Newland- Idiotic,Insulting, Incendiary, Interesting and Important.

Dr. Richard Newland’s article with Racingtv was insulting, incendiary, interesting and important. He came across as a Little Englander with a dislike of Johnny Foreigner who automatically assumes that the Irish could not win without cheating (“the Irish ‘advantage'”). The reference to a ‘lack of trust’ in the Irish anti-doping regime makes it clear where he thinks lies the source of that advantage. At no stage does he consider other reasons for the Irish level of success such as better stock sourcing policies, a better funded industry in Ireland, and the benefits that accrue from the need for continuous improvement by trainers in a more competitive racing environment. His ‘solutions’ which included restrictions or banning Irish runners almost seem like a parody.
It would be interesting to know if Newland had direct knowledge of drugs in Irish racing (track or Point to Point). Had he ever purchased horses that he later suspected of having been previously administered drugs?
What is important about his article is that it has reopened the debate on the integrity of racing and put the spotlight back on the drugs issue. He is following in the footsteps of Jim Bolger a man with a very different national outlook, who is the most important trainer to have spoken out on the issue. Richard Newland may have come across as a bit of an idiot but if he helps to bring about an improvement in the integrity of the sport he will have been an important idiot. It is in the interests of the industry on both sides of the Irish sea to restore confidence in the sport and avoid unsubstantiated innuendo against all Irish trainers. Trading insults won’t help but a proper coordinated, well resourced approach to tackling the issue would help.

As part of an article a few years ago (full article at https://www.montjeu.com/racing-to-the-exit/ , I wrote about what I believed to be the solution to drugs in racing. That solution is to focus on information and incentives for whistleblowing rather than reliance on tests. An extract from that article is shown below and I believe it is still relevant.

Drugs/Doping

The evidence revealed in the Servis and Navarro cases showed the extent to which designer and undetectable drugs were available in the US. There are the same incentives to cheat in Ireland and the UK. The drugs can be relatively obtained, often cannot be detected so why should anyone believe in Irish (or UK) horse racing exceptionalism?
Over the past decades we have had eGH (equine growth hormone) EPO, cobalt, milkshakes, micro dosing and God knows what else. The cheaters are usually ahead of the regulators and testers. By the time testing is in place for something, the cheaters will have moved on or developed masking techniques. Our regulators are stuck in a misguided belief that by simply doing more tests, they are doing their job. In truth they will most likely just get more negative results as the testing regime is limited in what it can reveal. An alternative approach is needed, based as much on human psychology as pharmacology.

Catching people requires better information and targeting. Unscrupulous vets and some alternative practitioners (such as John Warwick) seem central to some of the cases that have been uncovered. Some actions that should be undertaken include

  1. Target trainers who utilise these vets/practitioners
  2. Look for agreements with the veterinary regulators that would see severe penalties for vets who inappropriately supply equine medications.
  3. Proper Data analysis- Identify telltale signs ,perhaps high levels of horses going for long lay offs/fatalities from a stable/ sudden changes in strike rate or abnormal strike rates.
  4. Introduce a focus on non race day testing in pre-training yards and non-licensed yards
  5. The different forms of doping need different approaches. Doping to lose (nobbling) is relatively rare but can still occur. Hopefully the greatly delayed introduction of cctv in racecourse stables will help with that

All of these changes should help but they won’t be enough.

If you are serious about stopping it, you need much better information and you will have to be prepared to pay for it. Its difficult to see the Gardai in Ireland or the UK police having the powers or resources that allowed the FBI to catch Servis et al. Racing needs to put in place financial incentives to counteract the incentives to cheat. A large bounty (c. 75k+) for each conviction should incentivize some to blow the whistle on what they may know or have witnessed. The culture of omerta might start to crumble. There is rarely honour amongst thieves. It would be the best few million that the sport could spend.


