Want a statistic that will make anyone involved with British racing green with envy? Try this for size.
During 2024 there will be 104 races run in Australia that are worth A$1 million or more. That’s one every three and a half days.
Even allowing for an exchange rate of an Aussie dollar being worth just over 50 pence, it is rich pickings and a number that reflects a racing jurisdiction that, although not without its problems, is doing pretty well.
The Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday of November is the race Down Under that attracts most European attention but its A$8m purse doesn’t come close to being the county’s most valuable contest.
That is the innovative A$20m Everest, billed as the richest race on turf, run at Randwick in Sydney in October.
The A$7m first prize this year went to Bella Nipotina, trained by Ciaron Maher. He also had the third Growing Empire and tenth I Am Me, who picked up A$700,000.
On the same day, Maher won the historic A$5m Caulfield Cup and, when other wins and places were taken account and a conversion done, his horses won just over £6m in an afternoon.
During the entire 2024 British Flat season only champion trainer Aidan O’Brien has won more. No wonder cash-strapped British racing is struggling to halt a dispiriting equine talent drain to Australian connections.
This is a financial playing field that is nowhere near level, with races like long-established Cox Plate worth A$5m and The Golden Eagle, another relative newcomer in the programme, run for A$10m.
The average race prize-money in Australia is A$50,000. Annual prize-money is over A$800m with an additional A$97 million provided through bonus schemes.
The big global players, including Coolmore and Godolphin, are deeply involved in Australian racing but it also the home of the syndicate. More people per capita have at least a small share in a racehorse in Australia than in any other country in the world.
There are around 100,000 owners among a population of around 26 million and Aushorse, the marketing body for Australian racing, reckons one in every 254 people has a stake in a racehorse.
It is hard to argue with the claim that horseracing is ingrained in the Australia psyche.
Tom Reilly, CEO of Aushorse and Thoroughbred Breeders’ Australia, worked for Luca Cumani and Mick Channon before moving into journalism and heading to Australia where he edited the Sydney Morning Herald.
Reilly said: ‘‘One of the biggest differences is the attitude towards racing here. There is a huge amount of engagement from the broader public.
“When I first came to Australia for the 2007 Melbourne Cup, it sounds like a cliche but, as I was taking taxis around Melbourne, twice I had drivers telling me they had a share in a horse.
“Racing in Australia has traditionally always been part of the everyday person’s life. That, more than anything, is why we have such a high saturation of ownership among people. They just feel they can be part of it.
“There are over 300 racecourses in Australia. As the country was colonised, towns would be built with a pub, a church, a school and a racecourse.
“It is a fundamental thing people may not appreciate when they are looking at Australia.’’
Aussies also love a bet. It is that plus the funding model which underpins the healthy picture.
During the 2021/22 season, A$29 billion was wagered on thoroughbred racing in Australia. That is A$80m a day.
Like other jurisdictions, betting on horseracing is challenged by the increasing popularity of sports betting and government moves to tackle problem gambling. Turnover has fallen but the challenges are faced from a position of strength.
Reilly added: ‘‘We had a huge deregulation of the wagering industry 15 or 16 years ago. The Tote was dominant. It was 85 per cent of turnover so that guaranteed a reasonable return to racing.
‘‘There were still bookmakers but, essentially, they were not allowed to advertise.
‘‘Betfair then came in and won a court case allowing them to advertise so corporate bookmakers could advertise as well.
“Fortunately, there was then another court case which basically gave racing the right to charge for its data. If bookmakers wanted to bet on your racing they had to pay. Racing had the authority to set the charge it wanted.
“All PRAs (Principal Racing Authorities) use a turnover based model with some variations. On Melbourne Cup or Everest day in Sydney, a minimum three and a half per cent of turnover goes back to prize-money.
“On top of that you have money from media rights, international wagering and still the Tote, although it is much reduced.
‘‘Betting turnover has definitely softened – on average we are at least ten per cent from the peak of Covid. It is an issue but not an existential threat.’’
To further embrace syndicate ownership, racecards can carry the names of up 20 part-owners. It is another touch that encourages inclusivity. People like seeing their names alongside their horse.
There have also been significant moves to encourage women into ownership, with lucrative bonuses for horses owned by all-female syndicates.
Magic Millions, Australia’s leading thoroughbred sales company, will offer $750,000 in bonuses to runners owned by women only at its Gold Coast Magic Million raceday, which already carries A$14.5m in prize-money, in Queensland in January.
The 20 female owners of Skirt The Law, 2023 winner of the Star Gold Coast Magic Millions 2yo Classic, won A$1.5m in prize-money and bonuses.
Barry Bowditch, MD at Magic Millions, said: ‘‘It was the brainchild of our proprietor Katie Page-Harvey. She is a trailblazer when it comes to women in sport. She noticed women were coming to the races to enjoy the day but weren’t actually a part of it.
‘‘We have bonuses on our two- and three-year-old races in January for Magic Millions horses and the first four women-only owned horses in those races take home a cheque.
‘‘Some of the best racehorses we have sold in recent years have been owned by women on their own.’’
Despite the rosy picture, it would be wrong to present Australia as a horseracing Garden of Eden.
Each Aussie state has its own racing authority and they do not exist in complete harmony.
In recent years, most of the friction has revolved around the two main racing states, Victoria and New South Wales, some of it thanks to the combative NSW Chief Executive Peter V’Landys, a man responsible for the huge commercial success of Australia’s Rugby League brand, the NRL, which he is still involved in.
Maverick V’landys’s idea of negotiation comes from the Kerry Packer playbook. He is a disrupter but from an NSW point of view, he gets things done.
One of his most controversial decisions was to introduce The Everest, a race in which contestants pay $700,000 to buy a slot that can then be traded.
Controversially, it is staged at Randwick in Sydney on the same weekend and in direct competition with the Caulfield Cup. In another clash, the Golden Eagle at Rosehill in Sydney now goes up against the Victoria Derby at Flemington.
It has gone down as well as it would if York decided to switch the Juddmonte International to clash with King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.
Reilly said: ‘‘The competition between states, particularly New South Wales and Victoria, has been very much to the benefit of returns to owners. There has basically been a prize-money war as they try to incentivise owners to race horses in their state.
‘‘But the reverse of that is greater co-operation would probably enable the industry to achieve more of the long-term strategic issues, like making sure the perception of the sport across the country remains good and ensuring we are improving participant and horse welfare.’’
The every-man-for-himself approach also plays a part in the recent plan to controversially upgrade the black-type status of 87 races without going through official channels.
The Everest moving to Group 1 status was an obvious move, yet some feel the main motive is to boost NSW racing, with 12 upgrades in Sydney.
There has been a significant industry backlash, with trainer Gai Waterhouse prominent among the critics amid fears of reputational damage to Australian racing with the validity of the Pattern undermined.
The doomsday scenario is Australia being demoted to book two status by the International Stud Book and being unable to stage international Group races if proceeding without approval from the Asian Pattern Committee, the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers and the powerful International Grading and Race Planning Advisory Committee.
Bowditch said: ‘‘Ensuring our very best races are recognised and accepted internationally whenever you open a sales catalogue or look at the race results is very important.
“We have to maintain confidence globally because it is now a very small industry worldwide. The best stallions come to Australia during the southern hemisphere season. We are lucky to have those genetics coming in and being recognised globally – that has to continue.”
