PRIZEMONEY IS THE CORNERSTONE TO A SUCCESSFUL RACING INDUSTRY – OR IS IT?

25/04/13

The age old question in the racing industry is what is its more important aspect – the punter, owner, trainer, breeder or the prizemoney? And you can bet “London to a brick on” that opinions will differ as to the correct answer for time immemorial as to which is the most important of the five.

Put simply if we had no punters there would be no betting taxation which is the revenue stream that currently funds racing industry prizemoney across the three codes. If you didn’t have any owners, no one would own and pay the bills for the equine and canine athletes that punters want to bet on, so again you don’t have an industry. If you didn’t have any licensed trainers to train the thoroughbreds, standardbreds or greyhounds, well how would an owner get his athlete trained? Without breeders there would be no equine or canine athletes to supply product to the three codes, so again you don’t have an industry. If you didn’t have any prizemoney there would be no possibility of a financial reward for your considerable monetary outlay, so why would you bother getting involved in the sport?

Interestingly – and probably contrary to popular belief – I could mount an argument as to why prizemoney is the least important of all the primary aspects of racing. When racing first came to Australia not all that long after Cookie landed here, they’d race for cups and the like and whilst modern day racing is far more regulated and successful than it was in its infancy in this country, it would seem to me that there are numerous owners to whom the simple “roar of the racetrack” is far more important than the amount of prizemoney that a race is worth. After all, the only one who gets a decent slice of the prizemoney cake in the average races is the winner who normally finishes up with approximately 60% of the overall purse of a race.

The average person involved in racing would have to be born under a rock not to understand that any financial involvement in any of the three codes of racing will, on the balance of probability, result in a financial loss – and generally that “financial loss” will be major rather than minor.

Recent articles I’ve exclusively penned here tracking the life of thoroughbreds bought at yearling sales by well-known industry participants like Gai Waterhouse and Star Thoroughbreds – and following the success or otherwise of those yearlings after they have been initially purchased at those sales, suggests that the losses are generally horrendous, with very few exceptions to that rule.

To show how low prizemoney is in the general score of things, one has to look no further than the Queensland racing industry. It’s been an accepted fact across the three codes of racing for many years that prizemoney in Queensland is just not competitive with that of their southern counterparts of New South Wales or Victoria, yet somewhat surprisingly the Queensland industry powers along even with that far inferior prizemoney. For instance, the Ipswich Greyhound Club race a guaranteed twice a week (Tuesday twilight and Wednesday night) plus some Friday twilight dates – and the club has to regularly knock back so many nominations when they race that those “rejected” nominations could have invariably created another entire 10-race card. Whilst the Ipswich Greyhound Club has been one of Australia’s most successful greyhound clubs in the last decade, thanks to some good and honest people being at the helm, the track has what I’d call “a bookies benefit 431-metre start”, but even that dreadfully positioned start doesn’t deter owners and trainers who happily support the club.

Moving from the greyhound world to the thoroughbred world and the number of horses that are acceptors for Brisbane Saturday metropolitan races is simply extraordinary given that a normal Saturday metropolitan race in Brisbane is only worth total prizemoney of $50,000 – yet in Sydney a normal city Saturday race is worth $85,000 and in Victoria a Saturday city race is worth $80,000. To put it another way – Sydney Saturday metropolitan prizemoney is 70% higher than Brisbane and Melbourne is 60% more than Brisbane. It’s therefore not rocket science to see that Queensland is languishing in third place in this three-horse prizemoney race and is under the whip going nowhere.

Similarly in both “provincial” and “country” racing, Queensland is so far behind the other two States it couldn’t shoot them with a canon. For instance, last Saturday in Queensland we raced at the “provincial” meeting at the Gold Coast and $10,000 in total prizemoney per race was the norm. In New South Wales last Saturday they had a corresponding provincial meeting at Kembla Grange which was abandoned, but the previous Saturday the “provincial” meeting was at Newcastle and it featured $22,000 in total prizemoney per race, which is an amazing 120% more than Queensland. Then further south in Victoria last Saturday they raced at Bendigo for $15,000 minimum prizemoney per race, which is 50% more than Queensland offered at the Gold Coast.

