Trainer Pat Rosney is urging his fellow professionals to support the new *£15 open race bonus scheme.
(*The bonus scheme is an agreement from tracks to pay trainers an additional fee for presenting dogs in open races. Traditionally, attached trainers have received the bonuses, but unattached trained dogs have not.)
Introduced within the last week (for January implementation), by Richard Brankley at Ladbrokes, it has since been adopted by the Coral tracks plus Henlow and Central Park.
Rosney said: “In every racing paddock I visit, up and down the country, trainers can’t wait to moan, but they want everything done for them. Mark Wallis has been in a Twitter war trying to drum up support for the tracks who have already signed up. I support him 100%.
“If we don’t back the tracks who are making the effort, they will soon phase it out and we will be back to square one.
“I am actually planning to take some runners to Henlow, which is a four hour journey for me, as a point of principle. Unfortunately, most of the signed-up tracks are in the south. I would love to see more Northern and Midland tracks participating.
“I understand that there is a financial implication, but I don’t think it is insurmountable. I know many tracks are struggling to fill their opens which end up as glorified kennel sweepstakes full of local graded runners.
“If they were to sacrifice no more than one or two opens per month, the money saved would allow them to finance the bonus scheme which would then attract genuine open racers from the unattached kennels.”
Rosney has also pledged to join Kevin Stow’s Ethical Trainers scheme as featured on the site on Friday.
He said: “I support it 100%. We never put a dog to sleep except in the most dire of circumstances when it is in the dog’s best interests.
“We had a case not so long ago where a vet was trying to persuade us that it was the best option for an open racer with a broken leg. I said ‘you don’t an x-ray to say it is necessary’ so we refused, had the dog operated on, and he is now enjoying a fantastic life as a pet.”
