I’ve said before that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the industry and this week things are swinging a bit the wrong way.
Well, all it started off with the ABC post about people not paying transporters. While I sympathise with the transporters, it served to highlight something that is an industry-wide problem. For reasons that I cannot fathom, seemingly normal people who understand and abide by normal business practice under ordinary circumstances, seem to manage their racing affairs on a completely different set of ethics.
People simply don’t pay ! And we’re not talking about small amounts of money here either.
It is disgusting. None of us would dream of walking out of a supermarket without paying. That would be considered theft. And yet, somehow people seem to think it’s perfectly acceptable not to pay for things or at the very least, not to pay for things on time, in the racing world.
So why is this ?
For a start, we seem to operate on this weird notion that horses and racing somehow operates outside normal business practices. We don’t have contracts, and we pay for everything in arrears for heaven’s sake. It’s a crazy scheme at the best of times, but particularly so in the current economic climate.
This stupid lack of communication (my favourite subject !) also has to stop. If you are the service provider (transporter, feed merchant, vet, etc) and a trainer engages your services, it is quite simply, the owner’s responsibility to carry the can.
We don’t have the old jockey club system to assess our individual finances and decide for us whether we have the wherewithal to afford a race horse, so guess what – we actually get to behave like adults and make that decision all on our own. Challenging, but kind of liberating at the same time, isn’t it?
With the corporatisation process, the rules of the game have changed. And like it or not, we have to change along with them if we want to keep playing. Well, if we want to survive that is !
So owners, you need to be a bit more savvy and a bit more wise and C.Y.A. A written contract is quite a good idea. But of course the current culture dictates that no-one has them ! So we’re home and dry, right? Guess again. Just because you don’t have a written contract, doesn’t mean you are not contractually obligated. There are a whole host of scary things out there that can render you (and your horse) legally obligated to someone (and sometimes quite a number of other people that you weren’t even aware of). By giving your horse to a trainer, there is something called the Law of Agency that grants them permission to act as your agent. Which in turn allows them to do a whole host of fun and unexpected things. So to prevent you from getting your fingers burnt, it is quite a good idea to insist on a contract or at the very least to issue some specific verbal instructions. Protect yourself. Because otherwise, your horse is as good as someone else’s property. Think I’m kidding ? Try not paying your bill for a few months. Your trainer has a lien over your horse and can dispose of it in any way they see fit in order to recoup their costs. True story.
Trainers
A trainer chooses to take on a client and a horse (or horses) and then fulfills his perceived mandate to the best of his ability. This includes feeding, exercising and nominating for races. It also includes calling for medical attention and transport when necessary. The only difference is, the trainer has incurred the majority of his costs up front.
Not paying our way is not only discourteous, but it affects the structure at every level. The trainer has had to pay for horse feed, bedding and groom’s wages for the last month. The transport company has paid for the vehicles to be licensed, fuelled and serviced to get your horse to the course. Your farrier has had to pay for those shoes and nails your horse is wearing. The operator has had to pay for all those officials and staff that you see running around organising everything (and the grounds and equipment that it’s all being run on).
What about bad payers?
Well, for some reason it seems that people are still prepared to take on bad business. So why is this? I like to think that we’re all living optimistically, helping each other out and all hoping it will all come out in the wash, everyone will get their money and we’ll all live happily ever after. An industry colleague puts it rather more bluntly and calls it greed. Greed for the client, greed for the horse, greed for taking that business away from the competitor. But whichever way you cut it, the result is the same. Bad debt is bad debt, no matter how good (or bad) your intentions. And unfortunately at the end of the day, the result is the same. If the trainer, or transporter, or vet, or whoever, chooses to extend credit to someone without any hard and fast contractual obligations, well that’s a risk that you are walking into with your eyes open and you are not going to get a lot of sympathy in sorting it out.
And perhaps that’s OK. Perhaps we ought to be making it hard for the deadwood at the bottom of the pile. Who don’t manage their affairs efficiently and can’t afford court judgements. Is that not simply the law of survival of the fittest in practice ? Should we not be rewarding the people who work smarter rather than harder ? It’s a hard and unpalatable thought.
The Authorities
I consulted the operators and the NHA on the issue. Their stance is, pretty reasonably, that it is not their responsibility to act as the credit controller or debt collector for the industry. They encourage all industry players to have contracts in place, but if people choose not to do so, then it becomes pretty difficult for the authorities to help out. Again, if trainers, transporters, vets, etc choose to extend credit to people without written contracts, you do so at your own risk. Should it all go wrong, then we have to unfortunately join the rest of the world by seeking legal advice. You will need a court judgement and only then can the NHA approach the defaulting party and threaten to put them on the defaulter’s list.
How does this affect me ?
This means (shock horror) a little research and a little soul-searching. You know those old SPCA ads about a puppy not just being just for Christmas ? Well a horse isn’t just for the duration of the sale either. It’s a long haul. Do the maths. That goes for you as the owner as well as you as the trainer (and any other industry service provider). Take a good long look at that client. Is that person really going to be an asset to your business ?
I like to think that we are all reasonably intelligent folk who make reasonably intelligent choices, but if this really is so, how come so many are out of pocket ?
For some reason, when it comes to horses, people behave stupidly. I don’t know why. But you can take a reasonably intelligent person who is logical and analytical and otherwise successful and perfectly functional in all other aspects of their professional and private lives. Throw a horse into the equation and the whole lot goes out of the window. Abandon logic all ye who enter here.
I don’t know why it is, but for some reason, we get ourselves into stupid situations and then hope and pray for that win which will make it all ok and enable us to pay our bills. But let’s get real. Chances are it’s not going to happen, is it ? So why not simply grow a pair, behave like an adult and shoulder our individual responsibilities. If we can’t afford to pay those bills on time, like the rest of the world, then can we really afford to have a horse ?
We are not a nanny state and there is no Jockey Club to make that decision for you anymore, so we’ve all got to man up and decide for ourselves.
Because if people don’t pay their way, the system starts to break down. And guess what – all those small breeders, owners, trainers, etc – those are the first casualties.
So What’s The Solution ?
And it can all get to feeling pretty overwhelming and depressing if you look at it as a whole and to be honest, if we tried to fix it all at once, we’d probably be doomed to failure. But if saving the world was the remit, none of us would get of bed in the morning !! But we can manage to get up, get dressed and perhaps even as far as making breakfast. Look at the day as a whole and you will likely never bother. But break it down into small steps and somehow we get through it a bit at a time.
So, how about breaking racing down into the same thing? If you look at the overall picture, you will probably vomit and then shoot yourself. At least that’s how it makes me feel most of the time! I get so overwhelmed by the problems and I feel so sorry for everyone involved. And I want to help and cheer everyone up and somehow make it better. But I can’t.
What I can do however, is my bit. I can ensure that I pay my training fees on time, so that my trainer can pay his feed merchant, his phone bill (for those updates we’re always crying for), his staff and his grooms. I can pay my vet bill, for the medication that they’ve had to buy upfront, the fuel it has cost them to get there and their professional time. I can pay my transport company for moving my horse safely from one destination to another.
If one hand washes the other, in theory, we will all rub along a little more comfortably, won’t we ?
I don’t have the answer. But, you will probably find me back here again next week. Despite the pain, the frustration, the headache and the heartache. Why ? Because that’s strength of the addiction.
