Trainer magazine, European edition, issue 62 - July - September 2018

ISSUE 62 – JULY – SEPTEMBER 2018 £6.95 www.trainermagazine.com

THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE FOR THE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE THOROUGHBRED

MARKUS KLUG Life smells good for Cologne’s leading trainer

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| OPINION |

GI LE S AN DE RS ON PUBLISHER’S OPINION

s European racing enters into the summer season I thought it would be a good time to profile one of Germany’s leading trainers, Markus Klug, who is sending regular raiding parties of runners across Europe.

Markus, it could be said, has one of the most delightful bases from which to train, just outside of Cologne, where he has the backing of Gestüt Röttgen, a real powerhouse in German racing.

One of the best horses to have come from his yard in recent years, Sea The Moon, also now happens to be a sire at Kirsten Rausing’s Lanwades Stud in Newmarket, and he is already off the mark as a stallion. His progeny are already turning heads on the gallops, and Sea The Moon looks set for a stellar first season on the racecourse.

I also felt that in this issue of the magazine it would be ideal to delve into a subject that has literally taken up forests of paper over the past few years – Brexit! Within these pages, we look at how racing could be affected on a number of different fronts, and we talk to Andy Oliver, a trainer who is literally on the front line, being based close to the contentious border between the North and South of Ireland – which also represents a line between those in the union and those who will likely be outside of it.

No one quite knows what will happen until it happens, but regardless of one’s own political opinion on the subject, we as an industry need to be prepared. Having spoken at length to France Galop’s Paul-Marie Gadot, it is heartening to learn of the efforts the French, Irish, and their British counterpart vets are undertaking to enhance the Tripartite Agreement, which is already in place.

In this issue we also check in with Gavin Hernon, whose training career is about to take flight, and with Ian Balding, who had a long, storied training career, while Lissa Oliver gives us the second and final part of her sales analysis. On the nutrition front, we look at the optimal feeding of foals through weaning. Osteochondrosis and Flat-racing injuries are our veterinary topics.

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ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| CONTENTS |

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CONTENTS F E AT U R E S 10 Markus Klug

56 Elite sales horses – prepared for

24 Injuries in Flat racing:

Lissa Oliver continues her research on top auction sellers’ racing careers, focusing on yearling sales.

Top German trainer Markus Klug in profile,

by Peter Mühlfeit.

nature versus nurture

Research on race day injuries, their heritability, and associated risk factors, by Kristien Verheyen and Sarah Rosanowski.

30 Brexit – how high are the stakes?

their big day in the ring or a career on the track?

62 Should horses be paid to race?

Chris Cook examines whether appearance fees are the best incentive to promote a healthy racing environment.

Brexit-related changes may be on the horizon, and Lissa Oliver gives us an idea of what to expect under a new system.

68 Osteochondrosis: genetic causes

38 Brexit interview

Celia Marr looks at how osteochondrosis can be identified and managed early.

Alex Cairns interviews Andy Oliver.

46 Feeding for weaning success

Emma Hardy addresses the best diet to help young foals through to the weaning process.

52 Might technological advance lead to greater international cooperation in racing?

Paull Khan with his regular EMHF report on, after a visit to Korea for the Asian Racing Conference.

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and early diagnosis

56 REGULARS 04 Contributors 06 ETF Members 08 TRM Trainer of the Quarter

@tr ai ne r_ ma g /tr ai ne rm ag az in e /tr ai ne rm ag az in e

72 Starting Out

In his own words, Gavin Hernon is about to embark on his training career.

74 Hindsight

This quarter we take a look back with Ian Balding, by Oscar Yeadon.

78 Product focus

Visiit trainermagazine.com to download the digital edition of this issue.

Editorial Director/Publisher Giles Anderson Editor Frances J. Karon Design ATG Media Editorial/Photo Management Suzy Stephens Advert Production Shae Hardy Circulation/Website Anna Alcock Advertising Sales Giles Anderson, Oscar Yeadon Photo Credits: Marc Rühl, APRH, Alex Cairns, Shutterstock, Caroline Norris, Eclipse Sportswire, Sarah-Jane Bullock, The Balding family

Cover Photograph Marc Rühl Trainer magazine is published by Anderson & Co Publishing Ltd. This magazine is distributed for free to all EFT members. Editorial views expressed are not necessarily those of the ETF. Additional copies can be purchased for £6.95 (ex P&P). No part of this publication may be reproduced in any format without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Printed in the European Union For all editorial and advertising queries please contact: Anderson & Co. Publishing Tel: +44 (0) 1380 816777 Fax: +44 (0) 1380 816778 email: info@trainermagazine.com www.trainermagazine.com Issue 62

ISSN 17580293

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Alex Cairns is a horse racing writer and photographer. He previously worked for the KRA as English Editor and International Liaison and is now based in his native Northern Ireland.

Celia Marr is Editor-in-chief of Equine Veterinary Journal and also works as a Specialist in Equine Internal Medicine based at Rossdales Equine Hospital and Diagnostic Centre in Newmarket.

Chris Cook has written about horse racing for The Guardian for 12 years, having been in love with the sport since the age of seven, when he stumbled across it on ITV one Saturday afternoon. He has twice won the John Oaksey Trophy for Racing Reporter of the Year.

Dr Emma Hardy has been European Marketing Manager for Freedom Health LLC since joining the company in 2009. She is a member of the British Society of Animal Science and is a registered Animal Technologist. Emma achieved her undergraduate degree in BSc Equine Sports Science (1st Class Hons) in 2003 from the University of Lincoln, then went on to be accepted onto a Research Internship with Kentucky Equine Research, USA. Following her return, she undertook a Doctor of Philosophy researching equine myopthies, with particular focus on aberrant protein expression in skeletal muscle and erythrocytes.

Gavin Hernon is an aspiring young trainer in Chantilly, France.

At the age of 16, Gavin flew the nest of the family’s stud farm in north Cork on an adventure that would see him under the direction of Jim Bolger, Andre Fabre, Nicolas Clement, Ed Dunlop and Graham Motion. Gavin also acts as the French representative for Goffs.

