The stewards of the Turf Club have written to the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, insisting they want autonomy to regulate horse racing within the proposed new body called HorseRacing Ireland.
The letter was sent yesterday following a meeting of the stewards the day before. That meeting had been called to discuss the contents of a letter the club had received from the Minister earlier.
Mr Brian Kavanagh, the club's chief executive, declined to say what was in the Minister's letter, but he said it was "conciliatory".
He said the stewards had written to Mr Walsh last month, expressing their concerns. "He wrote back a conciliatory response, but it was lacking in detail on some of the key issues. The stewards are writing again looking for independence of the regulator from the developer and promoter. In order to properly regulate the sport, the stewards feel they need a level of independence from the body responsible for developing and promoting [new HorseRacing Ireland]," he said.
Mr Kavanagh said the stewards were pleased to be able to deal directly with the Minister. Asked if he was heartened by recent developments, Mr Kavanagh replied: "I don't think the Turf Club's position has changed all the way through, going back to our press statement in March. Things are at a critical stage."
The Turf Club has rejected the proposed structure of HorseRacing Ireland on the basis that it would practically wipe out the club, which has run racing in Ireland for 210 years. Under the new structure, it would retain only the integrity services - the rules of racing, discipline, appeals and licensing. Most of its staff of 63 would be subsumed into HorseRacing Ireland.
The Ministers for Finance and Agriculture propose to allocate 80 per cent of the tax from off-course betting to Horseracing, but only on condition that a unitary body can be agreed on to run the sport.
