Racehorse TALK

Respected bloodstock agent Brett Howard has noted the lack of Aussie bred stayers in the running for this year's Melbourne Cup and offers his thoughts.

Brett Howard - Right now I'm looking at the market for next Tuesday's Melbourne Cup and there is not one Australian bred horse amongst the top twenty horses in the betting. I ask the Australian thoroughbred breeder, how does this make you feel?

Is this a reflection of our inability or lack of interest to breed a superior staying horse? Is it something we should be concerned about? Is this just an "abnormal” year? Should we just continue to focus on breeding fast precocious two-year-olds and sprinter/milers? Can we apportion some of the "blame” to the Australian trainers and owners for "pushing” their Australian bred staying horses too hard too early in their careers? Or should we just worry about breeding the winners of the other 19,999 races run in Australia each year, rather than attempting to breed the winner of our greatest race?

The Australian breeder has proven beyond reasonable doubt to the rest of the world they can produce a superior sprinter, but while we've been pouring all our energies into achieving this feat, I feel we've definitely taken our eye off the ball in regards to breeding the superior stayer. In the past we've relied heavily on the New Zealand breeder to plug this gap, however, due to a lack of new investment by the Kiwi breeders into new stallion prospects and new broodmares over the past twenty years and a large number of their promising types being sold to Asia, they are now also falling behind in this area. There are three NZ bred horses amongst the first twenty in the betting, with Tullamore leading the way at $21.

Should the Australian (and NZ) breeders be concerned that their regular clientele are now taking their dollars to Europe and splurging them on lightly raced and proven staying types? Is this exodus of money likely to accelerate as more and more of these horses hit our shores and win more and more of our middle distance and staying races? As a direct result of these horses are being purchased, could this mean owners will have less money to spend on the Australian and NZ bred yearlings at next year's sales? Is this an acceptable scenario? If your answer is no, are you prepared to do anything about it?

At present the commercial breeder knows it's safer to breed a well muscled, precocious 2yo sprinting type to sell as a yearling because the Australian trainers are paying you more money for yearlings with this physique than a yearling that's immature, leggy and going to need some time. It's definitely a catch twenty-two situation.

Does the Australian breeder accept this is their plight and just sticks to what they currently do very well, i.e. breed Golden Slipper winners and Champion Sprinters? But can we afford to ignore the following facts? The information is a little dated (2009/2010 season) and looks at the top fifty Australian races based on prize money:

1) 5 of the top 8 races (62.5%) are run at distances beyond 1600m.

2) 17 of the top 50 races (34%) are run at distances beyond 1600m.

3) $22.2 million of the $47.86 million offered (46%) is for races run beyond 1600m.

You would assume most racehorse owners are aspirational. When they purchase a young unraced horse their dream would be to have a runner in these top fifty races. As it stands the Australian and NZ breeder is clearly not capable of catering to their clientele's needs or wants, so it is only natural their clientele will look elsewhere to fulfil them, hence, their ever increasing forays into Europe.

Personally it is my belief that the Australian breeder can produce a superior stayer – if they want to. He is probably going to hate me for giving him up however I know of one Aussie breeder who is actually happy to breed and race a stayer and has definitely been a beneficiary of the present status quo. Have a look at some of the horses he has been involved in breeding and racing; Southern Speed (pictured Taron Clarke Photography) (Caulfield Cup), Rebel Raider (VRC Derby, SA Derby), Gold Guru (AJC Derby, Australian Guineas (2000m)), Serious Speed (Thousand Guineas, 2^nd VRC Oaks), Devil Moon (Turnbull Stakes and over $1m earnings), Gallant Guru (Sandown Classic, $800,000+ earnings), Shamoline Warrior (Norman Robinson Stakes), plus he's got Perfect Punch going around in this Saturday's VRC Derby. If suddenly more breeders were prepared to follow Harry's lead, then due to increased competition, his results may not be as great. However, if no one wants to change the ir approach, his horses will continue to claim some of Australia's biggest staying races.

If our breeders are prepared to produce a better class stayer, one already proven approach is to import more breeding stock from the Northern Hemisphere (USA and Europe primarily). The results these imported mares continually rack up are simply outstanding. Just have a look at last Saturday's Cox Plate, Australasia's premier middle distance race, where 40% of the Australasian bred runners were out of imported mares: Helmet, King's Rose, Avienus, Wall Street and Rekindled Interest. In recent times US bred mares have produced the likes of (in alphabetical order) Absolut Glam, All American, Alverta, Anabandana, Exceed and Excel, Foxwedge, Gallica, Hellenus, Hot Snitzel, Irish Lights, Makybe Diva, Maldivian, Mentality, Miss Finland, Northern Meteor, Republic Lass, Smart Missile, Swiss Ace, Theseo, Typhoon Zed and Zavite. And then consider our greatest home bred sires in the past ten years are either sons or grandsons of mares conceived in the USA &n dash; Redoute's Choice, Zabeel, Encosta De Lago and Flying Spur.

For a number of years now I have been a regular visitor to the annual Kentucky November breeding stock sales. From the small number of mares Randwick Bloodstock has been involved with importing from the USA, these mares have produced the likes of Hasna (Champion Australian 2yo), Diatribe (VATC Caulfield Cup, STC Rosehill Guineas) and Blue Murder (SAJC SA Derby) (NB: two of these three horses won Group 1 races at 2400m). These three mares were purchased from as little as $25,000 and all were under $100,000. And at the Kentucky sales over the past 2 years we have been able to secure for clients horses from world class female lines including close family relations to Danehill, Last Tycoon and Vindication (Champion US 2yo). Once again these were purchased from as little as $25,000 and all secured for less than $100,000. Some information and pedigrees for some our recent purchases are below.

If we plan to keep Australasia at the forefront of world breeding it is imperative we continue to "invigorate” our herd with these international female lines. Late next week I will again head to Kentucky to attend their breeding stock sales in the hope of returning with a mare or two which in time will see their produce added to the aforementioned list of top class racehorses. If you have a genuine interest in adding an imported mare to your breeding band, I would be pleased to hear from you. There are over 2,000 broodmares and broodmare prospects catalogued for the Fasig-Tipton Sale (6^th November) and the Keeneland Sale (7^th to 17^th November). The catalogues can be downloaded from the each sales company's web sites as PDF files or if you would like hard copies please let me know and we will organise to have the catalogues posted to you ASAP. It is also worth noting the Aussie/US Dollar rate which looks like be ing at its highest level ever for these sales (today's rate: AUD1.00 = USD1.04).

Unfortunately this week we cannot offer you much in the way of horses for sale – in fact we have nothing left to sell! Over the past few months we've been able to place most of the stock which has been listed with us. It is normal around this time of year for our bank of listings to be very thin, and we would expect from mid-November onwards we will start to get a steady stream of new stock to sell.

Until next time please think about making a contribution to the SOABSF (Save Our Australian Bred Stayers Fund). They currently need all the help they can get.

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