Why trainers face depression – and what to do about it
The combination of stresses is unique, but the BHA could – and should – be helping
Ihad a chat with William Mcconn, a researcher at Liverpool John Moores University last week. He is conducting a survey on why racehorse trainers may be susceptible to depression. What became apparent was that trainers do not face any particular stresses that people from other walks of life don’t have to cope with, but they do have to cope with a combination of factors that are unique to their profession.
Firstly, they are running small-to-medium-sized businesses with tight cashflow issues and small to non-existent profit margins. Secondly, trainers are fighting within their peer group for customers, some of whom are acquired on a very personal basis. It’s not unknown for trainers to go on holiday with their owners, which can lead to blurred lines between friendship and business.
Failure to get enough horses into a yard, or even worse to lose them, can feel like very acute personal rejection.
Thirdly, levels of success and failure are published on a daily basis. There is nowhere to hide when a yard is out of form.
And finally, for the sake of this brief snapshot of the problem, training horses can involve an expectation to drink alcohol on a daily basis, or every time the trainer is celebrating or commiserating a runner.
Whilst your average bank manager, accountant or plumber might have to put up with some of those issues, I doubt they have to cope with the whole spectrum. If they are, they should step away from their desks and report themselves to their regulatory authority immediately.
Most of the pressures associated with training will never change. But one major adjustment could lift some of the financial pressure.
The British Horseracing Authority could make it a condition of holding a licence that trainers are required to report any owner who hasn’t paid a bill within four weeks of it being issued. The BHA has a duty to protect the integrity of the sport and equine welfare, so it’s pretty logical that it should be ensuring that trainers’ cashflows are not being stretched and compromised.
Make no mistake, there is a mass of evidence that both big and small owners take a very cavalier attitude to paying their trainers on time. Those owners know that the trainer will not want to lose the horse by being too dogmatic about delay in payment, and anyway, those bills are often preceded by bad news about the horses.
And as we have already touched upon, the blurred lines between the two parties put the trainers in a difficult situation.
That is why the BHA needs to step in to preserve the integrity of the sport by removing one pressure on trainers that falls within their remit.
Champions’ Day is the perfect finale of the Flat season and some would say Cheltenham’s opening meeting is the obvious start of the National Hunt season.
So there could be no better moment to ask the champion trainer, Nicky Henderson, and three of the best up-and-comers to nominate a horse to follow this season. After all, it is these very horses that might keep them sane.
Nicky Henderson Claimantakinforgan
He was near the top of the novice hurdlers last year and should make a good novice chaser.
Olly Murphy Blazers Mill
We will start off in a bumper before going hurdling. His point-to-point form in Ireland is good and he will want some cut in the ground. I think he is above average and a proper chaser in the making.
Tom Lacey Hazzaar
He is showing us plenty at home and is certainly a horse to keep an eye on. He is by a decent sire in Flemensfirth and will run in a bumper in the next few weeks when the ground eases.
Ben Pauling Nestor Park
He has had some very good bumper form before going slightly over the top towards the end of the season, as he was a big weak youngster. I think over two-and-ahalf miles on soft ground he could be top class.