On a side issue, I'm amazed at just how poor the run of the mill prize money is in the UK. I had my hopes up for Squire yesterday, so checked out how he went. Nice to see him in the money again, but his reward was pitiful. He earned 443 pounds for finishing third.
Kempton paid four places in Squire's race. The winner in UK pounds received 2911, second 866, third 433 and fourth 216.
Today, 140ks up the road from Sydney, a race meeting was held at a place called Hawkesbury. It's hardly the centre of the world. Every race on the program held a total of 24,400 UK pounds in prize money. The pay out on all races (in UK pounds) was as follows. First 10,500, second 3655, third 1840, fourth 875, fifth 435, sixth 250, seventh 250, eighth 250, ninth 250, tenth 250.
Woodbine in Toronto also had a meeting. The money there is outstanding. Even the lowest rated Claiming race awarded UK 6625 to the winner. The best rated maiden winners of the day were given 22,000 and another maiden winner received 17500. Needless to say, the place money was bloody brilliant.
I read a report in the Telegraph, published in 2013, that stated The Racehorse Owners Association said for every 100 pounds spent on the horse, (excluding purchase price) the owner on average will receive just a 21 pound return on investment. According to the ROA, it costs around 20,000 pounds per annum to train an animal, if these numbers are right, there must be a lot of people struggling to make a living. The lack of decent prize money must hurt. The tote is the answer, but I don't know why it's not working over there. Living off what bookies are supplying is never going to cut it. They are not wholly to blame either. They can't lift standards to even the Australian level and stay solvent, so where does the problem lie? Is there a national tote in any of the countries or the UK in general? And if so, why has it failed?