Kristien Verheyen graduated as a vet from the University of Ghent, Belgium, in 1995. She joined the Epidemiology Unit at Animal Health Trust (AHT) near Newmarket in 1997, working on equine infectious diseases and being responsible for the veterinary care of the AHTs, pony herd.

Kristien joined the Royal Veterinary College in 2005, where she has continued and expanded her research on racehorse injuries through HBLB-funded studies investigating injuries in National Hunt racehorses in training, joint injuries in Flat racehorses in training and raceday injuries in Flat racing. Her latest project, funded by the Racing Foundation and HBLB, will be investigating causes and risk factors for wastage in young thoroughbreds, and how early life experiences influence health and performance in later life.

Lissa Oliver lives in Co. Kildare, Ireland and is a regular contributor to The Irish Field and the Australian magazine, Racetrack. Lissa is also the author of several collections of short stories and four novels.

Oscar Yeadon Oscar is Publications Manager for Anderson & Co Publishing, as well as a longstanding fan of National Hunt racing. His passion for the sport developed during his time managing racing syndicates and events across the UK, a career path that was not immediately obvious when he obtained a degree in microbiology at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Paull Khan, PhD. is an international horseracing consultant. He is SecretaryGeneral of the European & Mediterranean Horseracing Federation and Technical Advisor for Europe to the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities. His other clients include the British Horseracing Authority. Previously, Dr Khan held many senior roles at Weatherbys, including Banking Director and Racing Director.

Peter Mühlfeit paid his first visit to Baden-Baden racetrack in 1970, the first Arc-winner he saw in person was Three Troikas in the late ’70s. He works for the public broadcaster SWR in his hometown (Radio and Online News) but has been a freelance racing journalist for more than three decades. Peter writes for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the regional paper BNN, the German column in EBN and for the German thoroughbred magazine “Vollblut.

Peter also worked for the BBC World Service for ten years.

Sarah Rosanowski completed her PhD in Veterinary Epidemiology at the EpiCentre, Massey University, looking at the control of exotic disease outbreaks in New Zealand. This project was used to inform the government and industry policy regarding response to an exotic disease outbreak. Sarah moved to the United Kingdom to join the Royal Veterinary College, where she worked for three years as a Post-Doctoral Researcher on the HBLB funded project ‘Nature versus nurture: modelling environmental and genetic contributions to risk of racehorse injury in UK Thoroughbreds’. She is currently working as an Assistant Professor, in the first veterinary programme in Hong Kong, where she works closely with the Hong Kong Jockey Club on projects to reduce racehorse injury.

We have chosen GAIN Freedom to meet the dietary needs of some of our horses, particularly those which have low starch requirements and we are delighted with the results.

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EUROPEAN TRAINERS’ FEDERATION AIMS and OBJECTIVES of the ETF:

a) To represent the interests of all member trainers’ associations in Europe. b) To liaise with political and administrative bodies on behalf of European trainers. c) To exchange information between members for the benefit of European trainers. d) To provide a network of contacts to assist each member to develop its policy and services to member trainers.

ETF REPRESENTATIVES Chairmanship: Guy Heymans (Belgium) Tel: +32 (0) 495 389 140 Email: heymans1@telenet.be

Vice Chairmanship:

Vice Chairmanship:

Treasureship:

Nicolas Clement (France) Tel: +33 (0)3 44 57 25 39 Fax: +33 (0)3 44 57 58 85 Email: entraineurs.de.galop@wanadoo.fr

Christian von der Recke (Germany) Tel: +49 (022 54) 84 53 14 Fax: +49 (022 54) 84 53 15 Email: recke@t-online.de

Michael Grassick (Ireland) Tel: +353 (0)45 522 981 Mobile: +353 (0)87 258 87 70 Fax: +353 (0)45 522 982 Email: office@irta.ie

AUSTRIA

HUNGARY

UNITED KINGDOM

Mrs Živa Prunk Tel: +38640669918 Email: ziva.prunk@gmail.com

CZECH REPUBLIC

Joseph Vana Tel: +42 (0) 6024 296 29 Email: horova@velka-chuchle.cz

GREECE

Aggeliki Amitsis Tel: 30 229 908 1332+ Email: angieamitsis@yahoo.com

GERMANY

Erika Mäder Tel: +49 (0) 2151 594911 Fax: +49 (0) 2151 590542 Email: trainer-und-jockeys@netcologne.de

Livia Prem Mobile: +3630 431 2777 Email: livia.prem@hotmail.com

ITALY

Agostino Affe Email: affegaloppo@gmail.com

NETHERLANDS

Geert van Kempen Mobile: +31 (0)6 204 02 830 Email: renstalvankempen@hetnet.nl

NORWAY

Are Hyldmo Mobile: +47 984 16 712 Email: arehyldmo@hotmail.com

www.trainersfederation.eu

Rupert Arnold Tel: +44 (0) 1488 71719 Fax: +44 (0) 1488 73005 Email: r.arnold@racehorsetrainers.org

RUSSIA

Olga Polushkina Email: p120186@yandex.ru

SLOVAKIA

Jaroslav Brecka Email: jaroslav.brecka@gmail.com

SWEDEN

Caroline Malmborg Email: caroline@stallmalmborg.se

Looking for Classic winners

www.bbag-sales.de

Premier Yearling Sales: 31st August 2018 October Mixed Sales: 19th and 20th Oktober 2018

| EXCELLENCE IN EQUINE NUTRITION |

TRAINER OF THE QUARTER

PA SCAL BARY The TRM Trainer of the Quarter award has been won by Pascal Bary. Bary and his team will receive a selection of products from the internationally acclaimed range of TRM supplements as well as a bottle of fine Irish whiskey.

Oscar Yeadon aving trained at a consistently high level for nearly four decades, there are few races on the French racing calendar that Chantilly-based trainer Pascal Bary hasn’t won, but his record in the Prix du Jockey Club is second to none.

Since his first Jockey Club win with Celtic Arms in 1994, Bary’s charges had won the race on four more occasions before Study Of Man added a sixth victory

H

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APRH

to the tally, putting Bary’s Jockey Club record on a par with that of another major force in French racing, Alain de RoyerDupre. While no other trainer has won the race as many times in the past 25 years, Bary plays down the suggestion that it’s a race he has specifically targeted.

