Sale of Dundalk racetrack could add to uncertainty for racecourses around media rights deal

Racing politics are as murky an exercise as any other kind, and usually about as interesting, with what’s unsaid often more important than what is, a point that could get underlined when representatives from the country’s 26 racecourses gather on Tuesday.

Horse Racing Ireland’s media rights committee, legislatively empowered to basically act as agents for the tracks, is expected to finally outline to them the figures involved in a new five-year deal it negotiated with Satellite Information Services (SIS) and Racecourse Media Group (RMG.)

It is believed to be worth a basic €40 million a year to the racecourses and is far and away their most important revenue stream. And just as most political wrangles are rooted in cash, it is the division of this TV money that’s causing ructions.

Unhappy tracks

Although still under the umbrella of the Association of Irish Racecourses, a handful of smaller tracks have said their trust in HRI has collapsed and so set up their own body, United Irish Racecourses, such is their unhappiness with the slice the semi-State body gets from media rights.

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That HRI owns four tracks which has prompted claims of a conflict of interest and theoretical arguments about such ownership being inherently unhealthy, a point that perhaps ignores how Leopardstown and Fairyhouse could long since have been under concrete by now without it.

However, if tracks’ fortunes were once tied up in the value of their land assets, it is TV revenue that increasingly looks like the modern sure thing.

The maths is straightforward: if a race is worth, for instance, €12,000 to a track in media rights income, and there are seven races on a fixture, and a dozen fixtures annually, then that’s a million per year for just being a big, green open-air studio.

In comparison, revenue generated from getting a few hundred hardy souls through the gates is trivial.

Inevitably, with so much money in the mix there has always been grumbling about who got what although up to now a united front between the tracks was largely maintained, a case of all in or all out.

This time though the process has been wracked with rancour and talk of splits while the commercial waters could be about to muddy even further.

For some time, racecourse scuttlebutt has revolved around a potential purchase of Dundalk racecourse by Arena Racing Company (ARC) which owns 16 tracks in Britain, including the four all-weather circuits there.

The Irish Times understands that negotiations have been ongoing on for close to a year with a possible purchase figure in the region of €40 million being mentioned although nothing has been finalised.

Insiders close to ARC say that any purchase would be part of their overall European all-weather strategy, and they are keen to work in conjunction with HRI who hold preferential shares in Dundalk due to its grant funding when the facility was being developed and opened in 2007.

HRI declined to comment on the matter this week and Dundalk management did not return phone calls.

Dundalk has 43 scheduled fixtures this year so with its all-weather profile it’s not hard to understand why ARC might be keen to gain a foothold in Ireland. Much harder to try and quantify are the possible consequences of any new player in the market.

ARC is part of a Racing Partnership group that was also interested in bidding for the media rights but got sidelined when SIS/RMG got preferred bidder status to extend their current deal for another five years.

Potential implications

Another part of that partnership is Sky Sports Racing, the channel that’s in competition with the pay-per-view Racing TV station which holds the rights to show Irish racing. ARC is also behind the main content provider rival to SIS for providing pictures to bookmakers.

Reports that SIS could be for sale soon add more uncertainty but it’s reasonable to assume any purchase of Dundalk by ARC would mean a switch of the all-important pictures, leaving other racecourse representatives to mull possible implications for the deal put before them next week.

Is it dependent on the old system of all 26 tracks being on board or might there be a spanner in the works? What if talk of splits isn’t sabre-rattling and a sizable minority opt to plough their own furrows when it comes to negotiating picture rights?

There are obvious problems in such a scenario for the legislative basis on which deals have been done up to now.

If it’s usually safe to presume enough political problems can be solved with enough money, it’s still no certainty when positions are as entrenched as they appear to be. So, there’s plenty riding on the detail that will be out outlined this Tuesday ahead of a likely final racecourse vote next month.

Where one might bolt, others may be tempted to follow, perhaps the thin end of a wedge slicing through the united if uneasy front that’s existed up to now.

Something for the weekend

Drying ground conditions could be perfect for SPIRIT OF LEGEND (2.45) when he lines up for a handicap hurdle at Fairyhouse on Saturday. American Mike’s presence at the top of the weights lets Henry de Bromhead’s unexposed hope race off a handy 11st 3lbs. He’s out of novice company for the first time but could have bigger future ambitions than a handicap.

Better ground can also be key to UKANTANGO (3.40) in a Kempton Grade Two on Saturday.