I am seeing Irish horses representing a lot of different nations at the Olympics.
You say it is too expensive to hold them here.
But why do we specifically fund horse racing events to the tune that we do?
What horse racing events?
How much prize money would be needed for somebody not to sell a horse for 5 million say?
How much are the horses worth? Only a tiny handful are worth that much. How much, if any, government money went to those breeders? The vast majority of horses bred in Ireland amount to nothing more than pleasure riding horses at the end of the day, but they employ a significant number of people.
You seem to have it in your head that some breeder is getting a massive grant from the government and then turning around and getting 5mil for a horse. If it’s a sport horse, the breeder probably see a fraction of that. The person that develops the horse and gets it to the 5star level and then sells it to the Saudis or Jessica Springsteen will.
The horses have ruined the Olympics. The cunts needs putting down.
As a non-horsey man, if the government are going to continue to spend taxpayer money on horsey sports, I’d rather it went towards trying to win a few horsey Olympic medals rather than Cheltenham winners
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I’d also rather all funding was cut to swimming events due to the various doping scandals involved in the sport.
I’m not so sure but I want to understand does Ireland Inc get its bang for its buck when it comes to those profits.
We see very specific money in horse racing, why not the other one?
The answer to your last question was explained above. Horse racing could be self sustaining if the leeches known as bookies weren’t allowed, or were forced to pay their fair share.
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I don’t know. I know that there is 10s of millions pumped into the sector and what I know is the output is families all over Ireland ruined by horse racing instead of families all over Ireland celebrating Olympic medals.
I also can see that there are many individuals in Ireland with significant riches courtesy of horse racing.
Why exactly is €40m+ going for prize money?
I’m not exactly sure of your point tbh.
There is no real prize money.
Very few Irish show jumpers can afford to be based in Ireland even.
So it wouldn’t be self sustaining. It would rely on addiction to fund itself.
Even for tfk that’s an absolutely bizarre comparison.
Do you think all funding should be cut for rugby and poured into rugby 7s because we can win a gold medal,”?
€40m+ from the State. Prime real estate taken up by it. 360 meetings a year.
I’m not sure if thats still true. Bookies have had it their own way for so long. They now have it in the hand of anybody who has a phone. There are a multitude of things to bet on. While horse racing provides a quick hit for addicts the fact that so few turn up to most race meetings shows you the actual interest in racing. If racing would turn off tomorrow, addicts would bet on tennis or golf or football in brazil or the eurovision. Horse racing may have been one of the original king sports of gambling, but it is no longer.
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make at all. You seem to be confusing two totally different industries.
even if say every bit of funding was cut to racing it shouldn’t be going next to near shoe jumping because we can win a gold medal or compete at the Olympics.
No because rugby is not something that owes its existence to feeding off addiction.
It’s well known that I’m not a GGA man either but I’d say the same for that as well.
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You’re all over the place here. Instead of just admitting you mixed up sport horses and thoroughbred racing.
I’m asking why we are putting our horsey money into the part of it that feeds off addiction. You seem to be an expert in these things and mentioned €15m-€20m. Thats at least two a year we could acquire and the industry would be jumping up and down to get that cash.