i do not mean to crow but ....

​‘We see so many yearlings sold for seven-figure sums of money, plus six-figure sums for National Hunt stores and ‘winners of one point-to-point’, and I cannot see that anyone might object to one or two-per-cent of that money going to a fund for the aftercare of retired racehorses. Surely as an industry, a small percentage of all sales of racehorses, including those privately brought, cannot be argued against when that money would do so much good for the sport as a whole. There is no greater priority for racing in Britain and Ireland than to generously fund the likes of Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) and Treo Eile.’
The above is the majority of a letter I wrote that was published in the letters column of the Racing Post a few weeks ago. Yesterday it was reported in the Racing Post that Tattersalls, Goffs and Thorough Bid had agreed to contribute £6 to RoR for every horse they sell, plus a contribution of £3 from each vendor and purchaser, thus £12 per horse sold by the three aforementioned auction houses.
Firstly, a huge round of applause to Tattersalls, Goffs and Thorough Bid for the speediness of their response to my letter. Look, as no one to my knowledge has proposed such an idea in the past, I am taking the credit for floating this proposal. No need for a round of applause as I have not contributed a penny towards the aftercare of racehorses, though if I am responsible for the three auction houses implementing ‘my proposal’, it is possible the first aspect of my life I can be proud of achieving.
Horse racing is blighted in Britain by each and every one of its stakeholders believing they are pivotal to the survival of the sport, when in fact if there were no thoroughbred horses, or indeed the people who own the studs and broodmares, we would have no sport. People forget, especially C.E.O.’s, that the sport is called horse-racing and the horse should be given priority in all regards within the racing industry.
Horses, on occasions, percentage-wise less and less, thank heavens, die or suffer serious injury in pursuit of our entertainment. It is the responsibility of all sectors of the sport to ensure funding is freely and generously available for their care after racing as well as veterinary research into all forms of injury, decease and illness never lacking the finance in finding cures that would help all breeds of horses all around the world.
Horse racing is a monied sport. Our leading owners, on both flat and National Hunt, are very wealthy people. I do not understand why bookmakers are not arm-twisted into donating a small fraction of their profits to an equine charity; the same with racecourses, media outlets that have contracts to televise British horse racing, and owners who win races with six-figure first-prize money mandated or volunteering 1% of their windfall.
It would display leadership if when asked how they would spend their half-a-million if they should win the David Power Jockeys Cup, messrs Cobden, Skelton or de Boinville, the most likely winners of the trophy, I believe, would think first of the horses who have propelled them to glory and mega-wealth by pledging a proportion of their half-million to the RoR or any of the equine charities in dire need of funds.
No other gesture anyone might think of would improve the standing of horse racing with the public – remember the ‘social licence’ – than for the message to be broadcast far and wide that the sport as a collective is busting a gut to ensure the funds are in place for every retired racehorse to have the opportunity of a lifetime of care, be that a quiet life in a paddock or trained for another equine discipline.
In this matter, the sport requires the sort of active leadership it has always lacked and which, regrettably, remains lacking.