Suzanne Eade was appointed chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland last year, becoming its first female CEO.

Chief financial officer since 2015, she became just the second person to take charge of the semi-state body since it was formed in 2001, Brian Kavanagh having served three terms. Kavanagh moved on to take over at the Curragh racecourse.

Eade is understood to be paid €190,000 per year. She was seen as an in-house appointment and, with 171 Twitter followers, she is happy to maintain a low profile.

Her appointment was welcomed by the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association, which had a disastrous 2021, incurring severe financial difficulty since a High Court jury found it orchestrated a defamatory campaign against the Turf Club’s head of security following an anti-doping crackdown.

Whilst Cheltenham 2020 was a PR calamity for racing, much worse was to come as, just under 12 months later, a photograph emerged of trainer Gordon Elliott sitting aboard a dead horse. He was banned for six months.

In December, an independent panel of the British Horseracing Authority ruled that jockey Bryony Frost had been bullied and harassed by fellow rider Robbie Dunne. He was given an 18-month ban.

And last summer the Turf Club (now called the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board), with which HRI has long had a difficult relationship, launched a staunch defence of its record concerning drug testing before a Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food, and the Marine.

The hearing followed interviews with the press in which legendary trainer Jim Bolger made claims about drugs within the sport. Bolger declined an invite to the Oireachtas hearing.

Eade’s greatest challenges, however, may be the maintenance of funding from the state. Irish racing endured a budget blow in October with the Government opting to reduce its funding to the sector by over €6 million.

With a Sinn Féin-led government seemingly odds-on after the next general election and racing hugely reliant on government funding to support prize-money lest it go the way of Britain, Eade, an outsider to racing by her own admission, faces a difficult tenure.

Eade’s appointment echoed British developments in a sense as in 2020 the British Horseracing Authority also appointed a woman in the former Chief Executive of British Cycling, Julie Harrington, to be the new head of British horseracing’s governing body and regulator.

Over the course of a lengthy interview, we discussed all these issues, and much more besides. We began, however, with her own personal backstory.

Prom Proctor & Gamble to racing

Johnny Ward (JW): Tell us about your career before racing.

Suzanne Eade (SE): I left Ireland in the 1990s in a pretty bad recession. If you wanted to get a job here, you had to have connections. I’d be going for a job and people would be saying to me: ‘Do you think you are too well-qualified for this?’ –Aer Lingus and so on, very average jobs. I went to the UK, started humbly working for Gillette, then I trained for an accountant within Gillette. It was a great company to work for. We moved the European headquarters to Geneva. I moved there for a couple of years in the value chain, all the way from production right through to shipping to the customer. 

Then I came back to Ireland. I didn’t want to go back to London. I took a job, which took me between Oral B and Braun in Carlow. That was then acquired by Proctor & Gamble.

I applied for a role of finance director for Boots. I loved Boots when I was in England. Now I was based over here but spent a lot of time in Nottingham. They asked me to look after Central UK, which was a massive amount of stores. It was crazy but great fun.

JW: What were you doing there?

SE: More commercial finance. I was FD for Ireland, but it was about growing things, the retail business in the UK and so on. There were some great things that Boots do really well: loyalty, the loyalty card. They’re famous for their offers.

The euro and pound got very equal, and the phenomenon of Northern Ireland shopping was a thing. Everyone was crossing the border, so I had to work on programmes to readdress that. It was challenging. You had to bring a good price to people in the Republic. The other thing I managed to grow and really enjoyed was the “No7” brand. It very much had a British following rather than an Irish one. We needed an Irish face, an Irish voice. You can’t just impose; you need the Irish voice. Something successful in the UK does not mean it will be successful here, particularly when you have the St George’s flag on it. Sometimes it was very simple and you could look like a genius.

JW: What was next?

SE: HRI came after Boots in 2015. I was in Boots for almost four years.

JW: How did the role of HRI chief financial officer come about?

SE: The idea of being involved in a sport made the job very fulfilling. It had so many aspects to it: a proper CFO role, which allowed you to see everything from start to finish. In the first interview, I was very understated; that was the feedback. Things they would see as problems when they interviewed me, I didn’t see as big problems. When you are working for other companies like Proctor and so on, there were very big challenges in terms of controls but in a semi-state, everything is scrutinised. Proctor are not going to look at things.

JW: How did the interview go?

SE: I wasn’t sure. The second interview was a little different. I was a bit more myself. I wasn’t nervous because I was really happy in the job I was in. It’s different when you are going for a job and you need the job.

Stepping into the top job

JW: There’s a public clamour about high salaries in the public sector. What’s it like going from a good private job? Do you see where the civil service is coming from: they have to have salaries to be competitive?

