'We're extremely disappointed' - head of trainers' association reacts to prize-money cut

The National Trainers Federation (NTF) has warned of the "extremely harmful" consequences of dwindling returns after the Jockey Club revealed it is to cut its contribution to prize-money this year.

Falling attendance figures at last month's Cheltenham Festival and the continued impact of affordability checks have impacted the group's revenues and have contributed to the decision to reduce prize-money by around £1.5 million from May until the end of the year. Jockey Club chief executive Nevin Truesdale said the move was symptomatic of the "very significant financial headwinds" it is facing.

"We're extremely disappointed to see that the Jockey Club has reduced its prize-money for 2024 from the initially planned levels," said NTF chief executive Paul Johnson. "While we fully understand the financial implications of the issues the Jockey Club has detailed, prize-money is the lifeblood of the sport and reductions have direct implications for the sustainability of businesses within it.

"Given that a number of those businesses have already been put under pressure through their own increasing costs, the direct financial impacts of lower prize-money and the indirect impact caused by reducing owner confidence in the returns that the sport provides will be extremely harmful."

Johnson acknowledged that some of the reasons for "stagnating prize-money", such as changing behaviour following the coronavirus pandemic, the impact of affordability checks and the wider economic situation, would have been hard to predict but argued that British racing is partly feeling the effects of "not having done enough over an extended period of time to maintain the interest of the public". 

"The industry strategy seeks to address this and turn around the sport’s fortunes but it's clear that we need to work more quickly," added Johnson. "There's some promising work being undertaken around the targeted engagement of different consumer groups and growing racehorse ownership. We have to keep investing here if we are to change things and it's not going to be an easy ship to turn around.

"It's frustrating that trainers' businesses continue to rely on racecourses to be successful in promoting and selling the sport and we firmly believe the signing of commercial partnerships with participants is essential if we're to work better together to support all of the businesses within the sport. We continue to work with the Thoroughbred Group and racecourses to achieve this and are making progress."

In January the Jockey Club said it would be making a record executive contribution of £31.8m to prize-money in 2024, leading to an overall total of £60.1m. That executive contribution will now fall by around £750,000 to £31.1m, the same figure as last year, and with consequent reductions in levy funding and entry fees overall prize-money will drop to £58.6m.

Read these next:

Jockey Club reveals £1.5 million drop in prize-money and blames ‘significant headwinds’ 

Jockey Club prize-money cuts: why are they happening and what impact will they have?

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.