ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

On Wednesday morning the last of the six hundred and sixteen two years olds catalogued in the three English breeze-up sales galloped alongside the Rowley Mile. During the sixteen days that have elapsed since the first of that group completed the journey, there have been twenty two juvenile races run in England and Scotland. One hundred and seventy horses have contested them. It seems that at this stage of the year there are a lot more people who would like to sell a two years old than are paying the training fees on an active one.

The two largest fields were contested in races confined to Bands C and D (a fillies’ race with thirteen runners) and Bands B, C and D (a valuable race with £15k to the winner).

Five of the six fillies’ races have had at least eight runners.

Eight of the sixteen races open to males have had fewer than eight runners.

Every race is a potential opportunity for a first-crop-sire to register a victory in pursuit of the spurious title awarded to the most prolific in his class.

The contentious changes to the conditions of the Windsor Castle Stakes were made in an attempt to improve both the appeal and representation of horses bred for more than an ephemeral career. I think these figures show that there are other levers that need to be pulled. The market place and the racecourse are not healthy if the speculators who are determined to dispose of their “investment” within six months are of greater impact than the man who wishes to risk the commitment by exposing it to the racecourse.

An immediate revision of the programme for juveniles is needed, with fewer opportunities for two years olds at this stage of the season, but more valuably endowed races. It would be far more productive to stage half the number of races for twice the prize money. 

The exacting analysis of the buying bench has once again decided that four of the top twenty lots at the Craven and five of the top twenty at Doncaster were sired by Mehmas.  I offer no judgement on this stallion, merely the observation that he is yet to sire a Royal Ascot two years old winner. The same omission is apparent on Havana Grey’s testimonial, though he only had three lots in that category, seven of his nineteen catalogued at Newmarket made it into six figures.  Unfortunately not the nineteenth and last one catalogued out of a mare called Enough Is Enough. There has rarely been a more apposite conclusion.

British breeding should re-institute the National Breeders’ Foal Plate and the Imperial Breeders’ Foal Plate along something close to their original structure.  That requires an initial payment by the breeder to make his foal eligible, a payment by whoever owns the yearling and a couple of payments by the owner of the two years old.  The prize money is to be split between breeders and owners.  The sales races copied this framework when instituting their tied races, but they pile the entire burden on the owner, which is an interesting way to cater for your key customer.

Making a couple of banner races for British bred two years olds that place the emphasis on trying to breed a racehorse, rather than a sales commodity will help breeder and end user alike.  The exclusion of horses foaled outside these shores should be the first step in trying to re-establish our independent breeders, who are in a perilous position; but we must not try to put a finger in the dyke by encouraging, or rewarding the production of disposable animals of modest quality.  Other countries do a far better job with that.