'Frustrated' John Dance to significantly cut back number of horses in training

Prominent owner John Dance is to significantly cut back the number of horses he has in training having become frustrated by "a multitude of things in racing".

Dance, best known for owning six-time Group 1 winner Laurens, currently has 53 horses in training in his renowned white and purple silks, but has revealed that figure will soon be much smaller.

"I'd be surprised if it was beyond very low double-digits," Dance said on the Nick Luck Daily Podcast. "In an ideal world it would be half a dozen Flat horses and three or four National Hunt, and that's about trying to realise the potential of those horses as opposed to wanting to have as many as nine or ten in training.

"We made the decision that everything we've bred that was a yearling, we were going to put in the yearling sales. We're also having a sabbatical this year from buying yearlings and won't have any new two-year-olds next year."

Happier times: Dance (left) with team Laurens and his star filly after another Group 1 successCredit: Edward Whitaker

Many owners and trainers have felt the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but Dance insists that isn't necessarily the reason behind the reduction, rather issues with the handicap system and, to a lesser extent, prize-money.

He said: "It's not necessarily Covid-related, but Jess [Dance's wife] and I have been frustrated with a multitude of things in racing for the last couple of years and the camel's back can only take a certain amount of straws.

"There are a variety of things that just niggle over time, and the handicap system is one that frustrates the life out of me. The amount of horses going off at three-digit odds for three runs and beaten half the track before, amazingly, improving 20lb on handicap debut.

"Personally I don't get where the sense of achievement comes from teeing a horse up, but we all have different opinions and I have nothing against anyone who wants to do that. But sometimes it takes a toll on you and you need a bit of a break."

He added: "Maybe this does come back to prize-money. While we’re not chasing prize-money and not as sensitive to it as many are, I am sensitive to it in the respect that a lack of prize-money effectively encourages people to tee their horses up for one of these kinds of paydays as it's the only way they can make the game pay."

With plenty of racing's stakeholders speaking out about a number of issues, Dance admitted that the sport's governing bodies face a tough challenge to make everyone happy.

He said: "How we keep owners in the game is probably the biggest challenge the sport has. What makes it so difficult is that there are so many owners, and because there are so many of us we all have different opinions.

"There are some groups of owners demanding change in one area and others are focused on prize-money."

Laurens was retired at the end of last season, and on keeping the five-year-old for breeding purposes, Dance joked: "I might have to run her offspring and others around the garden if we don't fall back in love with ownership!

"We'd love to fall back in love with the game next year. I can't promise you we will, but we'd love to and want to."

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