Mark My Words

As usual, Louis was quiet for an hour or so last night, as he is every time the latest copy of Yushun pops through the letterbox. Towards the end of his stint, during which you may as well talk to the wall as try and get any kind of response from the boy, he turned to me and asked if I'd seen the high prices achieved at the recent Tattersalls sale. Well, yes, I had, and I said to him that I found it all rather worrying. Why? Because it's making the sport too elitist, where money talks more than enthusiasm, and when yearlings start going for silly money, silly things are done to make sure they win to recoup investment. With Thoroughbreds, a high purchase price doesn't guarantee anything, it simply makes the need to win that much greater. And if prices continue to rise, racing will soon be out of reach for average Joes, and the whole industry - except for the chosen few at the top - will suffer as a result. There is already a shortfall in the number of small-time owners in many countries where racing is an important sport with a long history attached to it. Celebrating high auction prices and making them the norm will only make the situation worse...