“The Jockey Club is a great race to win but it’s not one that I have had a real ambition to win over other races. It’s more that I’ve had the right horses at the right time.”

At one stage, the possibility of a sixth win was in doubt when Study Of Man’s connections Flaxman Stable were considering a tilt at the Epsom Derby following the colt’s convincing win in the Prix Greffulhe, a race that was won by Pour Moi prior to his success in the 2011 Derby, with Study Of Man as short as 16/1 in the build up to Epsom, the wider racing fraternity clearly respected his chance in the British Classic.

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LEFT: Pascal Bary, fifth from the right, is Trainer of the Quarter.

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However, Bary had one eye on the future and sent Study Of Man to the Prix du Jockey Club instead.

“At the time we switched to Chantilly from Epsom, he had only run twice this season and was very immature. It was an easy decision to make when you take into account the speed in the pedigree [Miesque is the second dam of Study Of Man], so I didn’t feel it was right to try him over one mile and four furlongs at this point in the season. He’s a very easy horse to train, with a good temperament.

He moves well and can do better.”

For now, Bary has no firm plan to run Study Of Man in the European season’s richest race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, a race the trainer has yet to add to his exceptional record of wins.

“It’s a race I would like to win, along with the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, but while the Arc is an option for Study Of Man, I

BIOAVAIL ABLE CURCUM IN

ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| MARKUS KLUG |

Peter Mühlfeit

Marc Rühl

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PROFILE

B

aden-Baden is a rather small town in the southwest of Germany, close to the French border and at the doorstep to the Black Forest.

But it has groomed its international reputation since the 19th century, when it was known as the “summer residence of the European aristocracy.” These days it is still famous for its spas, the gambling casino, and more recently the biggest opera house in Germany. And let’s not forget: horseracing.

The racetrack at Iffezheim, founded in 1858 by Edouard Bénazet, the French tenant of the casino, holds the premier position in Germany – from an economic, social, and sporting point of view. And it is here where it all started for Markus Klug.

Born in Romania in 1976, Klug grew up in Rastatt – just a few strides away from Iffezheim. The 42-yearold has risen from owner-trainer with just one horse to

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the top of his guild at home, caring for more than 100 thoroughbreds at Rottgen stud, and quickly making his mark overseas as well.

We met at the Spring Festival at Baden-Baden – the first “must do” of the year on the German racing calendar, and a homecoming for Klug, who always seems to have an open ear for the press, unlike some of his colleagues. It turned out to be a rather special weekend for Klug. Not only did he win a Group 3 sprint with one of his favourite horses, Millowitsch, and was honoured as champion trainer in Baden-Baden for the third time in four years, but he also enhanced his international reputation thanks to strong performances of two of his best horses in Epsom and Chantilly.

“I loved to watch racing as a kid in Iffezheim and later started to ride in the morning for trainer Waldemar Himmel,” Klug says about his beginnings. Himmel runs a small yard in Iffezheim but competes rather successfully in the neighbouring France. Horses, however, weren’t the only passion of young Klug. He was a very decent

| MARKUS KLUG |

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PROFILE

| MARKUS KLUG

I’M A STRONG BELIEVER IN GIVING YOUNG, AMBITIOUS, HARD-WORKING PEOPLE A CHANCE, AS I DID GET MY CHANCE AS A YOUNG LAWYER. GÜNTER PAUL

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tennis player in his youth, winning the Rastatt town championships as a teenager against the adults.

But soon the horses took over his spare time. “When we owned our first horse, I started to train it and it was clear to me that I wanted to do something with horses.” But becoming a professional trainer always looked like a farfetched dream. So after passing his A-Levels he decided to study business administration but stopped after two terms. “It just wasn’t for me,” Klug said, but still, he stayed on a supposedly safer track to his future, learning his trade as an insurance salesman.

At the same time he owned a few more horses and did a pretty good job with them. His first winner, Gordian, a four-year-old gelding, came in 2003 on the provincial track of Herxheim close to Iffezheim. He also won races in Austria, Belgium, France, and Switzerland, which is quite unusual for an owner-trainer. By 2009 it was clear to Klug that there must be more to his professional life than selling insurance. He got his licence as public trainer, and then a big door opened for him: “The chance of my life,” as he calls it. Günter Paul, chairman of the foundation MehlMülhens-Stiftung, made the young man an offer, he just couldn’t refuse. “I turned my hobby into my profession.”

The Mehl-Mulhens-Stiftung owns the stud and racing stable of Gëstut Röttgen, one of the most famous and traditional houses in Germany. The stud was founded in 1924

by Peter Mulhens, who made his money with Eau de Cologne 4711. His widow Maria Mehl-Mülhens, who died in 1985, saved the Röttgen legacy by creating the foundation, which apart from racing and breeding thoroughbreds supports horseracing in general, young riders, and helps jockeys who get into trouble due to no fault of their own. The foundation has the lawyer and former president of the highest court in the federal state of Hesse, Günter Paul, in charge.

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PROFILE

| MARKUS KLUG

The beautiful stud is located in Heumar, very close to the major city of Cologne, right in the middle of a forest and fenced off by a large wall. The training track – grass and sand – is 2.5 km long, and the horses have to pass a traffic light on their way from the stables to the working grounds.

Röttgen has a fine reputation in the racing world, famously breeding the first German winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Eclipse Stakes, Star Appeal, in the ‘70s.

But things needed changing in the 21st century, and Röttgen needed fresh ideas. “My friends in the racing world were shaking their heads when they heard that I hired Markus Klug,” Paul said. “But I’m a strong believer in giving young, ambitious, hard-working people a chance, as I did get my chances as a young lawyer.” One of the reasons Klug got the job was the fact that he had started a university education. “This showed me that apart from all

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the passion and knowledge about horses he also has the intellectual capacity to succeed in this job,” Paul says.

Klug did not hesitate to grab the chance with two hands: “I was confident enough that I can do it. It probably helped that we started on a rather small scale.” In 2011 there were only up to 30 horses in training in the yard, mainly owned

by Röttgen. “I guess it was a good thing that we did grow very steadily – 40, 60, 80 horses, and now there are 105.