SE: It depends where you are in your life and career. I knew what I was leaving behind. My concern is: how do we attract the next wave of young people into the industry whether it is HRI, the IRHB or any job? The lockdown people re-evaluate where and how they want to work. There are so many good things about taking a role in HRI. My job is to go racing, to go out and watch sport, a sport that we are brilliant at; it’s not like it’s a sport that we are lucky to qualify for things. We are world leaders.

JW: Brian Kavanagh had a reputation for his global input and stature. You don’t so you had to prove yourself?

SE: Brian has been very good about introducting me to that environment. I’d have met lots of members of the IFHA (International Federation of Horseracing Authorities). The other thing for me is: the UK is a huge market for us. We have to work really well with Britain. Meeting those guys from the Jockey Club and the BHA (British Horseracing Authority) and keeping relationships with them is my primary focus.

The relationship with the BHA is really good. They came to the Dublin Racing Festival. I’ve met Julie Harrington a good few times; she is very honest and open. She has different challenges. She doesn’t have some of the tools we have in HRI to make a difference. Her challenges are different. They are bigger.

JW: How was the CFO role?

SE: I really enjoyed it. I’d a very good technical team. I had to get stuck in. I knew very little about racing. I am learning a whole different wave of things now. I never had to worry about ground before. I had to focus on understanding prize-money, sponsorship, how that all works. 

JW: How did you get on with Brian?

SE: Very well. We always had a very straight relationship. If I didn’t like something he’d know.

JW: Racing was reliant on him to an extent.

SE: Once he knew that I had the role, the warmth he showed to me gave me huge confidence, that he was happy I got the role. He was very genuine about that. He never tried to tell me how to do the job or anything like that. He was pleased that someone from within he’d hired effectively got into the role so that made it easier. The biggest thing for me is when you know you are talking about the industry is that you get it right, even a conversation with you. You know it has a big impact. One of the biggest thing is to have a a good relationship with (the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine), keep them apprised, not disappoint them. That’s a big part of the role.

Doping claims and Dail committees

JW: How’s that relationship? The challenges have been great in a PR sense, almost since Cheltenham 2020; an anti-racing vibe seemed to come in?

SE:  It was a weird feeling back then. The department have been very supportive of horseracing. We deal with mainly the assistant general secretary or the general secretary depending on the scale of the issue, and Kevin Smith, who loves racing. They are very supportive of the big issues. They would also have expectations of what needs to be done. It’s about keeping an open dialogue, not keeping surprises. I don’t mind mistakes; just don’t give me surprises.

JW: Were you taken aback by Minister Charlie McConalogue’s comments about racing sailing too close to the wind at the HRI awards night?

SE: We addressed that in one way to bring him to the Dublin Racing Festival; to see the work that goes on; he spent a good bit of time with Lynn Hillier of the IHRB and John Osborne who is in charge of the racetracks, seeing what goes on day to day at the racetrack. He saw the testing, the care for the animals, and he spent a good bit of time on that. 

I think it was important for him to see that. That he gets that message, day in day out, any racetrack this is how our horses are treated. This is the testing that goes on. It’s not just here or a big day it’s happening. He took a good bit of comfort out of that. I do too. 

JW: There seem to be a lot of people out to get racing. What have you made of Jim Bolger, the Oireachteas hearings and so on?

SE: Integrity matters to me, big time. Any sport that has its integrity questioned you have to fight for it and my job is to make sure that the IRHB is armed with what it needs to do the testing to a high quality. I don’t know why that continues when all our horses are tested home and abroad in the best of jurisdictions, the best of labs; I haven’t seen any evidence of anything that questions the integrity to the scale. What I want is evidence. I want evidence and the IHRB can only do something if there is evidence.

JW: The Oireachtas hearing. Were you fretting? As a racing fan I didn’t know what to expect. We saw what happened John Delaney.

SE: I’ve a great time for Jim Bolger. He corresponds with me about a whole lot of other things. He cares about the sport. I actually thought the specialists gave a really good account; all they can do is say this is what they have done. I think the issue is to address the actions that came out of the Oireachteas report. They are making progress on all of those issues. That is what we need to get done. That is what we are being held accountable for, addressing those issues and I will make sure they happen together with the IHRB. They are on it.

JW: What’s the relationship like between HRI and the IHRB?

SE: I think it’s fine… good. I deal with (interim CEO) Cliodhna Guy most of the time. We work well together. When they are under fire you’d like to think we are there to support.

JW: If you work for the IHRB, you are under a lot of scrutiny right now.

SE: I feel for them at the moment. I want them to be successful. I want them to be world-class. They have also a vacancy at the moment (CEO), a pretty big thing.

