Horse Racing Ireland unveil its five-year strategic plan for the horse racing and breeding industry
Entitled ‘Nurturing Success and Inspiring Participation’, the Strategic Plan 2024-2028 was launched ahead of this week’s Punchestown festival by HRI Chairman Nicky Hartery and Chief Executive Officer, Suzanne Eade.
Spanning the years through to the end of 2028, the strategy’s mission is to protect, strengthen and sustain Ireland’s global leading horse racing and breeding industry. The plan also focuses heavily on HRI’s social responsibility to industry employees, the horses and our environment.
Horse Racing Ireland CEO Suzanne Eade, said: “This strategic plan specifies two clear objectives – to ‘nurture success’ and to ‘inspire participation’. The Irish racing and breeding industry is one of the country’s biggest success stories. The horses owned, bred and trained in Ireland are the envy of the world, and that is a position that we can never take for granted.
“The updated Deloitte report in 2023 demonstrated a 35-fold return to the economy on the annual Government investment. Our goal is to grow this return year-on-year and by the end of 2028 to have increased the industry’s economic reach to €3 billion from the current €2.46 billion. Driving long-term financial sustainability for the industry will stimulate expenditure and achieving this €3 billion figure is very much within reach by maximising all revenue streams.”
As its highest priority, HRI will ensure the racing and breeding industry meets expectations in relation to the safety and care of our human and equine participants. The horse racing and breeding industry is renowned for impacting positively on the environment and HRI’s strategy will continue to deliver on its responsibilities regarding climate change concerns.
“Within the lifetime of the plan, we aim to deliver on big capital projects like a people campus, which will service the needs of the wider thoroughbred industry, and providing a pipeline of future human talent. The plan will grow a sustainable workforce and develop Ireland as a global centre of excellence for industry education and training,” said Eade.
“Furthermore, the exciting development of a new all-weather track at Tipperary Racecourse will create domestic opportunities at all levels of the industry as well as providing the marketplace for Irish racing to grow its annual foreign direct investment, currently estimated to be more than €550m per annum.
“We can expand opportunities for Irish thoroughbreds by growing national and international engagement, targeting new and existing markets.
“Late last year, I was proud to launch HRI’s sustainability strategy - Racing Towards a Better World. Key goals, including enhancing safety and demonstrating in measurable terms a high quality of equine care at all stages of life and improving industry recruitment by raising standards of oversight, training and support, are a mainstay of this five-year strategy.”
Charlie McConalogue, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine welcomed the publication of Horse Racing Ireland’s five-year strategic plan – ‘Nurturing Success and Inspiring Participation’.
The Minister said, “This five-year plan outlines Horse Racing Ireland’s desire to protect, build and sustain Ireland’s position as one of the leading racing and breeding nations of the world. Last year’s social and economic report showed that the racing and breeding industry is a major contributor to our rural economy with a total expenditure of €2.46 billion per annum.
“I welcome HRI’s desire to grow this figure with a plan that embraces a heightened social responsibility to industry employees while expanding educational opportunities across the board.
“Furthermore, I welcome how HRI has developed their Sustainability Strategy – Racing towards a better world and how this is to the forefront of the strategic plan.
“HRI’s continued focus on building on its strong welfare and integrity foundation is crucial to this highly successful industry and I appreciate that this is already well recognised throughout the industry.”