The current state of the UK horse Racing Industry. An interview with Ann Duffield

Ann Duffield has trained well over 250 winners in her training career. She is based just outside Middleham at Sun Hill Farm in the picturesque North Yorkshire moors. Sun Hill Farm, set in 50 acres of beautiful countryside, is located a mile from the picturesque village of Constable Burton, known as the "Gateway to the Yorkshire dales". Nearby is Constable Burton Hall famed for its wonderful tulip displays & gardens and home to the legendary Wyvill family.

Ann is married to the well known and respected jockey, George Duffield MBE, who now he has retired from race riding is assistant trainer. Once a working farm and part of the Wyvill estate, Sun Hill was bought by Ann & George in 1999 and converted into the first class racehorse training centre it is today. Setting up Sun Hill Farm as a first class racehorse training centre has taken an enormous amount of time, energy and expense. Now, with the sterling support of George and her staff they are beginning to reap the rewards in both the number of winning horses and prize money won.

Ann has had a great last couple of years with umpteen winners including the 2yo winners  Indigo Nights, Smart Cassie(who ran in the Molecombe Stakes at Glorious Goodwood), Island Prince, Alugat, First Among Equals, Pauvic, Yankee Bravo and Bonjour Allure.

Ann and George are an ambitious team and have extended their yard and taken on Royston Ffrench as their stable jockey to help fulfil their aim of becoming one of the top yards in the north."As a trainer I am very much 'hands on', I'm always the first person in the yard each morning and do the final check round every night. I ride out with each lot daily and undertake general work around the yard. I keep meticulous personal notes for each horse, recording vaccinations, vet, dental and worming details, and information on schooling sessions with notes as to the work each horse requires in the next stage of its training including its forthcoming racing engagements.
Everything we do here, on the racecourse or at home in the yard, is geared to my first and uppermost priority, the well-being of the horse, which means that ultimately the horses come first, on or off the track.

Ann is an active buyer of yearlings and older horses and attends all of the major sales in England and Ireland. This buying strategy ensures that there is often a stock of well bred horses in the yard for purchase and full details of those currently available can be seen here

Q1: Do you feel there are currently too many Horse Racing meetings?

Yes.

Q2: Are the current meetings fairly and sensibly spread over the country?

No.

Q3: What kind of races would you like to see more of and which less of?

More 2 yr old races and more 5 & 6 furlongs for 3yr olds

More sellers & claimers but less low grade handicaps.

Q4: Do you feel the various grades of races receive the correct proportion of prize money?

Probably but not enough of it

Q5: Is the current level of prize money on offer sufficient to both encourage new owners and retain existing ones?

No.

Q6: Should there be more major races staged on a Sunday?

Yes.

Q7: Do you think the sex and age allowances in this country set at a fair level?

Yes

Q8: Is “All Weather Racing” good for the long term future of the sport?

Yes but they need to concentrate on improving the quality & prize money levels

Q9: Should Racing only operate on six days a week?

Yes please!

Q10. How can we make Racing more attractive to the Sporting public?

More mainstream Television as those programmes (both BBC & Channel 4) are superbly presented by knowledgeable experts, less of the crap we hear from certain presenters on RUK/ATR

Q11: Do you agree with artificially watering racecourses?

Only to maintain growth

Q12: Are there enough new owners entering racing?

Ask me again later in the year!

Q13: How can the BHA be improved?

By not making ill informed hasty decisions due to knee jerk reactions and introducing stupid ideas every five minutes, they should stop worrying about and placing “the punter” before racing professionals & those of us who are directly affected by their ill judged & poorly considered ideas.

Q14: What changes if any, would you like to see in the way Stewards Enquiries are held?

I think stewards need guidance from former jockeys who at least can explain to them what is actually happening in a race. Stewards have little or no experience and those who have are former jump boys who are used to having plenty of time in a race to make a decision.

Q15: Do the Bookmakers hold too much power?

Yes.

Q16: Are Bookmakers contributing enough to Horse Racing?

No,we all know that!

Q17: Do you agree that Betting Exchanges are a “cheat's charter”?

They have been & can be again, they ( the then jockey club) should never have allowed them to establish themselves without a real fight at least, the principle of everyone with access to a computer being able to act as bookmaker is wrong, both making bets & laying them. It is very flawed & opens the doors for all manner of people to want to alter or manipulate race results.

Q18: Who should own the Tote?

Racing

Q19: Can the average trainer survive on prize money won and fees alone?

Not a hope!

Q20: Is it harder to hire and retain staff now than it was ten years ago?

Yes, impossible, however, since I began to employ staff from abroad having given up on home grown staff life is much easier and I have been able to expand the yard, my staff mostly come from Trinidad, with a couple from Pakistan, South Africa & Brazil.

Q21: What ratio of staff to horses do you operate?

One staff to every 3 / 4 horses

Q22: In % terms, how much have costs risen in the last year and what single item has increased the most?

Don't know for sure yet, will work it out, but at a guess about 20% +

Q23: How much has rising costs affected your business?

A lot!

Q24: Are you able to pass any of your increased costs on?

Not all, no. Fees went up in the spring and apart from increasing the fuel to races I don't feel I can burden the owners with more so soon.

Q25: How has the Foxhunting ban affected you?

Not at all

Q26: In your view, how corrupt is Horse Racing?

In the old days racing did an excellent job of policing itself, any gambling yards were watched by everyone & any bent trainers / jockeys were well known and monitored and of course only a tiny percentage of people had the ability to lay bets (bookmakers) those wanting a favourite “stopped” were a tiny few, not like now where, anyone with a pc and betting account can lay a horses to lose, all they have to do is make sure it does just that! This is the worrying thing. Trainers who are gambling types don't stop horses like they used to, fines are too big & jockeys are watched form every angle. On the whole racing is pretty squeaky clean. In fact in the absence of the occasional good old fashioned coup, horses being able to run up a sequence, jockeys being punished for trying too hard or intimidating rivals, stewards who don't know a good ride from a bad one and wanting horses to run in their own lanes, and some of our most ignorant TV commentators wanting to ban the use of whips etc racing is in danger of becoming very boring indeed.

Q27: Do you feel the Racehorse is as robust as it used to be?

Probably.

Q28: Will we ever see a woman champion jockey (Flat or National Hunt)?

Not a chance

Q29: Does “blood doping” exist within racing?

Apparently, but I have never seen it.

Q30: Is it possible to stop trainers and owners betting on their horses to lose?

Not if they are determined to do so.

Q31: In your view, which kind of races should punters avoid?

Any and all if they cant cope with losing.

Q32: Can you supply two horses for Priceform readers to follow?

Firebet, What A Fella, Hells Angel & Highly Acclaimed

Anyone interested in finding out more about this stable can look on Ann's website http://www.annduffield.co.uk