I WAS in Newmarket this week for the racing and the sales and the flight was full of familiar faces including the editor of this newspaper, who was travelling to attend the Martin Wills Writing Awards. As an industry we do have an unbelievable amount of awards in the course of the year. It is just as well that I get invited to very few of them as my waistline is quite challenged enough. The general consensus was that the only category not covered is an award for the best awards ceremony.

I gave a lift to Newmarket to a married couple who had a horse in the sale. The husband always likes to get his hair cut when in Newmarket and told me a story about a well-known journalist who visited the same premises. Having waited patiently and witnessed the barber’s endless banter, it was his turn to get into the chair. Asked how he would like his hair cut, the journalist replied simply, “In silence”.

While in Newmarket I had a meeting with PLUS 10, which is the latest bonus scheme available to breeders in Ireland and the UK. This was a joint meeting with Tattersalls who were represented by Marketing Director Jason Singh. The entertaining Jason is originally from Australia, which is where the PLUS 10 manager Sheena Coffey also hails form.

PLUS 10

PLUS 10 have a unity of purpose for the Irish and British breeding industries that is mutually beneficial. This was not something that could have been said about some previous schemes. Basically, qualified horses can run for £10,000 or €12,500 bonuses in literally hundreds of races between the UK and Ireland. In Ireland 100 bonuses are attached to two-year-old races, rolling over across the year until all are won and, in England, the majority of two-year-old races are covered.

I would recommend the scheme to any breeder. In 2015 €4.4 million was paid out to 215 owners and 189 breeders. Exactly half the bonus winning horses were bred in Ireland. Of course the animal has to win a race to win a bonus, but if the vendor has no faith, how will a buyer? It may not give a qualified foal or yearling any commercial advantage over another qualified animal but it provides a reward for the ultimate customer if the animal is successful. That is a definite positive for the generic marketing of racehorse ownership.

PLUS 10 now have Fiona Goor as the dedicated Irish agent for the scheme. Fiona won the Katie Nugent Duathlon for three years in a row so her equine equivalent would doubtless benefit from the fact that any horse can win multiple bonuses in its two and three-year-old career.