Owners deserve more from tracks

Sir, - The results of a racehorse owners survey in the October 8th edition of The Irish Field made interesting reading.

The percentage of lapsed owners who indicated that they would be interested in becoming an owner in the future was encouraging and hopefully Horse Racing Ireland will work on incentivising these former owners to get involved again.

A stand-out result in the survey was in relation to the racecourse experience of the owner and bears out feedback that our association has received over the years.

Our association has campaigned on behalf of owners for many years, both with Horse Racing Ireland and the racecourses to focus on improving the raceday experience and giving recognition to the racehorse owner.

Owners contribute hundreds of millions of euro on an annual basis to the racing industry and more recognition could be given to them by the racecourses, at a relatively low cost.

Undoubtedly, a number of racecourses have improved in this regard over the past year or so and hopefully the remainder will follow the example set.

At the AIRO awards presentation in November last, three racecourses – Bellewstown, Downpatrick and Fairyhouse - received Awards of Merit in recognition of what they have done to improve the raceday experience of the owner.

The AIRO 2016 Awards will be presented at a dinner in the Killashee Hotel on October 29th and four more racecourses will receive Awards of Merit on the night. This year’s winners are Ballinrobe, Galway, Leopardstown and the Curragh. These four racecourses provided significantly improved facilities for owners.

It is hoped that there will be reason to present more Awards of Merit in the near future. – Yours etc.,

AIDEN BURNS,

Manager, Association of Irish Racehorse Owners,

ITBA Building,

Greenhills,

Kill,

Co Kildare.

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