Trainer Ed Vaughn has announced his decision to quit training later in the season, in what comes as a huge shock to the racing world.
The handler, although having only 25 runners in training, has acquired a lovely team of runners that have gone on to win Group and Listed contests since he took out his license in 2004.
However, he feels it is now time to hang up his boots in England due to the current economic climate seeing prize money in Britain fall dramatically.
He said: “I haven’t just woken up and decided to do this. It’s been on my mind for a while and now seems the right time to finish up training here in the UK.
“As everyone is aware, with the reductions in prize money and the cost of running a business being so high, the economics of training in Britain are not good. I’m taking this decision now because I can see things getting worse in the next year.
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“I wouldn’t rule out training elsewhere, but with 25 horses, as we have here, I just don’t see a future for doing that in the UK because I think things are going to get very tough when we are already in the situation where we have prize money that hardly covers the cost of keeping a horse in training for a month.”
Vaughan has not ruled out carrying on training horses in a different country but for now in Britain will be finishing this season and getting rid of his trainers license.
He has based a part of his business model on trading horses abroad, in particular to Australia through his association with bloodstock agent Paul Moroney and that could see him carry on down under.
He added: “I’ve trained horses here to continue their careers in places like Australia after putting a European-style base to their training, and they’ve gone on and done very well down there, winning several races and some of them won over $400,000.
“I have a good idea of the type of horse that’s required and the level and style of racing you need for various jurisdictions. We’ve also done well selling horses to Hong Kong and America.”