BACK in 2001, the BHB (British Horseracing Board) launched a campaign called ‘Get on the right track’ aimed at trainers. Headlined, ‘BHB challenges trainers to get on the right track’, the campaign was part of an information series for trainers. This particular aspect focused on research carried out by the BHB which found that owners consider a friendly yard, a caring approach, and good communications key factors in their choice of trainer. It was prompted by concerns over the worryingly high owner ‘churn rate’ – the numbers giving up horse ownership each year.

The BHB reckoned that it was a combination of the loss in the leisure pound at that time and the owner experience failing to meet expectations that helped create the high churn level.

The BHB hoped by launching this campaign, in liaison with the National Trainers Federation (NTF), several issues of concern would be addressed, the communication gap between owners and trainers being a key one.

One of the aims of the campaign was to highlight and promote the concept of the owner as a client, and as most people know, client communication is all important and ultimately keeps the owner involved. That concept was innovative and on point, almost 20 years ago.

Here in Ireland, HRI (Horse Racing Ireland) has encouraged similar focus and attention towards improving the same communications challenge between Irish owners and trainers.

The HRI in the strategic plan 2020-2024, (pre-pandemic) identified in the ‘Strategic Priority 1’ under the heading, ‘Objectives’, the first point, which was to “improve the ownership experience, both at the racecourse and away from it, e.g. via regular communication from trainers....”

The objective was part of a larger plan that included growing the numbers of horses in training from 8,500 to more than 10,000 by 2024 and subsequently increase job opportunities and core racing and breeding employment significantly during that same period.

Generally, in Britain and Ireland, we could argue that effort has gone into promoting improvement in the thorny and repetitive issue of poor communication between owners and trainers.

I believe many owners would agree broadly with the view that more owner/trainer communication means more involvement and more involvement could lead to more owner investment and so on. So far so good.

Raceday fun

However, let’s fast forward to the present day. I bumped into an owner friend of mine last week. He is passionate about racehorse ownership, the buzz of potentially owning a winning horse, the fun of raceday and the interaction with the trainer. Pretty much describing most of the reasons many owners got into the sport in the first place. We started talking about how our horses were doing and inevitably we moved on to the subject of trainers.

Poor communications

Immediately, the issue of poor communications came up. His view was that it was generally awful, and he wondered if he would stick with ownership, as if he couldn’t get to speak with the trainer, why was he even still in the game?

I know five other owner/friends who like me, have a small number of horses (one-three) in training and without exception, all have expressed the same or similar sentiment in the recent past. One owner had three horses and has since packed it in. Another friend had three, he’s down to one and said to me recently in a text, when I asked about his potential future purchases ‘I am reconsidering my future ownership of horses’ and yet another friend commented that his trainer had recommended an app, to facilitate communication between owner and trainer.

Unfortunately, my pal the owner didn’t see the benefits of an app to communicate with his trainer in the same way as the trainer may have, and described it to me as: “Yet another step back from the trainer, he wants me to use an app, for what, to show me some lovely pictures of the horse and add in the odd comment? Absolute shite, why do I bother?”

Almost to a man, a common complaint is the poor levels of communication between owner and trainer.

Is that indicative of the views of other owners? I would be interested to know.

I suspect there may be a contingent of owners who would probably share similar views and I would equally imagine a large number of trainers are good at communicating with their owners.

Thrill of ownership

I only got involved in horse ownership in the last couple of years, as I didn’t have the time before and I did so with the full knowledge that it’s pretty much a one-way street financially.

I did it because I love the thrill of it, I look forward to the race, the day itself is special, I enjoy my chats with the trainer and always, the possibilities of a win. I enjoy it all.

So far, all good and I am lucky in that I haven’t had (too many) issues with poor communications with my trainers but I find it a complete pain in the arse when I do.

Simply put, I personally have no time for poor communication. I don’t want to be the trainer’s friend, but I want a friendly relationship and if that grows to friendship, that’s great.

But I do want a professional relationship. I accept I will pay for the horses, the training fees, the feeds, the gallop fees, the vet, the farrier costs, the transport, the jockey fees, the entry fees, the registration fees, the sales fees, HRI fees and everything else.

However, I won’t accept owner/trainer communications being treated as a pain in the arse by any trainer while I’m footing the bills.

When I started this adventure, and it is so far, a great adventure, (recent win at Punchestown and a fourth at Gowran Park), a friend told me: “Tony, you can expect lots of warm fuzzy feelings at the start when you meet your trainer, followed by a more distant relationship within a few weeks and then within a short time after that, a very definite vibe of, what the f*** does he want, if you were to call or text.”

Training commitments

I fully appreciate that trainers have major commitments trying to get the best out of the horses in training. They work hard around the clock and racing dominates their entire life. Time is extraordinarily precious to a trainer and to have an owner call you two or three times a day is just not on.

But I don’t believe all owners want that. I know I don’t! I want to know what’s going on with my horses, where we are running and how they’re faring in training. That’s it until race day!

I want to know from the trainer, “what’s the plan?” I’m lucky in so far that the two trainers I’ve worked with so far are reasonable communicators as well as being great trainers.

An owner\friend mentioned to me last year that he felt there was an attitude from some trainers to “train the owners”. And that’s part of the game, I get that. But in my opinion communication does need to improve.

As an owner, I appreciate I’m at the bottom of the totem pole in this sport and in my opinion small owners have to endure a lot. We foot the bills, we come last in the recognition stakes of a race win, and we nearly always have to look for the positives in the horse’s performance if it doesn’t.

As owners, we deserve, at a minimum, better communications from trainers if we are to keep owners involved and encourage more into the sport.

And if anyone reading this thinks, “this has always been the way we do things” then I suggest you have a look around you. Things all over the world, and closer to home, are changing. The past is no guarantee of the future, even in horse racing. Have a look at ownership racing statistics elsewhere.

I believe this sport needs a few things addressed to improve and better communication between trainers and owners is a key one. This is an easy fix. We need to fix the easy fixes and hold on to, grow and encourage more owners into horse racing.

This would be a good start.