Paying trainers for interviews is mad – as Hugo Palmer tells me – but here’s a cheeky look at who could charge what

CLASSIC-winning trainer Hugo Palmer has broken ranks and declared the concept of trainers being paid for TV interviews as a ‘terrible idea’.

Respect, Hugo. Respect.

PA

Michael Owen’s trainer Hugo Palmer thinks it’s ridiculous trainers should get paid to give interviews[/caption]

For those of you that don’t know, a group of trainers – currently unknown but definitely including Dan Skelton – want to be paid for TV interviews during race meetings.

I know, I know. Bonkers. But that’s the truth.

If only trainers knew how I often have to beg – on many different shows – to get them airtime and, in general, promote their business.

Yes THEIR business.

Palmer contacted me after he read a message I put out on X, formerly known as Twitter, over the issue.

“Just read your tweet about trainers’ interviews – you are totally correct,” Palmer said.

“This is an awful situation and a terrible idea. We, as trainers, have an interest, some would say a duty, to do our best to promote the sport.

“We also need to promote ourselves! There are plenty of trainers who pay PR agencies to promote them and get them airtime which rather contradicts this idea doesn’t it?!

“Dan Skelton saying ‘the vast majority of trainers are behind this’ is totally incorrect.”

The trainers gagging for the cash are part of former BHB chairman Peter Savill’s breakaway group the Professional Racing Association (PRA), which has said the boycotting of interviews is not an “idle threat”.

The PRA has contacted media rights company Racecourse Media Group (RMG) on behalf of its membership, which it claims numbers more than 170 and includes many leading jumps trainers, asking for a payment of £500,000 this year in return for agreeing to give interviews from February 1.

The PRA has, we are told, also contacted Sky Sports Racing with a proposal, although it is not known for what amount, while ITV is also aware of the situation.

You might say to yourself that in some sports leading players are paid to talk. It’s the truth.

But racing is different.

Every interview a trainer gives is a potential sell. In other words, it’s their free shop window to promote their stable and their success and allow possible racehorse owners to see their personality and worth.

Imagine any other business that gets free sale advertisements. Every business would bite your arm off for that like a ‘walker’ in the The Walking Dead.

Not racing. Oh my.

Palmer, one of a three-member Presidential Triumvirate of the National Trainers’ Federation, added: “This idea has been dreamt up in desperation as a way to try to fund the PRA. It’s so appallingly naive – if media companies agreed to it, surely it would just be sliced off their media rights budget which in turn racecourses would slice off prize money.”

Savill has said that any argument trainers should just be grateful for the exposure was “laughable”.

He continued: “Imagine a movie producer saying to Leonardo DiCaprio that we won’t pay you, you should be grateful for the exposure we provide.”

With respect, what utter codswallop.

If DiCaprio wasn’t paid he gets nothing.

Trainers are already being paid by owners. Most of the income a trainer has is from the people who send them a horse, in general around £25,000-£30,000 a year per animal.

If just one person watching an interview with a handler eventually sends them a horse, then I think it’s fair to say it was worth the chat!

Paying a trainer to talk about the sport which allows them to exist is clearly crackers.

But just imagine it happens. Presumably if they are paid, part of the contract is that trainers will tell us what we want to know.

And equally would you pay them all the same? A sliding scale for good talkers?

So what would you pay for who?

If the maximum was £100 per interview, here are a few suggestions:

-£5 George Baker. Pays the interviewer for bigging up new Epsom yard and Bahrain.

£5 Dave Evans. Doesn’t really enjoy interviews. Risky!

£30 Rebecca Curtis. No reason needed.

£10 Jamie Osborne. But agrees to inform us which horses he is getting handicapped for Racing League.

£50 Stuart Williams. Promises to give out the one juvenile he will land a punt with on debut in the season ahead.

£100 Chris Gordon. Consistent visits to Ofcom. But entertainment value high.

£75 Charlie Appleby. Tells us the best Godolphin juvenile before they run.

£100 Aidan O’Brien. Reveals which of his runners this year will be the best he has ever trained.

£100 Ralph Beckett. Stable tour and political views crucial for certain podcasts.

£100 John Gosden. Regular fee to talk on anything going wrong in racing.

£20 Robert Cowell. To comment on his continued efforts to look like Bob Baffert.

£10 Charlie Fellowes. To talk about George Scott.

£10 George Scott. To talk about Charlie Fellowes.

£50 Nicky Henderson. For daily updates on Constitution Hill’s dinner plans.

£100 Paul Nicholls. To consistently tell us how good Dan Skelton is and how glad he is that he’s going to become champion.

£100 Sir Mark Prescott. Informs all on the horse or horses he ran over 7f as a juvenile, who are now chucked in the handicap and will run up a sequence over 1m6f as a three-year-old.

£100 Willie Mullins. But has to give away exactly which horses run in which novice at the Cheltenham Festival.

£75 Gordon Elliott. To declare Brighterdaysahead only runs in the Mares.

£50 Dan Skelton. On ulcers. And to tell us what he learnt from Paul Nicholls.

Imagine training for a syndicate. Lots of your owners – many elderly who can’t make it to the track – are watching their horse from home or work.

They hear nothing from their trainer on TV after a win because the handler wants to be paid to talk.

Yep, that’s the way to promote the sport and get new people involved. Well done all. Yeeehaaa!

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