Aga wants money for lower levels

The Aga Khan has proposed a radical redistribution of racing's prizemoney and questioned whether the current allocation of most of the money to Classic races is good for the sport.

The Aga Khan was speaking at Saturday night's Moyglare Dinner, where he also officially received the Budweiser Irish Derby Trophy for Sinndar's early July victory. However, despite his stunning international successes this year with Sinndar and Kalanisi, it was racing's grass roots that were on the Aga Khan's mind on Saturday.

"The current trend appears to be a global competition as to which country can disburse the highest amounts of money to the winners of its premium classics. Is this really good for everyone in the industry? Or is it only good for those bloodstock operations which have the highest probability of winning the most numerous Group races?

"Personally, I would like to see a much wider distribution of prizemoney in racing that would significantly increase the probability that more horses in every yard could bring back at least some income to offset their cost," the Aga Khan, one of the world's wealthiest and most powerful owners, said.

Addressing an audience that included the Minister for Agriculture Joe Walsh, the Coolmore Stud supremo John Magnier and the Turf Club senior steward Gerry Scanlan, the Aga expanded by saying the creation of an "economic safety net" for small and medium thoroughbred initiatives would reduce the risks of collapse during recession and reduce initial capital investment for young people entering the industry.

"I know there are good counter arguments to such an idea, for example that it would simply underwrite mediocrity in the industry. But when all is said and done, the future of any sport is substantially conditioned by the number of people in it, and their ability to stay in it," he said.

The Aga also proposed a dramatic facelift for the Curragh racecourse.

"The Curragh racecourse deserves to be resuscitated, not by the implementation of unavoidable improvements only, but by a dramatic new grand plan," he said.

He proposed a number of such steps, including the relocation north of the road behind the grandstands, thus releasing a substantial land area for an improved racecourse complex. He also suggested the burying underground of "unsightly" electric and phone cables that criss-cross the plain.

In his speech, the Aga Khan also focused on the issue of laboratory testing for performance-enhancing drugs in the sport and his controversial past experiences with the Group One winners Vayrann and Lashkairi.

"I have been exposed to some of the worst mismanagement in this area and have had to fight unpleasant and painful battles to get the industry in Western Europe and North America to recognise the problem and to apply new and better levels of management control and technical sophistication," he recalled.

"These cases (Vayrann and Lashkari) demonstrated a number of worrying similarities. Either there was no independent reference laboratory required to review and certify the findings, or there was no requirement that the results of the verification should be made public. Thus even the audit procedures, when they existed, could not be verified."

He added: "Fortunately all this is now in the past. There is much more oversight today by the racing authorities of the control laboratories and there is better international co-ordination in drug control amongst thoroughbred racing countries."

The Moyglare speech in 1999 saw the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, first outline his ground-breaking plan for permanent government funding for racing, an issue that dominated racing politics for the most of this year.