Our testing regime only seems good at catching people who made a mistake over the correct withdrawal period for therapeutic medication. Where our regime falls short is in detecting performance enhancing drugs that are only detectable for a very short window, if at all. It’s worth paying a price to uncover that information, remove the cheats and restore the reputation of the sport.

Racing to the exit?

There is an unusual amount of negativity around racing at the moment with some even questioning its prospects of survival. Optimists will suggest that racing has survived world wars, depressions, recessions and all sorts of upheavals over the past 250 years and it will continue to do so. They are probably right but racing needs to get its house in order.

Below are ten issues and outline solutions to these problems. I will keep my thoughts on racings dreadful environmental record for another post…

1.Small field sizes– Recent stats have shown a reduction in field sizes (although they tend to be smaller in the Summer months regardless). This is more of a UK problem as the less congested Irish racing calendar sees greater demand for starting berths with balloting a regular feature of Irish racing.

Conclusion- fixable (eventually)

This needs

a)better race planning that matches race types to the abilities of the horse population.

b) Britain needs fewer races and to stop allowing the bookies to determine fixtures. The convuluted levy system has the tail wagging the dog when it comes to fixture setting.

c)Prize money and appearance money to offset travel costs could also help.

d) Breed sounder horses….. The reduced soundness of horses leads to a consistent decline on average starts per horse. Germany has a requirement that stallions were sound and never raced on medication (there is a good article on the subject at https://www.thoroughbredracing.com/articles/2147/country-where-stallions-who-have-ever-had-lasix-are-disqualified-breeding/ ) . In the UK and Ireland, breeders prioritise speed and precocity over soundness. We have a host of stallions in the UK and Ireland who do not transmit soundness yet attract three figure books of mares and breeders seem in thrall to first season sires..Racing insiders need to look in the mirror before blaming all of this issue on the fixture setters. When did you last see an advert for a stallion that referenced average runs per offspring? Breeders need to start breeding horses that are good for racing not just the sales ring….

2. UK levels of Prize Money

UK prize money is derisory and uncompetitive globally. It has been for decades. For most owners, horse racing isn’t an investment but a hobby. In terms of Government support, it is difficult to win an argument that more State supports should go to funding prize money for the relatively affluent. In Ireland the begging bowl/special pleading to Government has been more successful on the basis of the importance of the wider industry to the rural economy.

Conclusion: fixable but not readily.

There is no magic money tree to provide more funding for prizemoney- it needs to come from owners, bookmakers, media rights, racecourses or Governments-someone needs to pay more…The UK pie clearly needs to be resliced to see more directed to prizemoney from other stakeholders. No one wants to pay more and previous efforts at reform (in particular getting more from bookies under levy reform) have come up short. I wouldn’t hold my breath expecting change but an improved BHA could deliver on this front.

3. Interference Rules

The UK rules are not fit for purpose and encourage interference. There seems to be little risk of disqualification unless the margin is a head or less.

Conclusion: Easily fixed

Revised guidelines that give the benefit of the doubt to the victim of interference rather than the agressor. Disqualifications and severe penalties for dangerous riding will end this problem.

4. Whip concerns-

Animal welfare advocates view racing as cruel and the idea of using a whip on horses is abhorrent for them. Rebranding as a ‘pro-cush’ sounds daft to many horse folk, but it’s being done to placate a different audience who could do long term damage to racing. Most racing people are perhaps unaware of how some animal welfare groups portray racing on social media (see for example https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/horse-racing/ ) . This is the accepted narrative for many non-racing people. Some US legislators seem open to greatly restricting racing and its worth remembering that greyhound racing (a comparatively similar industry) is now banned in 42 US states over welfare concerns.

