Charlie Brooks Shrinking prize pot puts marriage at risk

Word is leaking from the world of divorce lawyers that the lockdown is going to be very good for business. Apparently the rush to the courts is going to make the usual post-christmas and summer vacation separation spikes look like a baby shower.

And to that lockdown list you can add the fall-out between the racecourses and the Horsemen’s Group. The Horsemen want to know how much racecourses are receiving from the sale of media rights; not unreasonable, they say, because without their horses the amount would be zero.

And they feel the racecourses are being less than transparent about how they spend that money. In particular, they want to know what percentage is being put into prize money.

Prize money in this country has never compared well with the rest of the world, and has collapsed further since the virus ruled out crowds, which has had catastrophic consequences for the racecourses’ balance sheets. The gut-busting efforts to get racing back on the road are a cash-negative operation, but the racecourses are giving it a go because they are “in it for the long game”.

So, the racecourses are fed up with the Horsemen’s whinges and maintain more than enough information is in the public domain, either via the steering group which the Horsemen are part of, or the racecourses’ published accounts. They also maintain that much of the media rights information is commercially sensitive and competition and cartel rules forbid them from releasing it. I also suspect they think the Horsemen do not need to bother their simple heads with such matters.

Maybe I would not make a very good marriage guidance councillor?