsor an ex-racer in its new career as an eventer, an initiative aimed at racehorse owners in the hope they will find a similar thrill from tracking 'their' horse as it progresses through a new sport.
She expected there would be some centralised support from racing for a centre like hers that found itself in financial trouble. She was encouraged by the knowledge that Retraining of Racehorses (ROR) has for some years been prepared to send her horses under its Vulnerable Horse Scheme, which comes with per-horse funding.
But she has been disappointed. "We've been told by ROR they think the best way for us to fund ourselves would be for us to set up a second business and make that business profitable enough to pay for the charity."
Other centres are making this work, at least to some extent, Massey acknowledges, using their horses to assist children with special educational needs or people suffering from post traumatic stress. "We're not set up for something like that. When we built this place, we didn't do it with people in mind, we did it for horses.
"I founded this charity because I wanted to help racehorses. I saw a need. And to then have to go into other areas, it's not really what we do. I do a bit of livery and hire out the indoor school a bit but that doesn't make much of a dent in our overheads.
"In order to make that kind of work profitable, I'd have to stop using the facilities for ex-racehorses. I could hire out the school 24/7 but then when am I going to retrain the racehorses? I could bring in ten non-thoroughbreds but then that's ten boxes that aren't available for ex-racehorses."
Massey doesn't want to be seen as angry or accusatory but she is disappointed at finding her charity in such an unpromising position. She feels the strategy of the Horse Welfare Board (HWB) is unclear and that both the HWB and ROR have been slowed by personnel changes in recent months. She reckons their vision for commercially self-sufficient centres is not realistic in every case.
"They tell me I need a commercial side but I think, if I'm going to do these hours commercially, why bother with ex-racehorses? I could fill these stables with people that are paying me to break their horses in and I could be making a killing.
"It falls on deaf ears. The policy is that charities have to be self-sustaining and, up until eight months ago, we were."
A spokesperson for ROR said it had had "a number of conversations" with Racehorse Relief in recent months and continued: "We recognise their current challenges and we have offered a number of different options to provide support.
"The aftercare sector needs to be sustainable and a number of retraining centres have adopted models where they have diversified their income streams to help support any charitable services they offer alongside charging viable fees for the excellent retraining services provided for horses retiring from racing.
"The Aftercare Funding Review (AFR) highlights the need to establish a sustainable funding model for aftercare. ROR is now developing a strategy that describes an integrated approach to aftercare designed to build on the work we have done and deliver the AFR recommendations. We are now discussing with key stakeholders the support required to deliver that vision.
"In partnership with HWB, ROR is currently progressing a number of projects to define agreed criteria for horses requiring support, the likely numbers involved and a sustainable funding model to pay for it. Our vision is to create a transparent and auditable solution where industry is assured of how its money is spent and good practice is recognised.
"ROR has and continues to transform the lives of thousands of former racehorses by not only creating second career opportunities, but also providing educational support for owners as well as a safety net to support any former racehorse in need.
"We have, do, and will always provide support for any former racehorse whose welfare is at risk of being compromised. We are in continued dialogue with Racehorse Relief."
A similar statement was provided by the HWB.
Monday's picks, by Robbie Wilders
On a tough day for punters Drama is the strongest fancy in the At The Races App Market Movers British EBF Restricted Novice Stakes (5.30) at Windsor and should be backed accordingly.
The late market strength surrounding this son of Havana Grey on his debut at Newbury last month (backed into 17-2 from 14-1) suggested he had ability, and that suspicion remains after his fourth-placed finish.
While runaway winner Sketch failed to justify odds of 2-1 in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes at Goodwood next time, the soft ground surely found him out there, as it did many horses at the meeting. The form is respectable, as the second and tenth won next time, while the ninth came within a nose of scoring on his next outing.
It undoubtedly paid to race prominently in that contest, with the first three in the front rank throughout, and Drama fared best of those held up. He was also briefly blocked in his run around two furlongs out.
The James Ferguson-trained two-year-old is entered in Newbury's Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes next month and the booking of William Buick can only be a positive.
'He hit the line hard and staying trips will be his forte' - our man's three Monday wagers
Three things to look out for on Monday
1. When Willie Mullins introduces a potentially smart young mare to hurdles, the rest of the sport has to sit up and take notice. Four Clean Aces makes her jumping debut in the second race at Ballinrobe, a maiden hurdle, having won both her bumper outings in April and June. "She is small," noted our analyst at Punchestown last time and suggested she might be kept to the Flat, being descended from a Nell Gwynn winner. Anyway, here she is, tackling hurdles and taking on Sherodan, runner-up in a Listed novice hurdle last time.
2. You don't see many ex-Wesley Ward horses joining trainers in Britain but Starstriker is one and it's among the things that make her so interesting for a Windsor novice tonight. There's pace on both sides of her pedigree, as she's by Zoustar and descended from a Cheveley Park winner. Perhaps there's too much pace as she didn't seem to stay five furlongs in her two races in the US early last season. She's now with James Ferguson and a hood is applied as she tackles the minimum trip at Windsor. The forecast rain would seem to make things difficult for her. Oisin Murphy dons the Qatar colours to ride her.
3. It's already soft at Hamilton, which is great news for good, old Slainte Mhath, a winner at the track three times when there has been cut underfoot, including on her first two visits this year. I felt she got leaned on by Impressor when runner-up here nine days ago; perhaps he can make that form look a bit better by following up in today's opener. Phil Dennis is at Wolverhampton so Jason Hart climbs aboard for the first time this year when Slainte Mhath tackles a 6f handicap, for which she's 3-1.
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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.
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