Conclusion: Fixable-

It may seem like capitulation to the ‘enemies’ of racing but racing will have to seriously consider banning the whip or restricting its use exclusively to circumstances where a safety issue is involved for jockeys (controlling a wayward horse). From a PR point of view, the whip is ironically a big stick with which to beat racing. Racing will adapt without the whip and life will go on…

5. Declining Attendances-

Lots of tracks have shown declining attendances post Covid. Racing struggles to attract a younger audience and is still predominately a white male sport (pale, stale and male)…

Conclusion: Fixable

There have been lots of reports, marketing plans, committees, taskforces in various countries on this issue. It is a marketing issue- there is a good product (if rip off prices, poor catering, toilet facilities etc are resolved) and racing is a fascinating sport on many layers that can absorb and entertain. There is a glamour and aspirational element to racing that should be utilised and gambling is part of the attraction for many. I wrote about the poor effort at marketing the Irish Derby https://www.montjeu.com/saving-the-irish-derby/ but there are other examples of what can be done to reverse the slide such as https://www.racingpost.com/news/more-than-4000-at-downpatrick-in-midweek-so-what-are-they-doing-differently/568067 . Incidentally, I think the fact that children are no longer allowed to bet on the tote (whilst undertandable) has removed the gateway that started many peoples interest in racing…Bring back underage gambling – it never did us any harm:)

6. Reduced number of trainers– There has been an ongoing reduction in the number of licensed trainers in Ireland. There were 805 trainers in 2007 and we now have 577 (363 public licence and 214 restricted licence). This in itself may not seem like a concern but a wider spread of stables and trainers allow more people exposure and access to racing.

Conclusion: Not so easily fixed.

The desire to send horses to big name trainers means owners are eschewing the smaller trainers who can provide a real personalised service and behind the scenes access. In Ireland we have an unhealthy concentration of resources between Mullins/Elliott in the NH sphere and the O’Briens on the flat. It might be anti-competitive but regulators could look at having a maximum number of horses allowed per stable. The growing concentration of resources with a smaller pool of trainers for me is like the takeover of the retail scene by the multiples and not something to be welcomed.

7. Staffing Issues

Most trainers are lamenting the lack of competent staff, particularly work riders

Conclusion: fixable but not easily

There is no magic wand to suddenly find hundreds of capable and committed stable staff and riders. Accommodation issues compound the problem. Staff shortages are not unique to racing but are now apparent in most service industries. Trainers have improved staff conditions and there is a notable upturn in the wages available but it hasnt solved the problem. Staff can point to anti-social hours and weekend work, the physically demanding nature of the work and the general lack of career progression opportunities which are areas that can be worked on. Stable design and process changes could improve efficiencies as basic stable mucking out and feeding regimes are still labour intensive and little changed in centuries. In the short term bringing in overseas workers seems the only solution and this needs a political will to issue lots of working visas for stable staff. That should be interesting with the current anti-immigration hysteria so prevalent in UK politics..

8. Regulatory/ Structural Issues

In Ireland we still have the private gentlemans club that was the Turf Club (rebranded as the IHRB) running many aspects of Irish racing. It takes large chunks of State funding but is not subject to Freedom of Information legislation and is largely unaccountable. It should be absorbed into the HRI as a first step towards transparency and accountability. I don’t know enough about the BHA to comment on its performance but I’m assuming it is not as bad as Twitter users state but open to improvement on a number of fronts. Racing needs competent leadership in the HRI and BHA and I haven’t seen anything inspiring in either jurisdiction in recent years.

9. Welfare Issues

Images of mistreated/emaciated former racehorses are obviously hugely damaging to the industry. A proper system for rehoming horses needs to be put in place.

Conclusion: fixable but not easily

Animal welfare standards in racing are in general exceptionally high. Animal cruelty cases are rare and not condoned by anyone in the industry. Blanket Veterinary restrictions on racehorses being sent to abbatoirs cause problems with horse disposal. We need to look at how to deal with horses no longer suited to racing or breeding . There have been excellent initiatives involving the retraining/ rehoming of horses and these need to be properly supported. As an occasional syndicate member, I always hope that former horses end up in good homes but it would be preferable if there were a proper industry scheme guaranteeing a proper home for any ex-racehorses. This can be funded by a levy on owners/breeders or perhaps voluntarily supported by one of the super rich people who inhabit the sport. If 3,000 horses were supported each year at a keep cost of c. €5,000 each that would be €15 million per annum which should be fundable by the industry given the importance of this issue in emotional and welfare terms.

