Ireland’s 26 racecourses are keeping a close eye on British racing’s spiralling ‘affordability checks’ controversy and its potential for a major impact on vital media rights income here. Media rights revolve around the sale of TV and streaming pictures and are worth close to €47 million per year to Irish racing. They are the biggest source of income for racetracks, and their sale is handled by Horse Racing Ireland’s media rights committee. The current deal with Sports Information Services (SIS) and Racecourse Media Group (RMG) runs to the end of 2028. Negotiations on any new contract are expected to start towards the end of the year.The current deal includes turnover criteria in terms of how much races generate in betting business. A slide in betting on racing generally has hit the revenue levels of tracks here, with some coming under increasing financial pressure.Now, proposed financial checks on online punters by Britain’s Gambling Commission are forecast to cost the sport there up to £250 million (€290 million) over the next five years. British racing is funded by a levy on betting profits of gambling companies and the prospect of punters having to supply sensitive financial documents to satisfy they aren’t problem gamblers opens the prospect of customers moving their betting to the black market.There has been rare unanimity in the cross-channel racing and betting industries that the new checks – officially called financial risk assessments – could devastate betting on racing generally, including Irish racing, as well as having an impact on media rights value.The sector here will receive €79.3 million in State support this year, but media rights are a significant revenue stream and any decline in that could prove a considerable problem. The British Horseracing Authority has been hugely critical of the proposed new checks, highlighting how efforts to address problem gambling could have serious unintended consequences on the sport.BHA chief executive Brant Dunshea described the measures as “self-harm on a grand scale” and warned that punters face “unwarranted levels of intrusion.” Top trainer John Gosden dismissed the Gambling Commission as an unqualified quango and criticised the British government.With so much in flux, the Association of Irish Racecourses is keeping a watching brief despite reports that track closures could eventually be a consequence of affordability checks. “It’s obviously something we’re looking at,” said AIR chief executive Paul Hensey on Sunday. “We are halfway through our current deal. That deal saw some change in our payment methods, more of a performance and turnover based deal. Over the last couple of years, we’re getting a better understanding of what that means for different tracks.”He was reluctant to comment on the possibility of track closures, but previously commented on the pressures tracks are under. “Media rights have plateaued and are on the decline and that’s certainly had an effect,” Hensey said last year.On Sunday, he said: “The current deal is a very good deal with minimum guaranteed payments in it. From that point of view, we’re very happy with the deal we have, at the moment. Obviously, we’re keeping one eye on what’s coming down the line and what the next situation may be.”Thesecretadversary scooped top honours in Deauville with a brilliant front-running success in the Prix Jean Prat. Photograph: John Walton/PA In other news, there was an Irish 1-2 in Sunday’s Group One Prix Jean Prat at Deauville, although it was Thesecretadversary that made all the running to beat Aidan O’Brien’s favourite True Love in the seven-furlong contest. Under a superb Christophe Soumillon ride, Fozzy Stack’s Jersey Stakes winner settled perfectly and dominated from the front. True Love closed the gap at the line but the 1,000 Guineas winner ultimately came up short. The French 2,000 Guineas winner, Rayif was out of the frame. It was a first European Group One success for Stack. The Tipperary trainer’s only previous top-flight success came three years ago when Aspen Grove won the Belmont Oaks in the US.“Christophe was very good. We were worried there was no pace and he said ‘I think I’m going to make the running.’ It all worked out,” said Stack.It completed a notably successful Group One weekend for Irish-trained horses as Donnacha O’Brien’s Comanche Brave landed Saturday’s July Cup in Newmarket.Killarney’s five-day July festival gets under way on Monday and starts with a juvenile maiden with a pedigree of throwing up future classic winners. Last month’s Irish Derby hero Benvenuto Cellini broke his duck in the race a year ago, while the subsequent Epsom Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck scored in 2018. Their trainer, Aidan O’Brien, runs both the newcomer Capability Brown and Oklahoma this time. Oklahoma is a brother of Hawk Mountain and made a promising debut at the Curragh when chasing home stable companion Giant Sequoia. Paddy Twomey’s newcomer in a later three-year-old maiden, Sea Of The Celts, holds an entry in next weekend’s Irish Oaks. If that’s realistic the 82-rated White Sand Beach could find herself vulnerable.