LEADING National Hunt breeder and sales consignor Frank Motherway is calling on race sponsors, racecourses and Horse Racing Ireland to support the idea of rewarding breeders who produce graded winners over jumps.

Motherway owns Yellowford Farm in Killeagh, Co Cork and, together with his son-in-law Conor Cashman who runs nearby Drumlin Stud, sponsored the Grade 3 John & Chich Fowler Memorial Mares’ Chase at Fairyhouse on New Year’s Day.

Included in the sponsorship was a €500 breeders’ prize, payable only if the winner was Irish-bred.

Asked why he included the breeder in the prize pool, Motherway said: “I am on the National Hunt Committee of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association. We have been campaigning for years to have breeders rewarded and almost every week a breeder asks me what are we doing about it. Everyone knows that in France winning breeders receive generous premiums but I accept that is funded by the PMU and cannot simply be replicated here.

When Fairyhouse manager Peter Roe asked Motherway to sponsor the mares’ chase he decided to put his money where his mouth was. “It didn’t cost me anything extra to allocate 10% of the sponsor’s contribution to the winning breeder,” he explained. “I think more sponsors would be happy to include the breeder if they were asked. Even if it was just for graded races it would be a start. Even better if the winning breeder received a presentation on the day. I think any breeder who had a runner in a graded race would go along if they thought that was a possibility.

Horse Racing Ireland should also give breeders’ prizes consideration, he says. “It doesn’t have to be for every race and it is probably more important over jumps than on the flat. A National Hunt breeder is lucky to produce one Grade 1 horse in their lifetime and they should be acknowledged and rewarded for that. There are 50 Grade 1 races across Britain and Ireland each season. Irish-breds might win half of those, so to offer €1,000 to the winning breeder would only cost €25,000.”

Harry Fowler, whose parents are remembered in the naming of the Fairyhouse race, is also a member of the ITBA National Hunt Committee and fully agrees with Motherway.

“We all know how tough this sport is and at the current rate there will be very few National Hunt breeders left to supply the increasingly popular National Hunt racing game which everyone enjoys. Just look at the crowds that flocked to Leopardstown for the Christmas Festival. The National Hunt foal sales are a lot quieter in comparison.

“Very few people want to breed National Hunt horses compared to 15 years ago. We are a dying breed. Frank is backing the idea of breeders’ prizes with his own money.”