PRA escalates interview payments row with Saturday deadline

Trainers allied to the Professional Racing Association could decline to give television interviews at Sandown Park on Saturday.

The PRA was founded by Peter Savill – a former chair of the British Horseracing Board, the forerunner of the British Horseracing Authority – to represent the interests of a number of trainers separately from the official body of the National Trainers Federation.

Members of the PRA have asked for payments from media rights companies to allow access to its trainers on racedays, putting them in line with jockeys, who receive an annual group fee for TV input, although Savill stressed “the money would not go to trainers personally – absolutely not”, and instead be used to aid “benevolent causes and the Injured Jockeys Fund, that need funding”.

Sandown’s seven-race card is headlined by the Grade One Virgin Bet Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase and will be covered by ITV Racing and Racing TV.

In an apparent escalation of the matter on Monday afternoon, the PRA issued a statement in which it said: “The PRA board met today and reiterated its call for racecourses, RMG (Racecourse Media Group) and Sky (Sports) Racing to show that they value the contribution that trainers make to the show, and also to explain why they have so far been willing to pay the jockeys but not the trainers.

“This money will not be going to trainers personally but to the benefit of the sport, including, among other good causes, to the NTF (National Trainers Federation) Benevolent Fund and Racing Welfare. This is yet another example of racecourses taking horsemen for granted as they have for far too long.

“To say that trainers should be grateful for the exposure is both insulting and symptomatic of the imbalance of the distribution of racecourses’ revenues into prize-money, which the PRA has been investigating for the past year and which it has found in many instances to be unacceptable. The PRA was formed to identify and speak out when it sees issues that are damaging to the sport and financially unfair to horsemen.

“Unless the racecourses and media companies resolve this particular issue by Saturday, the PRA trainer members will refrain from giving interviews at Sandown on Saturday. It is well within the racecourses’ capability to ensure that this situation is avoided. The ball is firmly in their court.”

Paul Nicholls, the 14-times champion jumps trainer, said he did not want to comment on the matter at Cheltenham on Saturday, but Gold Cup and Grand National-winning handler Kim Bailey thinks the idea of payments for interviews is “ridiculous”.

Writing on his website blog, he said: “We should be promoting our sport, not hindering it.

“Jockeys get paid for their interviews but that money goes to help fund/subsidise their insurance etc.

“Racing and trainers have many faults but forgetting this idea of cash for talking, I feel we also are incredibly lax at appreciating those who help us by sponsoring racing.”

Oliver Greenall, who trains in partnership with Josh Guerriero, is part of the PRA group, which is understood to contain a number of top jumps trainers, but he has not been involved in talks so far and admits TV interviews are a key tool to promote his business.

He said: “I am a member of the PRA but I wasn’t at the meeting, so I haven’t really had a discussion about it.

“For me, I am just trying to publicise myself and get myself going and for me talking to the media is part and parcel of it really.”

The NTF has already stated it does not support the action and its position is “not to seek direct payment for media interviews”.

The body feels the potential PRA action is not “helpful” to ongoing discussions between the Thoroughbred Group, which represents owners, trainers, jockeys, breeders and racing staff, and racecourses, instead urging stakeholders to “work together”.

A statement added: “Whilst we agree that trainers providing interviews generates value for the sport, we believe that the sharing of this value is something that must be achieved through the signing of commercial partnership deals between participants and racecourses, as sought by the Thoroughbred Group.

“However, the fact that 170 trainers, most of whom are also NTF members, are engaged with the PRA, is an indication of the levels of frustration that currently exist about the lack of any agreement over the sharing of racing’s revenues, which we are all working to generate. Until this is resolved, it seems likely that we will see further unrest.”

RMG, which is the umbrella organisation for 35 racecourses, has not engaged with the PRA and continues to negotiate “commercial matters” via the NTF.

A spokesperson said: “RMG’s shareholders are already actively engaged with the National Trainers Federation – a member of the Thoroughbred Group and the official trade association for trainers licensed by the BHA – on all commercial matters, including prize-money investment.”