Savill: Trainers not seeking to benefit personally from interview payments

Peter Savill has insisted trainers are not seeking to enrich themselves by asking for payment for television interviews.

The Professional Racing Association was founded by 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 members on racedays, putting them in line with riders who receive an annual group fee for TV input.

The jockeys’ fee is put towards their insurance scheme and Savill believes riders, among others in the sport, would benefit from any money generated by an agreement between trainers and television companies.

Savill said: “The money would not go to trainers personally – absolutely not.

“It will be up to them to decide where it goes but there are plenty of areas within racing, such as benevolent causes and the Injured Jockeys Fund, that need funding.”

The PRA members could potentially boycott TV interviews should their request not be met.

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 but 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 its 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.”