i have an idea: a trainers' challenge.

​I have ideas all the time. I am, if nothing else, an ideas man. How to proceed with my ideas, though, is another matter. I have no influence in the sport and I am without the connections required to be taken seriously. Yet an idea, however inspired or inventive, is a dead duck if it remains unaired, unconsidered by those who might be give it wings.
My idea is this: a challenge to the leading flat trainers to buy a yearling for under 5,000 guineas with all prize-money split between an equine charity and the Injured Jockeys Fund, the horse to be sold at public auction at the end-of-the-season, with the sell-price split between the trainer (his or her training fees for the period of the challenge) and the surplus split between the two charities.
My reasoning is thus: the top flat trainers, and I would hope the likes of Coolmore, Godolphin, the Gosdens, William Haggas and similar top-ten trainers would embrace the challenge, only train blue-blooded home-breds or horses sold for six-figures or more at auction. It would be interesting to see how they would cope with a cheaply-bought yearling that would almost certainly have issues be overcome for it to be successful on the racecourse and whether being trained alongside classic and Group horses could substantially improve its prospects.
Also, if a good number of trainers would embrace the challenge, it would generate interest and provide a sideline narrative throughout the season. Trainers are by nature a competitive breed and they all will want to earn the greatest amount of prize-money with their cheap buy. Would it not be intriguing if Aidan O’Brien and Godolphin were locked in battle not at Royal Ascot, Goodwood or a classic but in trying to win more low-grade handicaps so they can ‘get one over’ their friendly if closest rivals?
Also, the challenge would be about raising funds for important charities to the sport, linking the horse and jockey in charitable endeavour. A dull Monday might be given a more intriguing narrative if one or more of the trainers’ taking part had runners in a low-grade handicap at Redcar, Chepstow or Southwell.
The top-end of the sport can be too serious at times, the intensity of trying to win the major races masking the friendliness of the rivalry, with the value of their horses and the ‘investment’ of fabulously wealthy foreign owners presenting an image to outsiders of the sport being a bean-feast for the few. This challenge would add an air of difference and because of the charities at its sporting core, mainstream media might be tempted or persuaded to switch its cameras in the sport’s direction.
I had it in mind to approach the Racing Channel with the idea but if I decide to take it further, I think the Racing Post might be the direction to go in. Not as a contribution to the letters’ column, which is my usual method of trying to have my opinions aired publicly, but as an e-mail to Tom Kerr, the editor. I’ll doubtless be ignored. Tom Kerr is yet to respond to any of the e-mails addressed to him personally. But all I can do is try and if my first approach gets a big fat zero, I’ll pen a letter to the writers’ column. Failing that I’ll try the Racing Channel. There is the grain of a good idea here; I just hope someone of influence recognises its potential.