Wednesday 2 February

The front page of todays Racing Post highlights the introduction of the minimum prize money tariffs proposed by The Horsemans group, that came into effect for races that were entered from yesterday. The response seems to be, that on the whole, trainers and owners are reluctant to enter horses in races that fall below the proposed minimum level. This is a stance that I wholly agree with, I did state earlier in the season, before these tariffs were published, that I would not enter our horses in races that carried a total prizefund of less that £2000, but as The Horsemans Group, has published these threshold values it seems sensible to abide by them. Mrs Robeson phoned this morning to say that 2 races that we had intended to enter Omaruru and Grey Bobby in at Market Rasen both fell below the new recommended minimum values, and what was my position? I have taken the stance that we all need to stick together on this one - large and small, and therefore I have requested that she does not enter our horses in these races. So Omaruru and Grey Bobby will not be entered at the Lincolnshire track. I am left in a slight spot though, because in terms of the bumper I would nearly be willing to run, as the prizemoney in these events (for us)is almost irrelevent. Mrs Robeson tends to use these races as an education, and we do not expect to be winning, but if we take a stance at one level I believe we have to stick to it across the board - Grey Bobby has other options anyway.It would be interesting to hear everyones thoughts on this issue, so drop me a line if you would like to talk it over further.