Profits dip for de Bromhead despite blue riband winning season

Accumulated profits at the training operation of Cheltenham Gold Cup and Aintree Grand National winning trainer Henry de Bromhead fell last year despite his success on the track.

New accounts filed by Mr de Bromhead’s Knockeen Racing Ltd show that the company, based at Butlerstown, Co Waterford, delivered pretax profits of €207,409 in the 12 months to the end of September last. But that is less than half the €555,944 recorded the previous year.

Accumulated profits at the business were €1.74 million at the year end.

In the year under review, Mr de Bromhead was the toast of racing as horses he trained won the Aintree Grand National and he carried off the feat of winning the Holy Trinity – the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and the Gold Cup – at the Cheltenham Festival in the same year, becoming the first trainer to do so.

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Mr de Bromhead completed another Gold Cup one-two this year as his partnership with Tipperary jockey Rachael Blackmore continued to flourish, as she piloted A Plus Tard to victory.

Across the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 National Hunt seasons here, Mr de Bromhead horses have won €4.1 million in prize money after 195 wins.

Mr de Bromhead took over the reins at his father’s Co Waterford yard in 1999. The yard expanded again last year, adding four more trainers to the 33-strong staff. The increase in headcount led to staff costs increasing by €140,582 to €1.229 million.

The aggregate pay for the company’s directors, Mr de Bromhead and his wife Heather, reduced sharply from €139,072 to €80,529.

The company last year reinvested profits of recent years in the operation with the book value of the firm’s tangible assets increasing from €1.06 million to €1.2 million, following an investment in stables and buildings, machinery and motor vehicles.

The business last year had non-cash depreciation costs of €131,896 and a corporation tax bill of €26,887. Its cash funds increased from €372,778 to €448,246.