The Front Runner: Why there's no quick solutions to aftercare challenges

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Work is under way to organise care of ex-racehorses but we're really only just setting out on this journey and there is a tonne of work to do, most obviously in finding the necessary funding. That's what I learned this week from a long chat with David Catlow, managing director of Retraining of Racehorses (RoR).

We were speaking ahead of RoR's National Championships, which start at Aintree on Wednesday, the largest event in Britain for ex-racehorses. Native River and Lady Buttons are among 270 taking part.

Catlow starts by throwing bouquets to his predecessors. "There is no doubt that over the last 20 years, we've done some great stuff. The price of former racehorses has gone up by about 400 per cent in the last five years, through our Source A Horse website, and they have a much higher profile in the wider equestrian world. People are now shopping for them. They want them, which is great news."

The job for RoR now, as Catlow sees it, is to take responsibility for sorting out the fractured aftercare industry. This is something that has been discussed for years but there has been little sign yet of any wheels turning.

We talk about the importance of a horse's first step away from the sport and he suggests that mostly seems to work well. "The vast majority of racehorse owners and trainers do a really great job.

"There's a lot of anecdote that some don't and if a horse needs some more structured assessment or might be a difficult horse to manage, behaviourally, perhaps they have an injury that needs assessing ... There is a risk that people, at the time they're retiring a racehorse, they don't really want a bill for £5,000 at that point."

Should racing be making provision to pay for those more difficult retirees? What sort of bill would that be? The RoR, he says, is undertaking work "to understand which horses, retiring from racing, might need this extra support ... How do we identify those and channel them into retraining centres and how do we fund those? 

Lady Buttons: among 270 ex-racehorses taking part in RoR's National ChampionshipsCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

"We're working with a cohort of around 15 trainers to determine some of those answers. It's interesting that from 800 horses with those trainers, about 115 have retired in the past year and probably ten or 11 of those have been assessed by a trainer as may be more tricky, not the sort of horse that could just be handed to a novice rider. 

"A significant percentage of those, once they've been out of racing for a month, they're a different horse anyway. They're chilled, relaxed, they're okay. 

"When we know the numbers of horses involved, we can go to the industry and say, the industry needs to fund, say, 100 horses a year at an average of, say, £6,000 or £7,000 for six months. We then need to work out how that is going to be paid for." 

We discuss the possibility of an insurance pot. Catlow calculates that, with 14,000 horses in training, a rule requiring an annual contribution of £100 from the owners of each one would yield £1.4m, enough to pay for 200 horses spending six months at a retraining centre. 

It's just one idea, requiring wider discussion, and there are other talking points, like how to decide which horses qualify and what happens next for those who don't qualify. But the scheme would at least be a substantial source of revenue for those long-established retraining centres, some of which have run into financial difficulties, like Racehorse Relief, discussed in Monday's Front Runner.

Catlow says RoR is also working on systems to accredit such centres and to reward best practice. A nationwide network of regional development officers will offer support to those who have taken on an ex-racehorse and try to ensure the success of those relationships. 

Another piece of work, which he hopes will come to fruition this year, is the establishment of what he calls "a transparent aftercare grant assessment panel". This is to address the problem of many different potential funders all receiving applications from dozens of aftercare providers, without the means to tell which causes might be more deserving. 

"We'll have external people on it, it won't just be RoR. We'll set criteria. Anybody from the sector can apply for funding, the panel will assess it and express a view and put it before funders. 

"Ultimately, I hope those funders will set aside dedicated funds for aftercare that the assessment panel then distributes, we'll tell them where it goes. This isn't about funding RoR, it's about funding aftercare. We'd become a conduit, providing a service for this very disjointed sector." 

The conversation turns to traceability of ex-racehorses, described years ago as "an essential element of the BHA’s welfare strategy". As Catlow puts it: "Industry wants to know where the horses have gone before the Daily Mail tells us where they've gone." 

David Catlow: "This isn't about funding RoR, it's about funding aftercare"Credit: Retraining of Racehorses

But there are practical difficulties, not least the fact that RoR still lacks necessary data. Supposedly, it should be told whenever a non-racing agreement is made in respect of a particular horse. That hasn't happened yet. 

"Once they've left the regulated space, there's no law in the land says that if you've got a horse, you've got to tell somebody and join a club. You have to look after it properly but you're not in a regulated space. Anybody can buy a horse. 

"So we've got to get those owners of ex-racers by attraction. How do we attract them? Why would they register, what incentives are there?" For now, 12,000 ex-racehorses are registered with RoR, a big number but probably nowhere near the whole. 

Summing up, Catlow says: "All these areas, which I think are really exciting, we have to go to the industry and say, if you want these things, this is what it'll cost. We are a very small charity, our annual income is less than £1m. Our contribution from the industry is very limited, it funds less than a third of what we spend on welfare and education alone. 

"We are keen to step into this space. How can the industry support us to do that and make sure that funding is distributed to a fantastic aftercare sector that is somewhat disjointed just now? The industry needs to consider what it wants delivering and then what it feels it's prepared to pay for. 

"There's a lot of opportunities that haven't been explored. I don't want to pick on one particular sector but one example might be there are five million racegoers in the UK; would 20p extra on the cost of their entrance ticket, towards the welfare of the horses they'd gone to see, stop them from going? 

"A contribution from racegoers might actually be a positive welfare message and it'd be £1m a year." 

If you don't like that idea, don't panic; Catlow is neither intending nor empowered to make any sudden changes. "I think it's an incremental approach. I don't think anyone's expecting a revolution." 

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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.