Irish Horse racing has shown the benefit of increased Government Funding by leveraging that into substantial increases in key financial areas that show the industry to be in rude good health.
With Irish trained horses dominating on the track and Aidan O’Brien recording an unprecedented one – two – three in the prestigious Qatar Prix du l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris last October, Ireland is seen as the world leader in terms of breeding, training and racing, a claim unique in any other international code.
As an indicator of broader economic wellbeing the number of active owners rose last year for the first time since 2008, climbing 4.2 per cent to a figure of 8,561. The number of syndicates owning race horses also rose by 6 per cent within that total.
From a business perspective commercial sponsorship jumped 12 per cent from €4.3 million to €4.8 million.
“This came across a range of areas,” said Horse Racing Ireland CEO Brian Kavanagh speaking to Sport for Business last night. “Some has come from British facing bookmakers who have been frozen out of sponsoring in Britain and have turned to ireland for visibility across their key markets but the growth is also at a much deeper level.”
“We have incentivised racecourses to bring in local commercial partners and that showed especially well last weekend at Naas when the local Lawlor’s Hotel sponsored the main race and were backed up by a variety of local restaurants, shops and boutiques.”
“All our major festivals are fully sponsored and we have a waiting list for Group One Races on the Flat.”
“The overall sponsorship at the marquee Longines Irish Champions Weekend also rose again and continues to go from strength to strength.”
Attendances rose 3% overall, buoyed by a strong Christmas Festival turnout and Horse Racing Ireland also won from a shift in betting turnover from on course bookmakers whose turnover dropped to the HRI owned Tote where turnover rose 22 per cent from €79.3 million to €96.8 million, a sixth successive year of growth.
“Horse racing generates a very significant return to the rural economy in Ireland and positive international profile for our country. In 2017, HRI will continue to build on the growth achieved in 2016 and to tackle the challenges, particularly in relation to funding, employment levels, ownership and integrity.” added Kavanagh.
“None of this success could be achieved without the support provided by Government through the Horse and Greyhound Fund, and HRI believes that this can be fully funded through betting duty which, as the statistics show, increased by 63% this year, following the introduction of new off-shore betting tax legislation in 2015.”
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