Frank Taylor may have been one of the most noted and long established names in British sports journalism in a career lasting well over fifty years, but despite all his achievements and awards his biggest single claim to fame will be that he was one of the fortunate survivors of the 1958 Munich air disaster.
He enjoyed a long stint at the Daily Mirror during which he had a spell in the additional role of editing the sports post bag and nominating the winning letter. In November 1976, one of the chosen winners was a A.W. Elbourn from Faringdon, Oxon who was concerned with the amount of money being taken from the prize pool for the big flat races by foreign raiders.
Whether it was the fact that racing was not Taylor's main sport or whether racing did not realise how well it was faring during hard economic times, he introduced the prize letter, by claiming that racing was facing hard times, pointing to an estimated £903,000 of the £1,350,000 available in the top races, being taken away from these shores.
Mr Elbourn himself did not mince his words, going as far as declaring that the " British turf had suffered a near disaster and the biggest setback in its history", all because, by his reckoning, the French and Irish had taken over half a million in prize money between them.
One has to remember that during the flat season that the curtains had just been drawn across, the 2,000 Guineas was the only English classic not scooped up by the French; the race falling to Wollow who came home first in a field of seventeen, compiled of seventeen different owners and seventeen different trainers.
This profile was the norm for all of the top events - Frank Taylor passed away in 2002 and I've no idea whether Mr Elbourn is still with us but God knows how they would have felt if they could have foresaw the profile of the typical big events nowadays, with the jam in a shockingly small number of jars.
It was what made it all the more amazing that the French based Argentinian Angel Penna trained the Wildenstein owned trio Flying Water, Pawneese, and Crow to win the 1,000 Guineas, Oaks and St Leger respectively. Their winners were their sole representatives in these events. Indeed, the sport truly was something to rejoice in those days.
Now, we needn't even dwell on so few taking such a high percentage of the prize money as horse racing in the UK is running so low on prize money to offer it is being served in rations. This really hit home when you saw the amount picked up by winning connections in Saturday's Northumberland Plate.
When the 3 lb claimer John Higgins steered the Tom Waugh trained Tartar Prince to victory in the 1971 renewal of the Northumberland Plate, the monetary prize for winning connections was a total of £5,266. By 1979 when Bruce Raymond carried Lady Beaverbrook’s silks on board Totowah to take the honours, the winner’s funds had risen significantly to £14,840.
It was 1988 when the winning prize was on parity with what was on offer at the weekend, thirty two years later. That day Michael Roberts was aboard the Jimmy Fitzgerald trained Treasure Hunter. In the interim period the costs of keeping a racehorse in training have risen considerably. Certainly by enough to have made the victor's prize of £92,000 for the 2019 merely par for the course for a showcase handicap.
Consider that when the jockey and trainer's share are taken out of the winning connections pot of under £25,000, there will be barely enough to cover twelve months training fees. Particularly as the winning yard does not appeal as a set up that cuts corners for a Poundshop training fee.
And while the owner of the winner, similarly to the majority in the yard, are unlikely to be forever checking their accounts to ensure they have sufficient to cover the monthly fees, there will come a time when owners of similar standing will take a stand on principal.
Look at it this way, Sheikh Mohammed once threatened to pull out of British racing due to the prize money situation. That was over twenty years ago but he has brought the subject to surface on occasions since when prize funds, compared with the dire levels they have fallen to now, were reasonably buoyant and increasing steadily.
For the many owners further down the scale with one or two animals in their name they cannot afford to play a poker game for they will simply be unable to sustain their outgoings, something that was at the heart of the matter when industry wide action was taken to boycott the Arena Leisure owned venues for a short period last February.
Again, this was not confined solely to those operating in the lower tiers. The chief organiser from the training ranks was Ralph Becket, whose list of patrons include some of the wealthiest involved in the sport. Remember, this hullabaloo was in full flow during a period, that if those involved were now given the opportunity to return in time to, they'd bounce up and down with joy, breath a sigh of relief and get on with it.
Industrial action cannot be an option now. With the plague impacting the wider society as a whole such protestations would cause the industry to be viewed with ridicule as well as a degree of cold indifference. Downsizing is now inevatable and if Mr Elbourn's claim that British racing was suffering its biggest setback in history was totally out of context back in 1976, it would not be wide of the mark to describe the present.
Image from scrapbook
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