Move to “country” racing and last Saturday in Queensland we raced at numerous tracks, so let’s just pick one at random for the purpose of the exercise – Gympie – and total prizemoney was $6,000 per race. A New South Wales “country” meeting happened the same day at Warialda and it only had the same minimum prizemoney per race – $6,000. In Victoria last Saturday there was no “country” meeting but there was the following day at Wangaratta – and they raced for minimum prizemoney of $15,000 at Wangaratta, or an incredible $9,000 per race more than Queensland.

So it’s an accepted fact that Queensland is not competitive with the overall prizemoney offered in their races – and you can also take it as read, without me going into specifics here, that although all references here relate solely to thoroughbred racing, the other two codes face the same problem in Queensland. What is interesting however is to check out the number of acceptors that we get in Brisbane Saturday city thoroughbred races, even allowing for the totally non-competitive prizemoney on offer. I purposely haven’t taken last Saturday’s Eagle Farm figures into account as the number of acceptances last Saturday were understandably very big on the back of washed out meetings and additionally nine races were programmed to get rid of some of the back-log of horses that were missing runs.

So to be fair to all parties I went back to a random race meeting three months earlier on 19/1/13 and checked out the number of acceptors for the three Saturday city meetings that day, being mindful of the fact to ensure that no Friday nights happened at Sydney or Melbourne prior to the day, which would have given Sydney and Melbourne an excuse for low numbers of Saturday acceptors. In fact it’s fair to say that Brisbane numbers would have suffered this particular Saturday as their meeting was just seven days after the big annual Magic Millions raceday at the Gold Coast.

So on 19/1/13 here is the list of acceptors for Eagle Farm, Rosehill and Flemington meetings that were run on the day:

CITY/RACE

ACCEPTORS

CITY/RACE

ACCEPTORS

CITY/RACE

ACCEPTORS

BR1

9

SR1

8

MR1

10

BR2

12

SR2

8

MR2

11

BR3

8

SR3

11

MR3

6

BR4

10

SR4

13

MR4

16

BR5

12

SR5

18

MR5

16

BR6

17

SR6

13

MR6

18

BR7

13

SR7

11

MR7

10

BR8

16

SR8

13

MR8

17

TOTAL

97

 

95

 

104

 

The aforesaid tables demonstrates that if there’s no Friday night meetings in Sydney and Melbourne, the numbers accepting to race in Queensland are commensurate with the two southern capitals, even allowing for the much lower race prizemoney aspect. When there are Friday meetings in either or both of Sydney and Melbourne, where Saturday city prizemoney levels aren’t paid at those Friday meetings, the numbers of Brisbane acceptances regularly trounces Saturday city numbers in Sydney and Melbourne.

Even if you look at next Saturday’s meetings at Doomben, Randwick and Flemington, Brisbane’s 112 acceptances outpoints Sydney with 98 and Melbourne with 107 and that’s by no means a one off as if you follow the pattern of numbers of acceptors throughout the year, you’ll find that Brisbane Saturday city race numbers will regularly be higher than those of their southern city counterparts.

If prizemoney was so vitally important to all parties involved in the industry, then why over all these years have Brisbane Saturday city thoroughbred numbers remained big? Why isn’t everyone racing in Sydney and Melbourne for that much higher prizemoney? The only conclusion I can draw is that it is my considered opinion that prizemoney is the most over-rated aspect of the racing industry across its three codes. After all, prizemoney in normal non-black type races is only really relevant to the winner of any race ever run. The rest have to fight over the crumbs and the vast majority of runners in any race across any code don’t even get to take any crumbs home.

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there is the second and final montage of photos from racing around the traps in the last week or so. On www.sydneyracing.com.au Brian Russell looks at the contribution of Redoute’s Choice to last Saturday’s Randwick card, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Matt Nicholls looks at Victorian racing.

Greyhound Racing Offers and Promotions

Stay up to date with the latest racing news
Follow our social accounts to get exclusive content and all the latest racing news!