10. Drugs/Doping

The biggest single issue threatening the integrity of the sport. The media may have moved on after Jim Bolger’s comments shone a spotlight on the issue but it is still unresolved and corroding the sport. The circling of the wagons and the lack of support given to Jim by his fellow trainers and industry figures was dispiriting. Nothing to see here- please move on seemed to be the wish of many old and young farts in the industry. Doping is not a new phenomenon nor is it unique to horse-racing. Athletics, baseball, tennis and especially cycling seem to be unable to rid themselves of drug cheating. US racing has an even bigger problem as its training regime rely on the use of a range of medications regardless of medical need eg Lasix. The evidence revealed in the Servis and Navarro cases showed the ease with which designer and undetectable drugs were available . Why does anyone believe in Irish (or UK) horse racing exceptionalism? There are the same incentives to cheat as elsewhere, the drugs can be relatively obtained and in many cases they cannot be detected. Why wouldn’t a trainer use them? Why wouldn’t a breeder or consignor give hormones to a yearling to ensure a better price at the sales ring? In both cases you would be very unlucky to be caught and you can usually escape meaningful penalties by blaming inadvertent use/ a mix up of medications or getting your vet to take the rap.

Conclusion: Not fixable but can be improved

Over the past decades we have had eGH (equine growth hormone) EPO, cobalt, milkshakes, micro dosing and God knows what else.The cheaters are usually ahead of the regulators and testers. By the time testing is in place for something, the cheaters will have moved on or developed masking techniques. Our regulators are stuck in a misguided belief that by simply doing more tests, they are doing their job. In truth they will most likely just get more negative results as the testing regime is limited in what it can reveal. An alternative approach is needed, based as much on human psychology as pharmacology.

Catching people requires better information and targetting. Unscrupulous vets and some alternative practitioners (such as John Warwick) seem central to some of the cases that have been uncovered.

A) Cutting out this element of the supply chain would be a huge win.

B) Target trainers who utilise these vets.

c) Target trainers who have sudden changes in strike rate or abnormal strike rates.

d) Look for protocols with the veterinary regulators that would see vets struck off for the inappropriate supply of medications.

e) Look for patterns of horses going for long lay offs.

f) Introduce a focus on non race day testing.

All of these changes should help but I fear they won’t be enough.

If you are serious about stopping it, you need better information. Its difficult to see the Gardai in Ireland or UK police (who haven’t a good record in racing investigations) devoting resources to surveillance or indeed having the powers that allowed the FBI to catch Servis et al.

g) Racing needs to put in place financial incentives to counteract the incentives to cheat. A large bounty (€50k+) for each conviction should incentivize some to blow the whistle on what they may know or have witnessed. The culture of omerta might start to crumble. It would be the best few million that the sport could spend. As Mark Twain said ‘two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead’ and there are nearly always other actors involved.

h) The different forms of doping need different approaches. Doping to lose (nobbling) is relatively rare although in Ireland we are still waiting on CCTV in stable areas ?

Therapeutic use of medication and pain killers is often legitimate and necessary but sometimes abused. Our testing regime only seems good at catching people who made a mistake over the correct withdrawal period for medication.

i) Where our regime falls short is in detecting performance enhancing drugs that are only detectable for a very short window but which leaves long term benefits to the horse in terms of muscle mass or endurance. You can’t test every horse on every day so information is key to dealing with this problem…

‘Saving’ the Irish Derby…

Alan Sweetman is proposing that the Irish Derby should become a 10 furlong race. He argues that it is now a diminished sporting and social occasion. He is right that it is a diminished occasion. He is wrong that dropping the distance by two furlongs will address the problems. The main problems with the Irish Derby lie with the Curragh management. They spent €80 million redeveloping the Curragh but don’t know how to attract crowds.

