Selling top horses abroad for big money is a 'real problem' says Ed Walker

Ed Walker believes Britain faces "a real problem" with horses being sold abroad to big-money offers, and labelled it "pretty depressing" to see two of his former inmates land Group 1s for new connections before Starman's breakthrough at the top level for him in the July Cup.

Walker was speaking on the issue on What A Shout in the same week an in-depth analysis of whether Britain was acting as a nursery for other racing nations, as has been put forward by the likes of champion trainer John Gosden, was published by the Racing Post.

Glorious Empire and Glorious Forever both raced for Walker before being sold by their owners and subsequently landed top-level successes in America and Hong Kong respectively.

While acknowledging their decision to sell horses abroad faced with the potential returns from prize-money in Britain made sense, Walker admitted it was a tough scenario for trainers to deal with.

"I believe it's a real problem," he said. "I've been quite affected by it and before I trained a Group 1 winner I'd sold two Group 1 winners out of the yard, which is pretty depressing when you haven't won one.

"I've sold a lot of nice horses, which has been a benefit to the business, but when you're trying to get your career going and build a profile it's very hard when whenever you have a horse with potential, it gets taken away from you.

"Owners are quite rightly deciding to sell them because they can't win the money they are being offered."

Walker will seek a second Group 1 with Starman in the Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock on Saturday and is optimistic the horse's owner-breeder David Ward will keep him in training as a five-year-old.

Walker (second from right) hopes Starman's owner-breeder David Ward (centre) will keep him in training next yearCredit: Mark Cranham

However, while Walker feels horses at the top level are easier to keep a hold of, he is concerned the sale of horses further down the pyramid is undermining the quality of British racing as a whole.

He added: "As we are losing more of the major owners – the likes of Khalid Abdullah and Sheikh Hamdan whose horses you couldn't buy – there's going to be more horses that are buyable and I think there are going to be more horses that are bought.

"My worry is that it's going to have a massive impact on the quality of the horses in training. Not necessarily at the top, but that sort of Group 3 to class 2 handicap level where we're losing horses."

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