Coolmore, Dundalk and diminishing budgets

“Many of those jobs, there is nothing else for those people in their local areas.”

JW: How much of a setback was the budget?

SE: That was tough because one of the things I want to know when something goes in, especially an incentive, I want to know if I can do it the next year. I have a split between what can be spent on current versus capital. I am already restricted anyway. You are begging to keep it. Some of the things we would have liked: going back to prize-money, the middle tier of that; some really good initiatives with industry and education. We will spend everything we got this year. There was probably capital programmes that we will work with the department about to see if we can fund slightly differently.

JW: The Tipperary all-weather track project. What is it to HRI in terms of a priority?

SE: It’s a priority for a number of reasons, both in terms of providing more opportunities down that neck of the woods and days are very long when you are doing all-weather travelling (to Dundalk). It has an opportunity to create more income into the industry through media rights, great viewing globally for selling horses as well. It is a big priority. We are putting a lot of effort into the right solution.

In an ideal world the end of 2024 it’s ready. There are two aspects: getting the track and support for that industry; Tipperary needs work anyway in terms of facilities. Hopefully we will be able to give a better customer experience there even if they are industry people; people who want to see horses. It is a big one, just like the equine centre. We’d be looking for support from government and potentially private parties depending how big we go.

JW: People will say it went there because of Coolmore.

SE: Ah yeah.

JW: That it’s in their jurisdiction, a typical example; why would you put a racetrack there?

SE: When we chose Tipperary, we looked for bids from other places. Others decided it wasn’t for them. I think it will add up for Tipperary.

JW: What happens Dundalk?

SE: It’s doing extremely well. I just see there will be a requirement for more all-weather racing. We have to go through a pretty rigorous process to get this off the ground including a strategic assessment report, which got the go ahead from Department, and now we put forward our business case. There’s pretty heavy lifting in this.

Gordon Elliott’s “moment of madness”

JW: In terms of racing’s image, you are taking over the job at an interesting time. Lots of bad publicity.

SE: I think it depends how much of it hits. You learn from these things. If there is something wrong, we are seen to resolve it quickly and not defend it, which I think has happened. We spoke out against it if we didn’t like it. Am I worried? I don’t like it. It’s not what we need. But we’ve managed to get through it on the back of some very brilliant other things. There has been a lot of progress. People can see how well-cared-for the animals are. Even look at Gordon Elliott. Look at his team, how he produces his horses. He has suffered a lot. I think he gets through Cheltenham, and we move on. I want to move on.

JW: What was your feeling around that time?

SE: I think everyone in HRI, I was no different, were very hurt by seeing somebody you really admire do that. Then like yourself I was thinking: this guy has gone through it, a moment of madness, knowing how much that cut him up. It became his story but that’s not what he’s about. Most people in the industry put the arm around him after a while. It took some people a while to know what he was going through. It was one the worst things that could have happened to him at the time and to the industry.

JW: What did 23-5 mean last year in terms of Irish wins over the British at Cheltenham?

SE: We need them to be competitive. I think they will be more competitive myself this year. We need them to be strong. At the end of the day, there was some mix at Cheltenham: different trainers, jockeys; a lot of Irish-bred horses. It was a tremendous performance all around. It was a full performance. I’d like the Brits to come back again, as they have this year.

State support and Sinn Fein

JW: If there were no government support for prizemoney what would it be like?

SE: We have to make sure as there could be unintended consequences. In racing, betting is a very mature product versus what we are seeing in other areas. It is key. It is so easy to bet on your phone on all sorts of things. Racing is a little different. We have to make sure we educate. The affordability checks they are bringing in, we will see how that works. I don’t like to see people getting into debt for any betting. There is a responsibility too.

JW: How beholden are we to the government’s money every year? Are we to become self-reliant as Brian said we needed to be to some extent?

SE: I think we are very dependent on the funding. It’s a massive stimulus for the rest of the indusry. Without that funding we’d be challenged. People are consuming it in all different ways and places depending on where they are based. We have to have that funding.

JW: Sinn Fein is seen as cold towards racing. How worried are you about left-wing government?

SE: I think the good thing about Sinn Fein, certainly all the interactions I’ve had, is transparency. The biggest thing for us is to be very transparent: where the money is going, what is the impact of the money. This is a massive employer in rural Ireland. Unless they don’t have an interest in that area.. we have to make sure they stay interested in racing. It’s a massive employer. Many of those jobs, there is nothing else for those people in their local areas. It’s a global industry we’ve a massive reputation for. It’s about engaging with them and transparency.

The future of betting

JW: What about the funding of racing through betting? Racing’s an increasingly small part of the pie. Betting shops are struggling.