The Irish Derby as a social occasion has completely lost its way. As a student, I remember attending when it gave those of us in baggy jumpers a chance to admire the well heeled and beautiful. It was the Irish Royal Ascot a place to be seen. That reputation is now gone. Over the past decades we have seen the Irish Derby flip flop between Saturday and Sunday slots and between day time and evening post times. What did all that tinkering achieve?
It was a further mistake to run the Derby at the Curragh during the redevelopment phase. The temporary facilities were more akin to a point to point. It cheapened the brand. When the Curragh reopened, we had long queues that led to a lousy customer experience. Then Covid came along and crowds were banished. The memory of the Irish Derby as a must attend event became even hazier..
Getting the crowds back should have been the priority. Instead Brian Kavanagh stated that €50 is a reasonable admission fee. He argued that it was cheaper if it was booked in advance- so that’s alright then.. Brian should be told that you can charge those premium prices for a premium event but its now just a race with no social element. They are soaking die hard racing fans. They don’t know how to appeal to racing savvy customers or the fashionable set looking for a social occasion.
The Melbourne Cup is a must attend/must watch event despite being a two mile handicap. Crowds attend Listowel and Galway because of the atmosphere- everyone goes because everyone goes. The Curragh management need to get crowds and atmosphere back to Derby. They seem clueless as to how to do so. The great race is not in good hands.

Champions Weekend at the Curragh and Leopardstown have outstanding cards and struggle to breach 12,000 attendees each day. I would like to see tweaks to the cards on Derby Day but realistically these changes will only appeal to a small racing cohort. There is no such limit on what a popular well marketed social event could attract.


The race itself should not be dropped in distance. Dropping the distance will make no material difference to attendance figures and will be throwing away a century of tradition. We have a well earned reputation for producing outstanding middle distance horses and yet its being proposed that we abandon our only Group 1 for colts over 12 furlongs! International participation may have waned in the past two decades but we lived through an unprecedented period of Ballydoyle dominance. Galileo drove much of that domination and that (boring) domination is now over and we can expect competition to increase and return.

Change because of a few unremarkable winners isn’t a good policy. Serpentine, Anthony Van Dyck, Wings of Eagles won Epsom Derbies between 2017 and 2020. You could just as easily argue that the Epsom Derby is finished based on those results…It’s not finished just as there is nothing fundamentally wrong with a 12 furlong mid Summer Irish Derby, that showcases the best of Irish breeding and training.

IHRB’s Curious Accounts

In 2019, the IHRB introduced a 9 stroke limit on the jockey’s use of the whip. This year, they themselves are suffering a beating at the hands of their detractors . They have eventually posted their 2019 accounts and it seems they are intent on giving their detractors more sticks with which to batter their reputation…

  1. The missing €1.6 million:

Their 2018 accounts were incorrect by €1.6 million (in income and expenditure) and had to be restated…….You might want to reread that sentence… It seems extraordinary that an error of this magnitude was not noticed by anyone in the IHRB (or their previous auditors) . The Comptroller and Auditor General has come on board as auditor for these accounts and it would be interesting to know what the staff of the C&AG’s office made of such a material financial mis-statement in a previous set of accounts. The excerpt from the accounts is shown below…

note from accounts

Interestingly, the 2019 accounts were submitted to the CRO a number of weeks ago but then returned for unspecified reasons (but not seemingly the restatement issue).

