!PR? ?4ALKING4O?/WNER "REEDER 0AGE
GEORGE MARGARSON taking on staff I wouldn’t necessarily employ because they have to find the numbers to look after 150-plus horses. I know I can knock on the door of Sir Michael Stoute or Sir Mark Prescott any time to ask them for advice. We have 54 boxes, 32 are filled, and for the first time we have five new Arabowned horses.
“If an owner of mine owes more than two months’ training fees then the horse leaves the yard�
In your view is there anything the authorities can do to help the small trainer in these straitened times? Is more prize-money the only answer? Perhaps a training fee set for each region would help. Say for example, a £40 a day training fee for Newmarket would have to be deposited with Weatherbys each month. If the stipulated fee wasn’t in the account by the end of the month, the person concerned would be banned from owning horses. Any bills over and above the official fee would be invoiced by the trainer. I don’t think there is much more that can be done, but I am a firm believer in having a business plan. If an owner of mine owes more than two months’ training fees then the horse leaves the yard. A smaller trainer just starting out would probably ignore the debt for a while longer because he or she thinks they need that horse to keep them going. Unfortunately, that’s how they get skint.
How tough do you find running a small yard in Newmarket, when you are rubbing shoulders every day with the big battalions of Stoute, Gosden and Godolphin? How are your stable numbers holding up? I don’t find it tough and have never looked at it like that. I don’t run my business like a corner shop, I run it like a Tesco. I do everything the big trainers do and surround myself with the best possible staff. I feel more privileged because they have the difficulty of THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER
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