Information vacuum from HRI was simply not good enough when leadership is needed

After Horse Racing Ireland commissioned Deloitte to report on the economic worth of the racing and breeding sectors to the economy in 2017, the governing body duly announced the findings to great fanfare.

Deloitte established the combined industries helped to sustain 28,900 jobs, of which 15,200 were identified as core, full-time employees. At the time, it identified 8,187 individuals involved in ownership, investing directly in the end product. All those metrics have grown in the interim.

By my count, as per its latest 2019 statistics, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board licenses 1,131 trainers and jockeys, with 3,252 stable staff registered through the same authority. A lot of people in Ireland rely on racing and breeding for an income, and they depend largely on the owners who underpin the investment.