All industry participants should have an awareness of NZTR’s General Trust Fund - sometimes referred to as ‘the injured jockeys fund’.  In brief, the purpose of this fund is to provide grants to licenceholders when injury, illness or other adversity creates financial difficulty.  Recently, the policy was extended to support people who suffer financial hardship whilst undergoing recognised drug or alcohol rehabilitation.

In the season to July 2022, the Trustees provided 164 grants totalling $164k, a 231% increase over the previous year.  The increase was principally due to 107 loss of earnings grants paid to jockeys who were unable to earn racing income because of the effect of government’s regional travel restrictions on them or because of self-isolation requirements.

The breakdown for last season and the two previous is provided. 

The reason for the increase in loss of earnings claims from FY20 to FY21 was mainly driven by increased awareness of the GTF and a more proactive approach by NZTR in contacting jockeys or trainers who are known to have been injured (as further explained below).

About the NZTR General Trust Fund

The General Trust Fund (GTF) is special purpose NZTR retention currently maintained at more than $1.2m, which is governed by three Trustees in accordance with a published policy which is regularly reviewed.  While the Trustees will change from time to time, at present these are John Rattray (Chair), Cameron George and Jason Fleming.

Applications to the GTF may be made by licenced participants by submitting the required form and emailing to office@nztr.co.nz. 

Though more correctly described in the policy, the two main categories of grants are either for ‘loss of income’, or for reasons of financial hardship in light of serious illness, lifelong injury or due to death.  Typically, loss of earnings grants are provided for injured jockeys to assist them financially, because as independent contractors they have no income for the first week or injury before ACC payments may commence (a situation not faced by injured employees who would be paid sick leave). 

So where do the GTF funds come from? 

• The majority of the funding is from NZTR contribution from jockey or trainer fines received.
• In recent years, Al Basti has made significant contributions as part of the prevailing sponsorship arrangements with the NZ Jockeys’ Association.
• Interest earned on the Trust’s capital.
• Occasionally this fund is assisted by private donations or bequests which are warmly welcomed.

That $240k was added to the fund in FY22 season from above sources was partially driven by timings of payments and more typically, incoming payments would be less than $100k.