But this is the limit, we don’t have more space.”

More than half of his lot now are two-year-olds. “This season won’t be easy. Next year will look different,” Klug says. But in public he is always a bit pessimistic – or realistic as he would probably call it. Looking from the outside there aren’t many reasons for black clouds. The only way has been up for him ever since he took over.

Of the first dozen Group races of the 2018 season Klug has won four – albeit partly thanks to the stewards as Wonnemond, trained by Sascha Smrczek, was disqualified after winning the Fruhjahrsmeile and the Europa Meile at Dusseldorf in April. There were traces of cobalt found in his blood after his first win. The runner-up, the five-yearold Millowitsch was one of the Klug horses to profit from the doping incident.

Millowitsch proved his class again at Baden-Baden: “This horse is just plain crazy,” Klug beamed after his charge won the Group 3 Silberne Peitsche. “The colt will always have a special place in my heart as he has never been out of the top four and has won Group races over six furlongs, a mile, and 8.5 furlongs.” Millowitsch is bred and owned by Dr Annika Renz, a very faithful owner for Klug since early on. She has strong feelings for Cologne, as Millowitsch is named after the late Peter Millowitsch, a very popular actor who ran a theatre in Cologne.

There is also Butzje, which translates to “kisses” in the

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PROFILE

local dialect. The three-year-old filly won the Group 3 Schwarzgold-Rennen in April.

Another faithful owner from early on for Klug has been Gestüt Görlsdorf. “It was very lucky that our strategic chance for the stud and racing stable coincided with the start of Markus at Röttgen,” says Niko Lafrentz, the husband of Görlsdorf’s owner, Heike Bischoff-Lafrentz.

“Thinking of the perfect training grounds at Heumar, we decided to fully trust the young trainer. Right from the start he got our best fillies and we sent him Sea The Moon after we couldn’t sell him at Newmarket.”

The gamble paid off, despite a rather critical situation right at the beginnings of their relationship: The four-year-old filly Berlin Berlin passed the post first in the Group 2 Hansa Preis at Hamburg, but tiny traces of a banned drug to help fight a colic were found. The doping tests were not conclusive, but the stewards still decided to disqualify Berlin Berlin.

I’M A VERY EMOTIONAL PERSON, I CAN’T HIDE WHEN I’M HAPPY OR DISAPPOINTED AFTER A CLOSE LOSS OR A BAD PERFORMANCE.

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Klug had to wait a few months before the Görlsdorf homebred Hey Little Gorl finally gave him his first Classic win by triumphing in the Group 3 German St. Leger at Dortmund in September 2013. The filly was an offspring of the famous Röttgen stallion Sternkonig, who died in 2010.

The Görlsdorf filly Wunder managed the first Group win overseas for Klug by taking the Group 3 Prix Chloe at Chantilly in 2014 – the year that really made the trainer, thanks to Sea The Moon. The son of superstar Sea The Stars out of Sanwa, by Monsun, had been the talking horse since he came on the scene as a two-year-old. At three he won the Group 3 Fruhjahrs-Preis at Frankfurt and then the Group 2 Union-Rennen at Cologne, the most important of the country’s Derby trials. So Klug had the clear favourite in the Deutsches Derby at Hamburg-Horn. Sea The Moon duly obliged: under the guidance of Christophe Soumillon, the outstanding colt demolished the Derby field, triumphing by 11 lengths – the biggest win since Orofino in 1981.

That was a performance that put the Görlsdorf colt at top of the ante-post betting market for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Unfortunately Sea The Moon got injured at Hamburg and had only one more start, a second place in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden to Schlenderhanbred Ivanhowe, a multiple Group 1 winner in Germany and Australia (where he races as Our Ivanhowe). Sea The Moon was quickly retired to stand at Lanwades Stud in Newmarket in the UK. His first offspring to win was Must See The Doc at Doncaster early this June.

“Markus does not call you but always calls back,” Lafrentz says about his friend. “It’s sometimes difficult to get him talking about your horses but when he does it is always spot on and straightforward. His memory for race results and pedigrees is outstanding.”

Lafrentz reckons there is plenty to come: “He is still young, needs to gather experience. But there is plenty

| MARKUS KLUG |

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| MARKUS KLUG

of room for further success and that’s why we will keep sending him our horses, and maybe there is another Derby winner like ‘Moonie’ somewhere.”

After winning the Derby in 2014 Klug famously sank on the turf to his knees to celebrate – another trait of his character. “I’m a very emotional person,” he says. “I can’t hide when I’m happy or disappointed after a close loss or a bad performance. That does not mean that I’m a bad loser.”

The year 2014 also marked Klug’s first title as champion trainer, followed by additional championships in 2016 and 2017. “My role model is Heinz Jentzsch,” Klug admits. The late Jentzsch is Germany’s most successful trainer of all time, winning more than 4,000 races, including eight German Derbies, and he was champion trainer an incredible 31 times.

Klug’s tally stands at two German Derbies, three champion titles, and 450 wins through early June, 2018. These are different times with much less racing in Germany nowadays, however, but Klug has become the dominant force in German racing. Some journalists compare him to Aidan O’Brien, and they are right in some ways: last year he had seven runners in the Derby and half a dozen in the Group 1 German Oaks. He won a quarter of all German Group races in 2017.

The biggest triumph, of course, was the Deutsches Derby, and it was very special indeed as the winner Windstoss carried the colours of Gestüt Röttgen. You have to go back to Uomo in 1959, a long time before Klug was even born, to find the last Derby hero from Röttgen. And Windstoss had a very unusual preparation for the Derby: he slipped in a trial at Hannover, and his rider Adrie de Vries – first man at Klug’s yard – broke his finger and was

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out for months. But Windstoss did compete again a week later in the Group 2 Oppenheim-Union-Rennen with Maxim Pecheur on board, and they finished runner-up behind another Klug horse, Colomano.

