Rates rises for tracks bound to put prize-money under pressure
The significance to racing of the enormous and imminent increases in business rates cannot be overstated. Some trainers will be hit extremely hard, but, so, too, will some courses – and such is the seismic battering tracks now face that trainers, and indeed all racing professionals, are set to be smacked by a double whammy blow.
As revealed in the Racing Post last week, numerous trainers across Britain have been stunned by the news business rates paid to HM Revenues and Customs are going to soar as a result of the latest nationwide revaluation.
In those areas where property prices have risen most, trainers will be hit particularly hard, with added pain destined for those not operating at full capacity, as the assessments have been made based, in part, on a yard's number of boxes, regardless of whether those boxes are housing horses.
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