Eoghain Ward urges owners and handlers to lobby for a soft border

RACING is no stranger to betting upsets, even if it is in a two horse race. With bookmakers offering prices of 1/12 and 6/1, one could be forgiven for expecting a pretty straight forward result.

However, odds-on shots are there to be beaten, and on June 23rd. 2016, the British public delivered one of the biggest upsets for a generation when they voted by 52% to 48% to leave the European Union.

Now, 14 months on from that momentous day, uncertainty still surrounds so much of the potential shockwaves emanating from that Brexit decision. Ireland’s economic ties and geographical proximity to Britain means that we are much more exposed to disruption than any other EU nation.

Point-to-point racing takes place on an all-island basis, as such, today’s fixtures at Portrush and Lisronagh, which may be separated by over 400 kilometres of land and on either side of the border, are almost identical, with the only difference being the currency taken at the entrance gates and traded in the betting ring.

Both fixtures fall under the authority of the same governing body and will race under the same rules. Crucially, in the Brexit context, it also states in the racecards for both fixtures that: “upon receipt of the INHS Certificate, Horse Racing Ireland will contribute a grant towards the staging of this fixture.”

This grant is vital to every hunt’s point-to-point revenue. They receive €6,500 per fixture, to be exact, in addition to either €800 or €1,200 per race in prize money depending upon the individual race conditions. This means that the HRI funding could be as high as €13,700 for each meeting.

This season, a total of 20 fixtures are scheduled to take place in Northern Ireland. But when Northern Ireland finds itself outside of the European Union, will HRI still be in a position to fund these fixtures with Irish taxpayers’ money? Reassuringly, there seems to be a real drive within the industry to continue to administer the sport on a 32-county basis.

However, a large financial threat still hangs overhead.

At present, the tripartite agreement which exists between the Departments of Agriculture in Ireland, Britain and France allows for the free movement of racehorses between these three countries.

Will this agreement survive the Brexit negotiations? A post-Brexit hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, in whatever guise it takes, could severely limit the movement of horses across the border.

HARD BORDER

Should a hard border be imposed, the potential hold-ups and paperwork requirements to travel between jurisdictions could hit cross-border entries hard.

At the final northern meeting of last season in Necarne, 56 of the 79 entries received were for horses trained south of the border. The loss of these southern entries due to by border paperwork requirements, would equate to a financial hit of €3,360 for that one day of racing.

The loss would not have been so severe at Loughanmore, the sole fixture in the north to have taken place this season, with 31 of their 70 entries hailing from the south. But this still equated to 44% of the total entries for the fixture.

Alongside this financial threat facing hunt committees, the logistical nightmare which could be created for handlers by a hard border go hand in hand. Northern handlers such as David Christie, Colin McKeever, Colin McBratney, Jerry Cosgrave, Warren Ewing and Brian Hamilton amongst others, are leading names on the circuit, producing winners on either side of the border.

Of the 2,755 hunter certificates which were issued last season, 437 were issued to horses aligned to northern hunts, with both the Mid-Antrim and East Antrim hunts featuring within the top-10 hunts for the number of hunter certificates issued.

DELOITTE REPORT

The recently published Deloitte report on the economic impact of Irish breeding and racing 2017, estimated that there were over 6,500 horse movements across the border each year, with point-to-points accounting for a sizeable portion of that figure.

Such are the numbers of horses trained by the leading handlers, they need every opportunity to run their horses. Unsurprisingly, runners from Wexford yards are regulars in four-year-old races north of the border. Last season alone, of the 21 four-year-old races run in Northern Ireland, 11 of those races were won by horses who had to cross the border to do so, including the likes of Finian’s Oscar, Some Man and Plouios, who all subsequently sold for six-figure sums.

Brexit to hit horse trade

It is not just those handlers who travel their horses in either direction across the border to race who have Brexit to fear.

The commercial buy and sell operators in the four and five-year-old market all across the country have been richly rewarded in recent years, turning sizeable profits on the horses which they purchase, typically within Ireland, run in an Irish maiden, before selling them in British sales rings in the majority of instances.

That Deloitte report estimated that £21 million was generated for the rural Irish economy from the sale of Irish point-to-point horses. Of those sold specifically at public auction - just over €1.2 million was generated domestically. A staggering £17 million was traded in British sales rings for horses who had run in an Irish point-to-point last season.

If Britain was to leave the single market and the EU’s Customs Union without a suitable trade deal in place, horses being sold into Britain could be liable for notable tariffs.

Point-to-pointers would be particularly vulnerable, as reverting to World Trade Organisation rules would dictate that horses who have been gelded, and therefore can no longer be classed as suitable for breeding, are subject to levies of 11.5%.

In a statement released to The Irish Field, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who hosted an all-island sectoral dialogue in June to discuss the implications of Brexit on the equine industry as a whole stated: “The equine industry is of great importance from an economic, social and cultural perspective, particularly in rural communities. It is among the most highly integrated sectors with its UK counterparts, from both a north-south and east-west perspective.

“The horse racing (including point-to-point), breeding, sports horse and leisure horse sectors are very closely linked in numerous ways and several thousands of horses move in different directions each year. For this reason the situation in relation to the importing and exporting of horses is potentially much more complicated than that of other live animals.

“Pending the outcome of Brexit negotiations it is unclear whether tariffs and duties will apply to trade in equines between both jurisdictions.”

The clock is now ticking, and whilst the Brexit negotiations continue to stall, the decision of British Prime Minister Theresa May to trigger the Article 50 clause within the EU treaty in March, gives the British Government until March 2019 to leave the European Union, irrespective of whether a suitable exit deal has been agreed.

With the focus of much of the preliminary discussions focussed on what shape the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland takes, now is the time for all within point-to-pointing to lobby politicians on both sides of the border, and the sport’s governing bodies, to ensure that this valuable sport is not left counting the cost of the Brexit vote.