Irish Horse Board funding slashed

By Michael Slavin

In a statement issued this week by the Department of Agriculture it was confirmed that Irish Horse Board funding for 2004 under the National Development Plan has been substantially cut.

This year the IHB will receive just €305,000 compared with more than double that, or €686,000 which it received in its last published accounts for 2002.

It took a cut in 2003 as well when it is estimated it came down to about €500,000. This cut which amounts to somewhere in the region of €200,000 from last year's figure comes on top of a drop of €35,000 in its regular Grant-In-Aid from the Department.

As already reported here, the board now has to pay its postage, telephone and rent expenses out of its own funds.

All of this appears to represent a serious breakdown in relations between the IHB and agriculture. The only reason given in the Department's statement this week for this rather drastic financial cutback was that:

"In the period 2000-2003 that funding has run ahead of schedule''. That hardly explains a drop of almost €400,000 over two years.

Rumours that a substantial cut had taken place emerged about a month ago.

And at the same time there were also rumblings that some board members were on the verge of resigning if matters were not put right.

A query to the Department at that time brought only a rather bland statement that discussions were ongoing. Perhaps anticipating a positive outcome from those discussions, the IHB introduced only minor increases in membership and registrations fees for 2004.

But for whatever reason the ‘discussions' did not bear fruit and the result is a horse board that is now seriously strapped for money.

News of these cuts came too late to get an official reaction from IHB.

We have made a request for one and hope to bring this to you next week.

In the meantime one has to wonder if these changes in its financial fortunes could not be leading toward a return of direct rule such as we had in the early nineties prior to the setting up of this the second horse board.

Record prize money for Punchestown Festival

There will be record prize money for the Punchestown National Hunt Festival which starts on 27 April. The Festival has got over €1.7million, representing a 12% increase of the total 2003 prize fund on last year.

Among the main sponsors are: Ballymore Properties, owned by local businessman Sean Mulryan, that have confirmed their support as title sponsors on Thursday, the feature race now being the Ballymore Properties Champion Stayer's Hurdle.

BETDAQ, the global betting exchange, is the new sponsor of the €150,000 two mile Champion chase run on Tuesday.

MURPHY BREWERY IRELAND continues their association with the feature race of the festival, The Heineken Gold Cup of €180,000, which was won by the French-trained First Gold last year.

EMO OIL return to sponsor Ireland's richest Grade 1 Hurdle, the Emo Oil Champion Hurdle of €160,000.

Among other races to benefit from the increased prize fund at the 2004 Festival is the Grade 1 Paddy Power Champion INH Flat Race, one of ten Grade 1 races to be run at the meeting. This race will now be worth €60,000, a 100% increase on last year's value and will be the most valuable Grade 1 bumper to be run in Ireland.