Riding fees and percentages – who gets what across Europe? | Trainer Magazine | European Trainer Article Index

Aug 31

Aug 31 Riding fees and percentages – who gets what across Europe?

Well, perhaps the latter is true and some ownders do have titles, but the harsh reality is that working with horses means manual labour, long hours, and scant financial reward, whether you happen to be a trainer, jockey, or stable lad. No one who works with horses is in it for the money. What they have in common is passion and without it there would be no Sport of Kings, but are we nearing the point where our stars are being expected to live on passion alone? Maths doesn’t have to be your forte to work it out. In the most recent figures from the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, examining the year 2010, the number of races, number of runners, and prize money available paint a stark picture when presented against the number of licensed trainers and jockeys. Across the board there are an average of nine runners per race and while Britain and France can boast around 11,000 runners per year, other European neighbours average just 4,500, each chasing no more than 1,400 race prizes. In Britain and France, there are a greater number of races available, but the opportunities for horses to pick up prize- money are basically the same. For jockeys, on average 195 riders are chasing 24,000 mounts a season, but with most jockeys in France managing 345 bookings a year and those in Spain scraping 90 rides there is no such thing as an even distribution of wealth. A comparison of training fees shows hat staffing costs and feeding costs vary little throughout Europe and the majority of trainers, if not all, are also prize money dependent. With prize money outside of France and Ireland not even averaging €10,000 a race, the lifeblood of racing is not pulsing so healthily. As in any profession, those at the top are always going to do well. The most successful trainers have the biggest strings and pick up more valuable races. The leading jockeys get the most (and usually better) rides, farming the bigger races. Life a little further down the Championship tables is not so rosy, with trainers taking nothing for themselves from the training fees alone and journeyman jockeys chalking up to 900 miles a week in the quest for rides and winners. With current fuel prices, that can easily equate to €200 a week for many jockeys. prize money is suddenly very vital. We are no longer looking at simply how an owner can afford to keep a horse in training and find the money to buy the next one. The owner is maintaining the pool for stable staff, breeders, and bloodstock agents, but it’s quite clearly prize money alone that keeps trainers and jockeys in the game. Many would point out that much of that prize money, too, is funded by the owner. It can be seen from the accompanying table on riding fees that industry bodies recognise that the fee is subsidised by prize money percentage. Where there are fewer races and lower levels of prize money, the riding fee increases. In France, where the mounts of 25 of the top 42 Flat jockeys earned prize money of over €1 million, only two of the top 80 riders failed to earn six-figure sums in prize money. For the lower half of the French Championship table the riding fee represents just a third of their income. At the top end, it’s as little as a seventh of their income, and the story is much the same for NH riders, with little difference in respective prize money between the two codes for either jockeys or trainers. More importantly, as the Association Entraîneurs de Galop points out, jockeys only receive their riding fee for unplaced mounts. Authorities, examining the year 2010, the number of races, number of runners, and prize money available paint a stark picture when presented against the number of licensed trainers and jockeys. Across the board there are an average of nine runners per race and while Britain and France can boast around 11,000 runners per year, other European neighbours average just 4,500, each chasing no more than 1,400 race prizes. In Britain and France, there are a greater number of races available, but the opportunities for horses to pick up prize- money are basically the same. For jockeys, on average 195 riders are chasing 24,000 mounts a season, but with most jockeys in France managing 345 bookings a year and those in Spain scraping 90 rides there is no such thing as an even distribution of wealth. A comparison of training fees shows It is not unusual for French jockeys to request a ‘top up’ of their percentage on a winning ride to bring it to 10%, via an invoice to the winning owner, but payment is optional and one leading trainer claimed to have only rarely experienced this. Similarly, in Italy, where the state of racing is quite another matter altogether, senior riders are allowed to request 10% of prize money, rather than the mandatory 5%. In contrast to France, Spain has just 51 jockeys chasing 4,738 rides in 513 races (an average of 90 rides at a riding fee of just €60) for 10% of the average prize of €10,904. Spanish jockeys are looking at little more than €100 per week on fees alone, in a country where the average weekly wage is €295. Poland, with similar numbers of runners, races, and licensed jockeys, as well as the same average weekly salary, can offer little incentive to budding apprentices – the riding fee amounts to just €25 and a senior jockey can expect only 5% of the lowest purses in Europe. On the plus side, Poland is one of the few countries where prize money showed a significant increase. The big discrepancy in riding fees isn’t helped by additional levels set by individual countries. Susanna Santesson, General Secretary of Fegentri, points out the variety in levels of riding fees in Germany, according to status. Fees from €20-€55 are paid to three categories of rider: those who have ridden 50 or more winners, those with less than 50 wins, and apprentices. The fee is also variable according to the value