Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer Eugene O’Sullivan says the rising cost of fuel and Brexit is making it tougher for Irish handlers to send horses over to the UK.
The Cork trainer landed a 2m½f contest at Worcester on Monday when Hazran won the Royal Equestrian Bedding Novices' Handicap Chase under jockey Richie McLernon.
But O’Sullivan says sending three horses over to run in England, two at Worcester and one at Cartmel, in recent days cost him £1,000 in diesel and added that unless its price drops, he may have to stop sending horses across the sea to run.
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He told The Racing Post: “I love coming over and I have no problem doing it, but it’s getting very expensive. Brexit has been a big hit for us Irish trainers having horses run in England.
“It was paperwork but it’s diesel too – it’s not as easy as it looks. I had £1,000 spent on diesel between coming to Cartmel and here – that’s a lot of money. We love coming here and if the diesel does come down we’ll be back.”
Hazran's win pocketed O'Sullivan £5,010.32 in prize money but his other runner at Worcester, Dream Getaway, suffered a fatal injury, while Super Citizen only got £508.68 for finishing fourth at Cartmel.
O'Sullivan provided one of the feelgood stories of recent Cheltenham Festivals when his runner It Came To Pass won the Foxhunters Chase two years ago with his daughter Maxine in the saddle.
The victory came 29 years after the Lombardstown trainer won the race with Lovely Citizen and saw the father/daughter team win the National Hunt Achievement Award at Horse Racing Ireland's 2020 Awards.
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