With de Vries out of the equation, the Derby mount on Windstoss was open. Röttgen-chief Paul stuck to his principles and was happy with the idea to keep young Pecheur in the saddle. Most other owners and trainers probably would have opted for an internationally acclaimed jockey for a Classic race, but as it had when Paul took a chance with with Klug as well as Frank Dorff, the rather young head of Röttgen Stud, the trust paid off.

The dam side of the pedigree of Windstoss, who’s by Shirocco, goes back to an old Röttgen family. He’s the first foal of Wellenspiel, a daughter of Röttgen’s Sternkonig.

Windstoss was offered for sale at the BBAG Yearling Sales in 2015 but was bought back by Röttgen for just 16,000 euros. What a lucky twist of fate, as Windstoss has collected nearly 600,000 euros in prize money so far.

Contrary to many German Derby winners in recent years, Klug has managed to keep the colt well and healthy. He confirmed his Hamburg triumph by winning the Group 1 Preis von Europa at Cologne later last year and apparently is even stronger now as a four-year-old. He was third in a Group 2 at Cologne on his seasonal debut and again third in the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom, beating decent horses like Hawkbill, Idaho, and Yucatan on the way.

In Windstoss and last year’s German Horse of the Year Dschingis Secret, Klug has two cracks in his yard to try his luck in the big races in Europe. Dschingis Secret, winner in 2017 of the Group 1 Preis von Berlin, the Group 2 Prix Foy at Chantilly, was also sixth in the Arc, and

PROFILE

| MARKUS KLUG |

this season has finished runner-up in the Group 2 in the Grand Prix de Chantilly while Klug was at the Spring Festival at Baden-Baden in June.

“If you’ve got a good horse you have to consider going abroad,” Klug says. “I prefer the way the races are run in England and the atmosphere on the tracks is just so much better than in France,” he says. “I love Ascot or Epsom.”

But Germany will remain his solid base. “Röttgen does a lot to support German racing however, the situation here is difficult and it’s hard to earn your oats,” Klug states. “If I were still self-employed I’m not so sure that I would still train horses professionally.”

Klug considers himself to be a more traditional trainer.

“I don’t care too much about sectional times or any scientific data,” he claims. “I’d rather trust my eye, and I do listen to what the riders and lads tell me.” He did do a short apprenticeship with Danedream’s trainer Peter Schiergen at Cologne and learned in the early years by watching Waldemar Himmel at Iffezheim.

“I have always loved sports – football, tennis, and horseracing, of course,” says Klug. During the main season

I DON’T CARE TOO MUCH ABOUT SECTIONAL TIMES OR ANY SCIENTIFIC DATA. I’D RATHER TRUST MY EYE, AND I DO LISTEN TO WHAT THE RIDERS AND LADS TELL ME.

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he finds it hard to clear his mind of the job he is doing so well and relax. “But after a break of 12 years I’ve picked up tennis again. In the winter months I play twice a week; during summer I try once per week.” During winter he can also follow his other passion – football. Klug is an ardent supporter of Borussia Monchengladbach. He owns a season ticket and tries to watch as many home games as possible. “Last season they weren’t playing very good, I did not see many decent matches,” Klug says. He likes to win – in every field.

Winter is also the time for a holiday, as he is not sending any horses to the all-weather tracks of Dortmund or Neuss. “I manage to take two or three weeks off and travel a bit,” Klug says. This year he booked a trip to Hawaii and used the occasion to marry his girlfriend Susanne. “It was just so easy to do, so we did it,” Klug beams. “We didn’t have to worry about a big party, which in Germany only seems feasible in summer, and for me this almost impossible during the season.”

That’s because this is the time of the year when Klug concentrates on racing day in, day out. There are still many big races he would like to win at least once – in particular back home in Baden-Baden, such as the Group 2 Goldene Peitsche, the most important sprint race in Germany and a race in which Millowitsch finished third last year. Apart from the 40,000 euros in prize money, the winning team gets a golden whip, which has all the winners since 1867 engraved on a leather band. Another race Klug would love to win is the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden, which has the biggest international reputation of all German races and is a springboard for the Arc, as Arc winners Carroll House, Marienbard, and Danedream testify.

Chances are it won’t take too long for Klug to fulfill another of his dreams.

Melbourne, Australia September - November 2018 DATE

RACE NAME

DISTANCE

CONDITIONS PRIZEMONEY (AUD$)

ENTRIES CLOSE

Sat 13 Oct

G2 Schillaci Stakes

5.5f / 1100m

WFA

$401,000

Mon 8 Oct

Sat 13 Oct

G2 Herbert Power Stakes

12f / 2400m

Q Hcp

$401,000

Mon 8 Oct

Sat 13 Oct

G1 Toorak Handicap

8f / 1600m

Hcp

$502,750

Mon 8 Oct

Sat 13 Oct

G1 Caulfield Stakes

10f / 2000m

WFA

$1,002,750 ($602,750 first prize) Mon 8 Oct

Sun 14 Oct

Listed Cranbourne Cup

10f / 2025m

Q Hcp

$350,000

Tue 9 Oct

Sat 20 Oct

G2 Caulfield Sprint

5f / 1000m

Hcp

$201,000

Mon 15 Oct

Sat 20 Oct

G1 Stella Artois Caulfield Cup

12f / 2400m

Hcp

$5,150,000 ($3,150,000 first prize) Thu 30 Aug

Wed 24 Oct

G3 Geelong Cup

12f / 2400m

Hcp

$365,000

Fri 26 Oct

G1 Ladbrokes Manikato Stakes

6f / 1200m

WFA

$1,015,000 ($615,000 first prize) Tue 25 Sep

Sat 27 Oct

G2 Moonee Valley Gold Cup

12.5f / 2500m

SW&P

$500,000

Sat 27 Oct

G1 Ladbrokes Cox Plate

10f / 2040m

WFA

$5,050,000 ($3,050,000 first prize) Tue 7 Aug

Sat 27 Oct

G2 Crystal Mile

8f / 1600m

WFA

$203,000

Mon 22 Oct

Wed 31 Oct

G3 Bendigo Cup

12f / 2400m

Hcp

$303,500

Thu 25 Oct

Sat 3 Nov

G3 Hotham Handicap

12.5f / 2500m

Q Hcp

$301,500

Mon 29 Oct

Sat 3 Nov

G1 Kennedy Mile

8f / 1600m

Q Hcp

$1,002,500 ($602,500 first prize)

