Italian horse-racing responsibility lies with the new Minister – Horse Racing Update
Currently, horse racing is slowly becoming one of the most watched sports around the world. There is an enormous amount of time, money and attention involved in making this sport a success at the national and international level. Italy is one of many countries
where the sport of horse racing has been dogged because of many problems.
Like any other sport in the world, it is the responsibility of the government to make sure that the people involved are provided with all the required resources and that their problems are addressed.
Those at the government level in the country have made this their topic of discussion for quite some occasions and now the new Minister of Agriculture has taken the responsibility of the racing issues in the country. He will be supervising the organization
L’Unione Nazionale per l’Incremento delle Razze Equine or UNIRE, which is the independent governing body of Italian horse racing.
Before leaving the office of agriculture, the former Minister Giancarlo Galan appointed Claudio Varrone as the chairman of UNIRE up to the month of May 2012, as he assigned the duties of the deputy of the chairman to Francesco Ruffo della Scaletta. On the
other hand the new Minister of Agriculture is to be Francesco Romano.
During his third appearance before the Parliamentary committee regarding the troubled conditions of the racing industry, Varrone was reported as saying, “The situation is more complicated because the management of betting is not in the hands of UNIRE, but
the Government. It means UNIRE funding could arrive via a levy, maybe 3-4 %, on all income coming to the Government from lottery games and betting.”
One of the main issues that UNIRE is facing, despite the many others, is the insufficient flow of budgets and cash cut-offs. The racing industry has at many occasions failed to deliver the prize money on time, due to which the punters and all those involved
in the business of horse-racing become reluctant to saddle their colts in the National events and prefer to participate internationally.