Racing at war as top trainers say they will boycott ITV coverage unless they are paid for interviews

TOP horse trainers have said they will boycott ITV coverage this weekend unless they are paid for interviews.

Racing is at war with a number of handlers – rumoured to include the likes of Nicky Henderson – believing they deserve a financial incentive to speak on camera.

PATop jumps trainer Dan Skelton has said he backs calls to boycott TV interviews unless handlers are paid for their time[/caption]

Trainers who are signed up with the Professional Racing Association, a number totalling 170 and including Dan Skelton, will refuse to talk unless racecourses and media rights companies pay them.

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Stuart Williams, who is with the PRA, said the aim is not to line the pockets of trainers.

They want the money racecourses hold to be shared around and injected into prize money, and other initiatives, instead.

But trainers such as Hugo Palmer and Kim Bailey have hit out at the plans, with the former telling Sun Racing columnist Matt Chapman it is a ‘terrible idea’.

The PRA, headed by former British racing boss Peter Savill, are determined to plough on with their powder-keg plans.

A statement posted on Monday read: “The PRA board met today and reiterated its call for racecourses, RMG and Sky Racing to show that they value the contribution that trainers make to the show, and also to explain why they have so far been willing to pay the jockeys but not the trainers.

“This money will not be going to trainers personally but to the benefit of the sport, including, among other good causes, the NTF Benevolent Fund and Racing Welfare.

“This is yet another example of racecourses taking horsemen for granted as they have for far too long.

“To say that trainers should be grateful for the exposure is both insulting and symptomatic of the imbalance of the distribution of racecourses’ revenues into prize-money which the PRA has been investigating for the past year and which it has found in many instances to be unacceptable.”

Former Gold Cup-winning trainer Bailey said the owners are the ones who should be getting more money.

He said: “We need to promote our sport and we would be lost without any sort of television coverage whatsoever.

“We should be doing everything we possibly can to get the sport out there, especially at the present time when we’re struggling to keep the profile of the sport up, so it’s very disappointing to see talk of such a potential move.

“I have a strong view that racing is not great at looking after many things but the owners are the most important people in the sport and without them we can’t survive.

“We train the horses for the owners, so it should be the owners picking up any money and not the trainers.”