Hughie Morrison: Low prize money and owners' monopoly is hurting racing

Hughie Morrison is frustrated with the low prize money on offer in the UK following the Coronavirus pandemic.

Money is tight everywhere in sport, and especially in racing, as punters continue to be absent from racecourses. Crucially, sponsors have seemingly decided to keep their cash in their pockets for now as well.

In some cases, Morrison has revealed that he’s not even covering his costs for wins in Group 2 races as the prize money on offer is so low at the moment.

And the Summerdown Stables chief also rued the monopoly that a small group of owners have on the sport during an open and honest interview on this week’s From The Horse’s Mouth Podcast which you can hear in full below.

“Obviously the mind has become very focused as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic in that a lot of top prize money has gone,” Morrison told the lads on From The Horse’s Mouth, “I’m looking at a Group 2 race in which I’m running Telecaster in on Saturday and it’s worth less than what York had as a maiden race in August last year.

“You suddenly realise 30 grand for a Group 2 race – you’re not even covering your training fees and similarly decent handicaps are worth 10 to 15 grand for the winner.

“That’s not really going to help me, my staff, my owners very much so it’s obviously very important but there are a lot of other factors which probably are unpalatable to mention which people don’t really look into like, dare I say, the monopoly of a few owners in the sport.

“If you keep seeing the same group of owners winning races and decent races and the high-profile races, it’s a turn off – it has to be a turn off. Though that’s happened over the years, it seems to be even more prevalent at the moment.”

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