Mon 22 Oct

Sat 3 Nov

G2 Linlithgow Stakes

6f / 1200m

Hcp

$302,000

Mon 29 Oct

Tues 6 Nov

G1 Lexus Melbourne Cup

16f / 3200m

Hcp

$7,300,000 ($4,250,000 first prize) Thu 30 Aug

Sat 10 Nov

G3 Queen Elizabeth Stakes

13f / 2600m

Q Hcp

$301,500

Sat 10 Nov

G1 LKS Mackinnon Stakes

10f / 2000m

WFA

$2,005,000 ($1,205,000 first prize) Mon 5 Nov

Sat 10 Nov

G1 Darley Classic

6f / 1200m

WFA

$1,002,500 ($602,500 first prize)

Tue 25 Sep

Sat 17 Nov

Listed Sandown Cup

16f / 3200m

Q Hcp

$150,500

Mon 12 Nov

Sat 17 Nov

G3 Eclipse Stakes

9f / 1800m

Q Hcp

$150,750

Mon 12 Nov

Sat 17 Nov

G2 Zipping Classic

12f / 2400m

WFA

$301,000

Mon 12 Nov

Sat 24 Nov

Listed Ballarat Cup

11f / 2200m

Hcp

$350,000

Mon 19 Nov

Hcp – Handicap

Q Hcp – Quality Handicap

SW&P – Set Weights & Penalties

WFA – Weight-For-Age

For further information contact Racing Victoria Paul Bloodworth E: p.bloodworth@racingvictoria.net.au M: +61 (0) 403 346 467 rv.racing.com/international

Thu 18 Oct

Mon 22 Oct

Mon 5 Nov

| VETERINARY |

Kristien Verheyen and Sarah Rosanowski Shutterstock

M

usculoskeletal injuries are an inherent risk of horseracing, and they are the primary cause of thoroughbreds failing to train and race, or even retiring altogether. In addition to the evident equine welfare concerns, racehorse injuries also have economic consequences and impact on jockey safety. The industry

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remains committed to investigating causes of injury and associated risk factors, which can inform strategies aimed at minimising their occurrence. Advancements in methods of identification, management and prevention of musculoskeletal disease and injury in thoroughbreds, and improved training and racing environments to enhance the safety, health, and wellbeing of racehorses have long been strategic

priorities of the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB)’s veterinary research funding programme.

In 2014, the HBLB funded a research team at the Royal Veterinary College to undertake a detailed study of injuries and other veterinary events occurring in Flat racehorses on race day. The purpose of the project was to establish causes of fatal and non-fatal injuries occurring in British

| FLAT INJURIES |

HBL B RE SEARCH ON INJURI ES IN FLAT R A C I N G : NATURE VERSUS NURTURE

Flat racing and to examine associated risk factors. The research also set out to measure heritability of common injury types and conditions, and to investigate genetic and environmental correlations between injury and race performance.

The study team had access to detailed race and performance data from all thoroughbreds racing on the Flat in Great Britain over a 14-year study period from

2000 – 2013. These were then linked to veterinary reports of injury or conditions attended to by a veterinary surgeon on race day over the same time period, provided by the British Horseracing Authority. Finally, extensive pedigree data were added to enable investigation of heritability of race day injury and genetic correlations between injury types, and between injury and performance.

Descriptive findings

The final 14-year dataset included nearly 68,000 horses making over 800,000 starts in around 77,000 Flat races. The majority of races -- 67% of them -- were run on the turf, with 33% of races taking place on all weather tracks.

Just under 8,000 veterinary events were recorded over the study period, from which an incidence of nine events ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

25

| VETERINARY |

THE MOST COMMON INCIDENTS REQUIRING VETERINARY ATTENTION ON THE RACECOURSE WERE SOFT TISSUE INJURIES. per 1000 starts was calculated. The most common incidents requiring veterinary attention on the racecourse were soft tissue injuries other than tendon and ligament injuries, e.g. wounds, lacerations, or muscle strains. Unspecified lameness and respiratory conditions were also common, accounting for around a fifth of veterinary reports each. Less than 10% of veterinary events had a fatal outcome, and the overall incidence of fatality was 0.8 per 1000 starts. Although bone injury was cited in only 14% of the veterinary reports overall, they accounted for the vast majority (77%) of the fatalities.

All weather racing

Racing on all weather tracks traditionally carries a higher risk of injury than racing on turf, which was reaffirmed in the current analyses. Therefore, the researchers also specifically investigated risk factors for fatality, distal limb fracture, and epistaxis (nose bleeds) in all weather racing. These analyses were restricted to the ca. 258,000 all weather starts in the dataset and included additionally collected information from the racecourse clerks on surface types and maintenance. The fatality incidence in all weather racing was 0.9 per 1000 starts. Distal limb fracture occurred in around 1 in 1000 starts and epistaxis in 1.6 per 1000 starts.

Risk factors varied for each outcome, although some factors were similar across outcomes including the going, racing intensity, horse age, age at first start, and horse and trainer performance variables.

Generally, older horses and those that had started racing at an older age were at higher risk of an adverse outcome although for fatality, older horses that had started racing as two-year-olds were at highest risk. This association may be due to accumulation of microdamage in bone, which increases with increasing age as an effect of exercise accumulation over time and can ultimately lead to failure.

The finding that horses that start racing at an older age may be at increased risk of injury is not novel, and it has been suggested that those which do not race at

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two may be prevented from doing so due to underlying clinical problems. Injuries, or other clinical conditions, at an early age are also likely to interfere with training programmes, which may result in a lack of musculoskeletal adaptation during a time when the skeleton is most responsive to exercise. Increasing firmness of going and first race start were risk factors for both distal limb fracture and epistaxis, a finding that is consistent with previous studies. Also consistent with previous research was that longer race distances increased the likelihood of fatality but reduced the risk of epistaxis. This is likely to be due to the speed of the race, with faster races inducing greater pulmonary vascular pressure and higher peak loading forces. Epistaxis was also more likely to occur on fibresand surfaces and on second generation Polytrack, as compared to first generation Polytrack.

