Owners’ Premiums were born out of the Racing Review, which recognised that some of the extra income secured through the sale of database rights to bookmakers would be well spent supporting the British Breeding Industry and trying to match the incentives on offer to owners overseas. The Scheme rewarded the owners of qualifying British Bred horses with bonuses of 25% (50% for National Hunt fillies and mares) of prize money, the intention being to encourage owners to purchase British Bred horses, and thus encourage breeders to support British based stallions. The Scheme was set to pay out an estimated £7m a year once it reached maturity.

The signs in the first year of Owners’ Premiums were very encouraging, with horses like Salamanca (£25,000 paid following victory in the Watership Down Stud Sales race) and Iceman (£10,000 paid following victory in the G2 Coventry Stakes) substantially topping up their winnings, but perhaps more significantly, there was a 14% reduction in the number of mares travelling to Irish based stallions from 2003 to 2004. Since the inception of the Scheme, more than £1.65m has been paid out to owners.

As you may be aware, this revenue stream from sale of pre race data dried up following the William Hill v. BHB case, in which, following a judgement from the European Court of Justice, the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of William Hill, thus preventing BHB from being able to sell its database rights, and therefore effectively cutting off this flow of income.

Owners’ Premiums were then suspended for a time, before being reintroduced, albeit at much lower levels, thanks to the Levy Board, supported by the TBA, agreeing to fund them for a limited period of time from the Breeders’ Prize allocation.

Although the Levy Board’s intervention saved Owners’ Premiums from going under, the level of funding available meant that although the Scheme could continue, it was not properly fulfilling its stated objectives. This temporary stay of execution bought the industry time to try and find the extra funding required to bring the Scheme back up to a level of payments that would genuinely influence breeder and purchaser behaviour.

This has not been possible, and following a predicted fall in the Levy yield in 2006 of almost £10m, the Levy Board has been forced to make significant cuts, of which Owners’ Premiums is one victim. BHB is not in a position to fund the Scheme, and although the ROA were asked to consider whether they would be prepared to fund Owners’ Premiums from the funds available to support Minimum Values in 2007, they felt that in a period when prize money was already set to fall, this was not a course of action that they wished to pursue.

Therefore, there was no other course of action left to be taken, other than to terminate the Owners’ Premium Scheme on 31st December 2006, under Order 197(vi). Obviously no registration of yearlings will take place in 2006, and as of 1st January 2007, no payments will be made to any horses under the terms of the Scheme. However, in future, should there be a significant and sustainable upturn in racing’s income, the concept of an Owners’ Premiums Scheme may well be revisited.