RACING:THE IRISH Racehorse Trainers Association (IRTA) has recommended that its members sign a new contract with owners to help try to stem the tide of bad debt affecting many trainers here.

With increased reports of unpaid bills, and trainers emphasising the precarious nature of their business in the recession, the IRTA believes another layer of legal protection could help.

There is already an agreement between trainer and owner with Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) which can mean an owner is put on the forfeit list for unpaid bills.

“The association is recommending to the members that they sign a new agreement with owners that protects both trainers and owners,” IRTA chief executive Jim Kavanagh said. “It’s another layer of protection that will help our members and also guarantees owners that their horse will be cared for properly in the event of a dispute.

“It is very difficult to quantify the extent of the problem, but many, many trainers have been having problems with bad debt and owners defaulting, being left with horses and debts that will never be paid.

“The new agreement will be a general contract between two parties with standard terms and conditions. It is discretionary, and the last resort will still be to pursue a case through the courts.

“But we would encourage our members to use it, and the HRI agreement,” he added.

HRI said it is extremely difficult to put figures on the amount of bad debt within the industry, but emphasised it is sensitive to the difficulties people are experiencing.

“We deal with items such as outstanding entry fees and colour charges and so on and our system operates pretty well,” HRI chief executive Brian Kavanagh said. “But that is a small amount of the cost involved in training racehorses, and like any business there are serious difficulties right now.

“It is very hard to quantify the problem of bad debt but there are people in difficulty and we have to be sensitive to that,” he added.

Last year the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association estimated that training fees alone generated €290 million, with the bloodstock industry in general amounting to a gross value of over a €1 billion to the economy.