Risk factors for fatality

In addition to the specific investigations for all weather racing, the research also considered data from all starts available.

This confirmed that the risk of fatality was around 1.5 times higher on all weather surfaces than turf. Increased firmness of the going, increasing racing distance, increasing average horse performance, first year of racing, and wearing eye cover for the first time all increased the risk of fatality. The latter finding has not been reported previously, and it is currently unclear why wearing eye cover for the first time should increase the risk of fatality.

Perhaps this could be due to a change in the horse’s depth perception or ability to judge distance, detect changes in the racing surface, or avoid interference by other horses. Alternatively, it could be that trainers decide to use eye cover in an attempt to enhance performance, with poor performance resulting from subclinical pathology. Such horses would be at higher risk of (fatal) injury, in particular when wearing eye cover for the first time. Further research in this area, particularly investigating when and why eye cover is used in Flat racing horses and how eye cover affects the vision and the performance of horses under race conditions, is warranted.

Another novel finding was that horses racing in an auction race were at 1.5 times higher risk of fatality compared with horses not racing in this race type. Auction races are for two- or three-year-olds that were sold at specific public auction sales, and so this finding may reflect aspects of the quality of horses racing in this race type, which is difficult to measure.

| FLAT INJURIES |

It is noteworthy that there was significant variation in horse fatality risk amongst trainers, even after accounting for other risk factors in the analysis.

While most trainers with a race day fatality only had one fatality over the study period, other trainers had more.

Training practices are likely to play a role and may partly explain this finding, and further research incorporating training and exercise regimens into studies of this nature is sorely needed. Unfortunately it was not possible to collect and incorporate training data into this large-scale retrospective study, and any such studies would likely have to be prospective and

smaller scale, given that the keeping of training records is not compulsory and highly variable between training yards.

Risk factors for distal limb fracture

Separate analyses were also conducted to investigate risk factors for distal limb fracture, the overall incidence of which was 0.8 per 1000 starts. As for fatality, increasing firmness of the going, increasing racing distance, and horses in their first year of racing were at a higher risk of distal limb fracture, 50% of which had a fatal outcome.

Horses from trainers with high average performance but also a high proportion of

runners failing to finish were more likely to sustain a fracture than horses from trainers with lower average performance.

As for fatality, training regimens may also play a role in explaining this finding, and it could be that trainers who employ more intense training strategies are more likely to be successful, but also have more injuries to their horses.

Other risk factors for distal limb fracture included sex, with uncastrated male horses being at highest risk, and older age. Race type was also associated with distal limb fracture, with horses in claiming and seller races being at higher risk. The reasons for this are unclear but may be related to the type and quality of horses in such races, or their being entered into these races due to previous poor performance, which may be related to underlying subclinical injury.

Heritability of injuries and other race-day veterinary events

Heritability is defined as the proportion of variation between individuals in a population that is due to genetic variation. This number can range from 0 (no genetic contribution) to 1 (all differences in a characteristic or trait reflect genetic variation). In this study, the heritability of 10 outcomes was calculated: fracture, tendon and ligament injury, joint injury, fatality, cardiac conditions, epistaxis, metabolic conditions, and ‘gait observations’ (unspecified lameness).

Heritability estimates were adjusted for all environmental (i.e. non-genetic) risk factors identified from the previous analyses. Results showed that heritability estimates of race day veterinary events ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

27

| VETERINARY |

ranged from 0.06 for gait observations to 0.19 for tendon/ligament injury. These estimates are considered low to moderate, but they suggest that 19% of variation between individuals in tendon/ligament injury outcome is due to genetic variation.

Genetic contributions to tendon injury have been identified in previous studies, in both horses and man.

Correlations between injuries and between injury and performance

The purpose of this analysis was to establish whether different types of injury were correlated within sires, trainers, or jockeys.

In other words, are sires whose offspring is susceptible to e.g. fracture also more likely to have tendon-injury susceptible offspring, or do trainers with more fractures in their horses also have more (nonfracture) joint injury events recorded?

Similarly, we also wanted to find out whether there were correlations between performance measures and veterinary events. Results showed that there was a high correlation between fatality and fracture at all levels (sire, trainer, and jockey level, although less so in the latter).

This is somewhat unsurprising, given that fracture was the main cause of fatality.

All other veterinary-event-to-veterinaryevent correlations were low. Career length, career earnings, and race value were considered as measures of racehorse performance. No significant correlations were identified between these performance measures and veterinary events.

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 62

| FLAT INJURIES |

Implications of the findings

This large scale study has provided up-todate information on veterinary events and causes of fatality occurring in Flat racing thoroughbreds in Great Britain. Results can serve as a baseline for monitoring trends over time and evaluate the effect of potential interventions.

Risk factor analyses confirmed a number of factors that had previously been identified as increasing injury or fatality risk, such as racing on all weather surfaces, increasing race distance, and firmness of the going. However, novel risk factors were identified for each outcome evaluated, including wearing eye cover for the first time, which increased the risk of fatality; racing in seller or claiming, which increased the risk of distal limb fracture; racing on second generation Polytrack, which increased the risk of epistaxis in all weather racing; and measures of trainer performance, which were associated with distal limb fracture. There was also significant trainer variation in race day fatality risk, after accounting for the other fatality risk factors. Although more

Acknowledgements

research would be required to establish the reasons for some of these findings, exploring potential interventions targeted at “higher risk” groups may be warranted.

Further work is ongoing to establish whether we can better predict adverse outcomes at the individual level, which could lead to more specific interventions in horses identified to be at particular risk in a specific race.

This study has also, for the first time, established the heritability of various outcomes after adjusting for known environmental risk factors. It is also the first time that correlations between different injury types, and between injury and performance, have been quantified. Given that there were no strong correlations between non-fatal injury events, interventions aimed at reducing one type of injury should not adversely affect occurrence of other injury types. Equally, interventions aimed at reducing injury occurrence should not adversely affect performance, given that the correlation between injury and performance was also low.