2.Publicly funded salaries that are being kept secret

Despite being almost entirely dependent upon public funding, the IHRB are not disclosing salary details of senior staff. It is the norm in all public sector bodies (and all PLC’s in the private sector) that the salary of the CEO is disclosed. It is remarkable that the IHRB have been allowed to refuse to disclose this salary by the Dept of Agriculture. The stated reason is due to the ‘commercial sensitivity’ of the information. This is a complete nonsense given that the organisation does not operate in a commercial sphere and there are no competitor organisations to the IHRB. I have no beef with Denis Egan but as someone whose salary comes from the public purse it should be disclosed the same as other public servants. Not disclosing the salary obviously gives rise to concerns that the real sensitivity is the embarrassment it would cause. We already have a situation in which the soon to depart Brian Kavanagh is paid a salary of c €190,000 which is well in excess of the supposed salary range for that role. HRI’s budget is a multiple of IHRB’s, yet I suspect that the salary differential is minimal (if indeed it exists). The IHRB have also been granted a derogation on the requirement to even list the number of staff in each salary band for higher earning staff. Both of these derogations are unacceptable in any public body…An FOI request to the Dept of Agriculture on the lobbying around this derogation would be interesting…

3. The Turf Club (they haven’t gone away you know)

Another interesting element of the accounts is the relationship with the Turf Club. That private members club hasn’t gone away… In 2019, €90,000 was paid in rent and it would be interesting to know why and what was involved in the payments made to and from the Turf Club/INHS relating to the transfer of assets/liabilities (see note below)..

Final Word:

The question has to be asked if Irish racing needs two highly paid (overpaid?) Chief Executives who are funded from the public purse. The accounts of the IHRB show a €2.8 million spend on administration with 33 staff. Rather than attacking Jim Bolger, perhaps a question for the upcoming Dail Committee could be if we need two separate bodies each with their own payroll, accounts functions, legal functions etc ? Why not absorb the integrity function into HRI? The arguments to retain the IHRB became harder to sustain when they seem unwilling to let the taxpayer know what salaries they are paying themselves and when they couldn’t correctly account for what they claimed to spend…..

Book Review: “The Black Horse is Dying” by William Jones

This is an important book. The issue of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED’s) in Irish racing is now a hot topic following recent articles by David Walsh in the Sunday Times and Paul Kimmage in the Sunday Independent. Both journalists have rightly credited the work of William Jones in documenting the issue. William Jones is a former journalist who spent a number of years working with Coolmore before becoming a whistleblower about what he saw as unacceptable practices in Coolmore. These were documented in his first book ‘The Black Horse of Coolmore”, that led to a lengthy and bitter legal dispute with Coolmore.

His second book is especially damning in its portrayal of American racing. Reading the litany of positive tests/infringements in horses with US trainers such Bob Baffert, Steve Asmussen, Doug O’Neill, Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis is both shocking and dispiriting. More concerning is the ongoing medication that is normal and legal within US training circles. A revealing extract from the medication history of seven Baffert horses who died at Hollywood Park, shows just how far removed US training is from the ideal of trainers using just water, hay and oats. He questions what he sees as the hypocrisy of European trainers and owners who follow the ‘when in Rome approach’ and run their horses on Lasix in the States despite condemning their use in Europe.

Lest, we get complacent in Ireland and the UK, Jones details various drug cases that occurred here and the trainers and vets who were sanctioned. He covers the high profile UK case involving Nicky Henderson and the Queen Mother’s horse Moonlit Pass. The book is revealing in highlighting inconsistencies in approach by the Irish authorities. The lack of accountability of the IHRB who are not covered by Freedom of Information legislation despite received c.€9 million in taxpayers money is an interesting anomaly that he raises. The author was instrumental in getting the Veterinary Council to change its rules about having fitness to practice hearings in public. He has been meticulous and no doubt an irritant to the authorities and yet Irish racing owes him a huge debt.

This book is not perfect; it could have done with better editing, the details of his legal battles and the repeat of some of his grievances with Coolmore might have been better left for another work. His belief that the UK administration and testing regime is more effective and impartial than the Irish system is also debatable. His criticism of some individuals can at times seem unduly harsh but he is a skilled polemicist and gets a lot right.