SE: One thing that held up during the pandemic was streaming. The interest in the Irish product is massive. The betting shops are a different scenario. They did somewhat bounce back but it’s that people are consuming it in a different way.

JW: The last media rights deal people will say we did well. What about the next one?

SE: We are obviously in the middle of that and I can’t say too much but I would say the Irish product is very sought after, very sought after.  There are a lot more things I want us to consider, you have a clear criteria as to what is important. Finance is one of them but there are other things you want to make sure you mantain. You are going to be in this deal for a few years.  

JW: Do you think racecourses are happy as things are at the moment?

SE: I think they are very happy with how they came out of the pandemic, two years of little or no attendances. The larger tracks were worst hit. They went through some tough times. I’d say they’d be fairly happy.

JW: What about on-course bookmakers?

SE: It would be awful (if they went). It is our job to get people back racing. People love engaging with bookmakers. And with the Tote. I’ve a special interest to make that attractive to people.

JW: Is there scope to improve the Tote?

SE: We are working hard. It is challenging. People want to do things on their phone, do things a different way. 

JW: It was notable that before Boodles sponsored the Gold Cup tomorrow, Cheltenham had been struggling for a sponsor.

SE: I want to make it more attractive to good sponsors. People have to care about their brands. In Gillette, Thierry Henry was an ambassador, Tiger Woods was an ambassador, and the only one who didn’t get into trouble was Roger Federer. I’d people writing to us saying: ‘I’d never buy a razor again because of what this lad did against Ireland’. Tiger Woods was a different ball game. You get that. Brands are very sensitive about their image. 

Boodles is a fabulous brand. There’s no doubt Rachael Blackmore subliminally had a role in that. Suddenly you’ve a role model who made the sport seem inclusive. Their customers can relate to her. It all comes together.

JW: How important was she?

SE: She was vital. There are people who like racing, those who are agnostic and people who don’t like racing. What she managed to do was to grab some of those agnostic people and bring them on the journey and say: ‘this is a cool sport, look at what this Irish woman did”. For her to win the BBC Sports Personality’s World Sport Star of the Year was unreal. She was in the news everywhere. She put racing in the spotlight for all the right reasons. She doesn’t get any favours. She has to fight on her own merits.

Sexism in racing

JW: Have you experienced sexism in racing?

SE: I’ve never suffered that. I wouldn’t look out for it either, “did he say that?”, and so on. Apart from the good girl comments you get, that’s more to do with age. It’s pretty equal. What you want to make sure is you get more women and more diversity into the organisations that make the decisions. Across sport, we need to get better at women taking roles that they can make a difference. I’d say there are some male-dominated sports where you won’t see it for a long time. I didn’t see it as a thing getting the job that I was a woman. I remember somebody asking me before did I get a role because I was a woman. I know there were times before when I didn’t get a role because I wasn’t a man but I never felt in racing that it made any difference.

The future of racing

JW: Why did you expect the job? Did you envisage five years ago becoming CEO?

SE: No. I suppose I was encouraged to go for it. It’s a pretty good team to meet, the people I have on my team now. I didn’t know if I wanted the whole… suddenly you are in the newspaper, you are called “Eade”. And I’m thinking: ‘It’s a married name, I should never have changed my maiden name’. People writing about you who don’t know you. I also have other priorities. My dad died a couple of years ago and my mam is on her own; she needs help as she has dementia. I always said, can I give it everything it needs? So far it’s fine. One day a week I have to do family stuff.

JW: Was it a rigorous interview process? People will say ‘it was an inside appointment, she had the job anyway’.

SE: Jesus no, I put a lot of work into the interview because of the differences in the job I had and the job I stepped into. You have to be much more a “me” person. I’m not wired that way. I was much more about a team. You had to put yourself forward. “Yes I can do it, this is my vision, this is why it is going to work out.” That was hard work for me.

JW: What challenges have you?

SE: Keeping the funding growing. Keeping young people in the industry, should people stay in the industry? Making sure the career paths are there. We put a big emphasis on industry standards and developments, we have an industry and education wing that ensures people have a long-term future.

JW: What are your personal ambitions?

SE: I want to make sure this industry is thriving when I finish. Racing is an incredible asset to Ireland.

JW: How big of a pain has Brexit been?

SE: Brexit unfortunately has caused considerable logistical and financial issues for racing and breeding, with additional costs, paperwork and planning around horses’ movements that at one point were seamless. People have just had to get on with it and it is a good time to pay tribute to the professionalism of the shippers, consigners, people working in ports and the people in the Department of Agriculture. We’ve lost the Tripartite agreement. We still work with them today, the EU Commission and the EU colleagues. We are co-operating with Britain. Our aim is to lessen that burden both administrative and cost-wise for the industry.