THE five racecourses which rejected the SIS/RMG media rights deal on Tuesday have appealed to the Minister for Agriculture to help them secure their own deal with a rival broadcaster.

Under the banner of United Irish Racecourses (UIR), the quintet of Kilbeggan, Thurles, Limerick, Sligo and Roscommon broke rank at Tuesday's extraordinary general meeting of the Association of Irish Racecourses by declining to go along with the other 21 tracks who voted to accept the new five-year deal from SIS/RMG which is said to be worth €47 million per year to Irish racing.

The UIR tracks say the deal is unfair to smaller racecourses and they say that Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) is taking too big a share of the revenue. UIR claims that Arena Racecourse Company has offered its five members a guaranteed €100,000 per fixture in media rights payments and they wish to pursue that offer.

This is the first time that any track has opted out of the deal recommended by the HRI Media Rights Committee and the way forward now is unclear. Under legislation all racecourse media rights must be negotiated by the HRI Media Rights Committee but UIR is challenging the validity of that law.

UIR statement

On Tuesday night UIR issued a statement to confirm that its members had rejected the SIS/RMG deal "because of the inequitable distribution of media rights funding to their members. HRI-owned racecourses look set to earn seven-figures from the deal, with HRI expected to benefit directly to the tune of €7 million."

The statement said that trust between UIR members and HRI has “broken down” because HRI had failed to make good on an undertaking given in 2016 to facilitate an independent review of the allocation of media rights monies and to ensure that all monies derived from that deal would go towards current or capital expenditure. "To date they have failed and/or refused to commence this process," UIR said.

Following today's meeting, UIR secretary and Kilbeggan manager Paddy Dunican has written to the Minister for Agriculture to request his intervention to address their concerns, "so that small racecourses will receive the maximum market value for their media rights."

UIR is also requesting the Minister to review the legislation which requires that all racecourses must have the sale of their media rights negotiated by the HRI Media Rights Committee, which consists of a small number of executives from HRI and AIR. UIR says the clause "is unconstitutional and amounts to an infringement of the property rights of racecourse owners ... This bestows a sole right on the state agency to negotiate the property rights of each racecourse, a position that is constitutionally questionable. Furthermore, there is no appeal mechanism in place which inflicts another injustice on racecourses seeking to challenge their designated allocation of funding from media and data rights."

Sky Sports Racing

The current media rights deal, which expires at the end of the year, is with Sports Information Services [SIS] and Racecourse Media Group [RMG], and it sees all Irish racing broadcast on Racing TV. If the UIR tracks manage to complete a deal with ARC, it seems certain their racing pictures will be carried on Sky Sports Racing, alongside pictures from the 16 British racecourses owned by ARC.

UIR first went public with their grievances in January and details of the ARC offer of €100,000 per fixture became public knowledge in March. Following behind-the-scenes talks in April it looked as if the breakaway tracks could be brought back into the fold in time for this week’s vote which took place in the Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge on Tuesday.

However, on Tuesday afternoon AIR confirmed that five tracks had walked away from the deal. A statement from AIR said: “Twenty-one racecourses have passed the AIR resolutions set out today, thus agreeing to their representation by the association to conclude a deal based on the recommendation of the HRI Media Rights Committee and AIR. Five tracks have rejected the deal. These are Kilbeggan, Roscommon, Sligo, Limerick and Thurles.”

AIR chairman Conor O’Neill commented: “It’s a fantastic deal and I’m delighted for the 21 racecourses who have signed up to secure it today. I would like to thank the Board of AIR and our CEO Paul Hensey for their hard work and support. I would also like to especially thank our former CEO Paddy Walsh who has worked tirelessly on achieving the best possible deal for our members and the HRI Media Rights Committee whose commitment has been extraordinary throughout the entire process.”

O’Neill continued: “Although it's disappointing that it was not approved by all, today is a very positive day for the future of Irish racing, let’s not take away from that. I look forward to continuing our partnership with SIS and RMG for the overwhelming majority of Irish racecourses subject to the approval by the HRI Board on Friday.”

MORE ON THIS STORY IN THE IRISH FIELD NEXT WEEKEND