The Horsemen's Group in British racing put their head above the parapet last week and made a stand - encouraging trainers to boycott any races where prizemoney did not meet the recommended amount. Big name stables such as Godolphin and Richard Hannon backed them, announcing they were prepared to support the policy, even going as far as boycotting events/tracks where they were traditionally successful. By Friday, there was 'no chance' of the Horsemen's Group weakening its stance and compromising on tariff values... but by Monday, their backbone had disappeared. Obviously there are two sides to the argument here - it did seem a little bizarre that tariff rates were going to affect major races, surely the prestige of those races makes up for falling a few grand short of a number generated on some spreadsheet. After all, if you want to increase prizemoney at the bottom of the industry, where the majority of horses, owners, trainers and staff operate, a thin slice off the ...
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