Reading this book it is easy to conclude that racing and breeding is ignoring a serious animal welfare/PED crisis. He covers the unacceptable behaviour of big bookmaker in exploiting problem gamblers and given the reliance of racing on these same bookmakers it is another area of concern. Whistleblowers are rarely thanked for the difficulties they cause those in power. If you want to thank Mr Jones you can purchase his book via Amazon or some independent booksellers. I urge you to do so….https://www.amazon.com/Black-Horse-Dying-Corruption-Exploitation/dp/1838536523

Covid shows the need to plan for Artificial Insemination

Despite the shut down of so many industries, the horse breeding season was able to continue in the UK, Ireland and France. It benefits from its classification as an agricultural activity. Agricultural activity is of course essential to ensure a stable food supply.  However, thoroughbred breeding isn’t about food production and in a possible future pandemic,  travelling thousands of mares to stallions in their own countries or overseas may not be allowed. They say you should never let a crisis go to waste and now is the time to agree on a set of rules to cover the use of Artificial Insemination in horses.  AI is by far the best option to ensure that breeding can proceed as normal in the event of a future disease outbreak (human or animal). The move to AI should also be linked to new stallion book quotas such as the upcoming US limit of 140 mares.

The Benefits of Artificial Insemination

Compared with live covers, artificial insemination offers the following benefits:

  1. Cost efficiencies
  2. Environmentally friendly (transport of a straw versus a mare)
  3. Improved disease control (reduction in animal and human movements)
  4. Improved choice for breeders

With a global pick of stallions, even for low value mares, we can reverse the narrowing of the equine gene pool. It is this narrowing of the gene pool which has prompted the proposed US cap of 140 mares per stallion. The ‘traditionalists’ chief concerns have been

a) the fear of huge crop sizes

b) a reduction in stallion diversity

c) the practical issue that foals conceived by AI are not eligible for inclusion in the stud book

d) danger that new stallions won’t get a chance as stallion semen is used after the death of a stallion

These fears can be overcome. Taking these issues in turn:

a) Huge crop sizes are already a reality (Soldier of Fortune covered 341 mares in 2017 and 261 in 2019). The marketplace will find a level at which demand (finite) will equal the new level of supply (almost infinite).  After an adjustment period, I do not envisage the top stallions greatly exceeding some of the current crop sizes. Better still, a cap can be put in place in terms of the maximum number of foals registered for each sire in a given year. The proposed US cap of 140 is a useful starting point- see my previous post http://www.montjeu.com/140-a-useful-restrictiona-straw-in-the-wind/ for a full discussion on that issue.

b) Available stallion options will increase. To take an example, Irish breeders will have ready access to sons and grandsons of Sunday Silence or AP Indy, without having to ship the mares to Japan or the US.

c) The rules around registrations are not unalterable and previously Kentucky considered allowing AI during a disease outbreak. Faced with the prospect of a dramatically curtailed or non-existent foal crop or a legislative change, what do you think will happen?

d) A rule can be introduced that straws can only be used for 2 months after the death of a stallion. This avoids a situation where Galileo is still champion sire in 2050 🙂

Conclusion

AI works successfully for other horse breeds such as quarter horses. The use of AI, linked to quotas can stop the narrowing of the gene pool. This is what the American Jockey Club is trying to achieve with its cap of 140 mares. Breeding needs to work on its green credentials and the reduction in road and air miles due to the elimination of mare transport will be significant.

Covid has changed everything. However there were previous disease outbreaks such as foot and mouth that also threatened the viability of the current breeding system. We should plan for a new system now before some future disease outbreak threatens the loss of an entire foal crop. Lenin once said “there are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen”. The last few weeks meet that description. AI is still unthinkable for many, but once it has happened, people will wonder what all the fuss was about. The benefits outweigh the costs. The world has changed. Breeding needs to change….