as with the cost of living, prize-money at york next season has gone through the roof.

​It is, of course, commendable that the York executive have announced increased prize-money at the jewel-of-the-north next season. It’s grand. Whether it is necessary is another thing altogether.
    In the premier league of British racecourses there must lay hidden an innate competitiveness to persuade connections to run the best horses in their most prestigious and valuable races. Yet I contend that the Juddmonte International or the Nunthorpe this season will in no way be better races this year just because York have thrown an increase in prize-money at them.
At the Ebor meeting, for instance, no race will be worth less than £100,000 and every race throughout the season, and I find this the more admirable, will be worth no less than £20,000 to the winner, up from £15,000 last season. The 18-days of racing at York next year will have in total £10.75-million in prize-money, an increase of £750,000 on last year. The City of York Stakes will, at £500,000, be the most valuable Group 2 in Europe. 126 races in 2023 will offer a prize-fund of six-figures and every card will be have £200,000 to be won by lucky connections.
Although it is hooray for York, my problem with this largess is three-fold: the pressure this increase will exert on our other ‘premier’ racecourses’ to follow suit; that the racing at York this season will be just as excellent as in all previous years as York never fails to provide great racing; and the small yet withering fact that at the bottom end of racing’s pyramid we continue to race for paltry amounts that offers no hope to owners to either cover training fees, or, as importantly, entice new owners to the sport.
York caters for the elite and I would contend the elite, despite the cost-of-living crisis that, I accept, affects everyone, are not going to bed starving or thirsty.
The great achievement this sport should aspire to is not six-figure prize-funds for races that already attract the best horses but the bolstering of prize-money at the bottom tier. The York handicaps will be just as competitive whether there is a £100,000 pot to be won or if they are run for £75,000 and the majority of handicaps will still be won by the ‘big guns’, the elite who will also be winning the Group races.
I’ve said it before and I’ll be saying again and again and again. You do not construct pyramids from the top down. You build houses with solid foundations. If you throw a new wing on your house you do not neglect the foundations. If you put a new bedroom on your house you might build across a garage but you do not construct it straight out in mid-air from the second-floor without some form of support underneath. I firmly believe that the strategy employed by the B.H.A. and racecourses should be to reconstruct from the bottom-up as this will allow everyone in the sport the opportunity to make ends meet and attract new owners.
I only wish the B.H.A. had the aspiration to have at least one race at each meeting every day worth a five-figure sum to the winner. A small aspiration and not, on its own, enough to right the ship. But it would be a start, a new beginning. A clear indication that the powers-that-be are giving the problem some thought. If York can afford an increase of £750,000 in prize-money, and this is, I admit, the thinking of a fantasist, why could they donate £50,000 to its fellow Yorkshire racecourses to help increase the value of their bottom-end races. That small gesture would be of far greater help to the sport than a £500,000 Group 2.
This sport will only survive and perhaps thrive if all the diverse elements that comprise its whole come together to work together to make the sport attractive to the majority, not the few. York is arguably the best flat course in the country. It’s success should be the sport’s success. It does not exist in isolation.