Ger Lyons warns Irish racing risks becoming second-rate as prize-money stagnates

Prize-money in Ireland during the first half of the year remained more than half a million below the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, and trainer Ger Lyons believes there will not be a product worth looking at if the trend continues.

Horse Racing Ireland released its statistics for the first six months of 2022 on Thursday and various metrics, including the number of races staged (down 5.5 per cent), runners (9.7 per cent), field sizes (3.2 per cent), entries (22.6 per cent) and horses in training (6.6 per cent), showed year-on-year declines.

However, those decreases would have been impacted to a large degree by the cessation of point-to-point racing last year due to Covid-19 restrictions, thereby skewing comparisons as many of those horses raced under rules instead.

When compared to the corresponding pre-pandemic figures for the first half of 2019 prize-money was down €580,000 to €30.31 million.

Lyons said of the prize-money situation: "We can't be disillusioned in Ireland thinking we have good prize-money. We had three horses in the final race at Naas [on Wednesday] who were all rated over 100, and they qualified because they hadn't won more than €15,000 in a race."

He added: "We need to keep an eye on prize-money as we're selling all our good horses. I was gobsmacked to see just under 400 horses have been sold to Hong Kong. We all have to sell to survive but we are losing quality horses as we don’t have the prize-money. We're looking after the ordinary horses all the time, but it's the good horses that need looking after.

"It's not a rant, but if we keep selling the good horses we're going to have second-rate races. If the prize-money keeps trickling down then in ten years' time we're going to have a product that is not worth looking at. I don't know what the answer is, but we need to cop on to this prize-money situation."

The six-month statistics also revealed attendances for the first half of 2022 fell by nine per cent on 2019 levels to 505,752, with on-course bookmaker turnover falling by 10.3 per cent. Tote Ireland turnover fell even further by 12.8 per cent compared to the first half of 2019.

There were 178 fixtures during the first six months of 2022, 11 more than in the same period in 2019, while the average field size was 12.1 compared to 11.6 in 2019.

In more positive news, bloodstock sales in Ireland at public auction continue to thrive, and the first half of 2022 was up 31 per cent on the most comparable recent figure of 2019. There are 3,975 active owners in Ireland, up from 3,251 over the same period three years ago, while new owners are up by almost 20 per cent from 2019 to 510.

Suzanne Eade, CEO of Horse Racing Ireland, said: "After a challenging couple of years, the hard work and efforts across the industry has meant that Irish racing is in a strong position to face up to the combined challenges of the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit and an increase in the general cost of living.

"I am very encouraged the number of active owners has held up well, while we continue to attract healthy numbers of new owners with 510 registrations in the first six months of 2022, a significant figure in the face of so much economic uncertainty. Again, these numbers are ahead of the pre-Covid levels of 2019."

Eade added: "What has decreased, by nine per cent, is the attendance levels compared to 2019. Many sports and leisure sectors have faced a challenge in returning to pre-Covid levels of attendance, and Irish racing is not immune to that. It is a challenge that everybody will step up to, and over the past few weeks we have enacted a strong media marketing campaign to drive attendances throughout the summer.

"An increase in total Tote betting to €31.9m points to the benefits of its strategic alliance with Tote UK, and off-course betting into Irish pools is up 21.3 per cent on the 2019 tally. However, betting on-course, for both Tote and bookmakers, is down on the pre-pandemic 2019 figures.

"Bloodstock sales have performed very well, particularly the National Hunt store sales, with a figure of €62.5m for horses sold at public auction. This reflects the high confidence international and domestic buyers have in horses bred, reared and prepared in Ireland."

Irish thoroughbred racing industry statistics

Category | 2022-2019 (first six months only)
Fixtures 178-167
Total runners 16,003-14,142
Field sizes 12.1-11.6
Active owners 3,975-3,251
New owners 510-484
Prize-money €30.31-€30.89m
Race sponsorship €4.2m-€4.2m
Attendances 505,752-555,475
On-course betting €29.5m-€33m
Tote betting €31.9m-€28.6m
Bloodstock sales €62.5-€47.7m

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