of the race, with a fee of €25 for a ride inaracevaluedat€500toa€55feefora €3,000 race. In the case of a winning ride, the German jockey’s fee is doubled. From their percentages, jockeys must then pay their valets and agents. In some countries, such as Italy, this is not regulated by the governing bodies. In Ireland and Britain both valets and agents each receive 10% and many agents and valets spoke in praise of the statements issued by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) that accompany their cheques. Margaret Davin of HRI explained that as many accounts as required can be set up through HRI, including VAT accounts, and cheques can be issued as regularly as requested. An online system, similar to online banking, is being developed for the early autumn and HRI is proactive in encouraging industry professionals to work with them in developing user- orientated services. A little less straightforward is the trainers’ percentage, particularly in Ireland, where few trainers can accurately recall the percentage of prize money they are due. This is because what starts out as a 10% deduction from the owner’s gain is quickly whittled away by HRI at source. Four percent is transferred to the Industry Services Fund, from which 3% goes to the Irish Racehorse Trainers’ Association (IRTA) and 1% to Irish Thoroughbred Marketing. The IRTA funds are used for the benefit of stable staff, a Benevolent Fund, the Blue Cross, RACE (Racing Academy & Centre of Education), and Irish Horse Welfare Trust. Zero point one percent of the entire stakes is paid to the Irish Stablestaff Association and 3% of the entire stakes is paid to the Stable Employees Bonus (SEB) Scheme. The SEB Scheme puts the onus on the trainer to distribute the share of prize money to the correct members of staff. This will have been agreed beforehand and the details registered with the Turf Club. In France, 3% of prize money is deducted at source for stable staff and 1.5% goes to the winning stable’s work riders, 1% to the head lad, and 0.5% to the travelling head lad. One hundred sixty-three French trainers employ less than five members of staff and in the absence of a head lad or travelling head lad, the work riders receive the full 3%. In Italy, Poland, and Spain there is no percentage for staff. When taking into account trainers’ fees, there are always conspicuous variables such as feed and bedding. Poor weather and resulting poor harvests will drastically affect the costs particular, are required to invoice the winning owner for their share of the prize money. When trainers send their horses abroad to race this can sometimes lead to a lack of prize money payment and Linda Corn at Weatherbys suggests a simple solution. We have a Foreign Trainer and Stable Mandate for our clients. If a client has a Weatherbys account it gives us authorisation to pay the trainer and yard from the prize money. We calculate the percentage and amount involved so the owner doesn’t have to worry about calculating it. Similar mandates can be set up with individual authorities where necessary and can be drawn up by the trainer. Drawing prize money from Italian tracks can be problematic for some foreign trainers as individual racecourses are responsible for the distribution of their own prize money. The figures collated by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities relate to 2010 and Italian racing has, of course, faced crisis since then. On Christmas Eve in Italy came the announcement that prize money was to be dramatically cut by 40% from €185 million to “Not all racing authorities deduct the percentages at source and French trainers, in particular, are required to invoice the winning owner for their share of the prize money” and no European country is immune from such vagaries. Stable staff are generally expected to look after three horses each and minimum wages such as £6.08 per hour in Britain, €9.40 per hour in France, and €9.52 per hour in Ireland make an obvious dent in the weekly fee. Added to a trainers’ financial woes is the fact that not all racing authorities deduct the percentages at source and French trainers, in €111 million for both thoroughbred and trotting races combined as a result of the decrease in betting revenue, which fell by 20% last year. Prior to the arrival of slot machines and poker in 2006 the betting turnover had been as high as €2.5 billion. Added to this financial disaster was the reduction of race meetings, from 609 down to just 540. This meant that the winning prize for a maiden race at the two major tracks San Siro and Capannelle dropped to €4,250 from €8,500. The government is struggling to resolve this issue and secure Italian racing and it can only be hoped it succeeds, because there are other countries in danger of facing a similar crisis. Put into perspective, 50,000 employees depend upon the racing industry in Italy. In Ireland, a country with high unemployment and a largely rural-based populace, 17,000 are “The owner is maintaining the pool for stable staff, breeders, and bloodstock agents, but it’s quite clearly prize money alone that keeps trainers and jockeys in the game” dependent on the industry for work. This figure has dropped by 22% over the past two years and the decrease in horses in training will only escalate it further. In short, an average of 5,000 staff are directly employed within racing yards in each country, all reliant upon the stability of training fees. The satellite employees – farriers, feed merchants, drivers, specialist laundry services, etc. – bring this number up into five figures. Wholly dependent on prize money are trainers and most jockeys. And without prize money to keep the hobby afloat, many owners will not be making further purchases at the sales. Are we in this industry for love or money? We all know the answer, but it isn’t going to satisfy our bank manager or suppliers.

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(European Trainer - issue 39 - Autumn 2012)

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