The authors are grateful to the HBLB for funding this important work and for their ongoing commitment to support veterinary research aimed at improving our understanding of issues affecting racehorse health and welfare. We are also indebted to our collaborators at the British Horseracing Authority and Weatherbys for provision of injury, performance, and pedigree data. Our co-worker Ruby Chang is acknowledged for her invaluable contributions to the ‘Nature versus Nurture’ project.

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| BUSINESS |

BREX I T –

HOW HIGH ARE THE STAKES? Lissa Oliver

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 62

Caroline Norris, Shutterstock

| BREXIT |

hen Britain submitted its notice to withdraw from the EU in March 2017, one of the biggest issues became border control and movement of horses, particularly between the EU Republic of Ireland and its bordering British Northern Ireland. A hard border between the adjoining counties of Ireland presents its own physical and political difficulties, but any restriction on the movement of horses between Ireland, Britain, and mainland Europe gives rise to problems that affect us all.

The uncertainty of border control also impacts on the safety of the national herd and disease control. The main principle of the Tripartite Agreement was to prevent the spread of disease and that, as Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s chief veterinary officer Dr Lynn Hillyer reminds us, is crucial and arguably the biggest issue when it comes to Brexit negotiations.

Currently, 10,000 horses move freely between the UK and Ireland every year.

Seven thousand horses move overland between the Republic of Ireland (EU) and Northern Ireland (GB); 5,100 horses move between Ireland and France, the majority using Britain as a land bridge; and 5,000 horses move between Britain and France, according to Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) figures. Such freedom of movement is dependent upon the Tripartite Agreement, which will no longer be valid after 30th March 2019.

The Tripartite Agreement simplified the travel of horses between France,

W

Britain, and Ireland and reduced the cost of moving horses between the three countries, allowing racehorses to be shipped without pre-movement veterinary checks and certification, and without the requirement for isolation and quarantine periods at their destinations.

“It’s not just about movement, it’s the protection of the herd against disease, and it’s absolutely critical that’s protected,” warns Dr Hillyer, who has been working with her French counterparts in ensuring that safeguards are in place in advance of the end of the Tripartite Agreement. “There has been added pressure on us because of the enormity of movement involved.”

Adding to the difficulty in resolving issues has been the British government’s reluctance to commit to decisions and state definite demands. MEP Mairead McGuinness has been advocating on behalf of Ireland and warned in January at the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association (ITBA) National Symposium, “We hope when we sit down to negotiate, common sense will prevail, but the EU is not prepared to tweak its principles to accommodate the UK. If we cannot overcome our problems, there will be real difficulties for your industry.”

Fortunately, there has been a concerted team effort between all sectors of the thoroughbred industry in France and Ireland as they united to draw up a proposal to replace the Tripartite Agreement. Rather than sit back and wait, they decided to put together a draft for an improved alternative to the Agreement, the High

It’s not just about movement, it’s the protection of the herd against disease, and it’s absolutely critical that’s protected DR LYNN HILLYER

Health Status (HHS) document for horses. “What is lovely is how the racing bodies and breeding associations have all pulled together, and that’s something that has come through the talks really strongly,” Dr Hillyer says.

Working with the Turf Club were HRI, the ITBA, Horse Sport Ireland – the representative body for the sport horse sector of show jumpers, dressage, and eventers – and France Galop. Paul Marie Gadot, head of the horses and control department at France Galop, explains, “The EU Commission draft doesn’t fulfil all our wishes as the breeding stock isn’t included in their proposal. A lot of work is still to be done. To be clear, we are working on an expedited movement system for high health horses.

“Currently, we are going to suggest a solution to the European Commission, which is working on the new legislation regarding movements of horses in

ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

31

| BUSINESS |

Brian Kavanagh, CEO of HRI and among those at the forefront of the HHS proposal, has expressed some anxiety at the political instability of Britain and fears that “things outside of our control could influence things.”

the European Community and with the third countries. Actually, we are trying to address the modification of the European Law regarding horse movement, which isn’t linked to the Brexit negotiations. This way is more technical and also safer. I will be happy when a new system allowing easy horse movements will be in place.”

Both Dr Hillyer and Gadot have been happy with the level of awareness and support from their respective governments. “Our contacts in the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have been fantastic and their response to our queries have come back by return,” says Dr Hillyer.

“The public information seminars here are probably less frequent than in Ireland,” agrees Gadot. “The preparatory work is done with the representatives of the equine industry, especially at racing and breeding levels, and we are in permanent contact with the hard core in charge of preparing the future of racing and breeding in Ireland and UK. “We maintain close discussions with the French Ministry of Agriculture. Facing us, they are very helpful and supportive, but they aren’t the decision makers in the Brexit negotiations. They have to be prepared for the different evolutions of this dossier.”

Brian Kavanagh, CEO of HRI and among those at the forefront of the HHS proposal, has expressed some anxiety at the political instability of Britain and fears that “things outside of our control could influence things.” He is cautious and fears the HHS

32

TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 62

| BREXIT |

may still be derailed between now and next March if Brexit negotiations turn sour.

“HHS has great potential to be better than the Tripartite Agreement,” Dr Hillyer enthuses. “It will ultimately improve matters, because it creates strong traceability and accountability. The Tripartite is a fantastic blueprint, but underneath it is the recognition of the importance of health and welfare. We knew we had to move on this and be prepared in advance, rather than simply sit back and wait. We looked at the principles of the Tripartite Agreement as well as the High Health, High Performance (HHP) already in existence for Sport Horses and saw an opportunity to shake them up a little and improve upon both.

“HHS allows for the moving of animals with an equivalent health status to countries with the same level of guarantee regarding disease control and vaccination.

It’s now on its way to be presented to the EU Commission and, of course, I’m very hopeful it will be well received. It solves the potential problems and is a logical document, building on existing structures.”

The racing and breeding bodies may have united well to form the HHS proposal, but it also needs to be seen through, if it indeed does replace the Tripartite Agreement. This will require further cooperation between all stakeholders.

“We need to ensure we put in place the practicalities that are set out in the document,” Dr Hillyer warns. “It’s about making sure we do exactly what it says on the tin. It will require full veterinary engagement on the ground. Veterinary Ireland are already very aware of this and we are in dialogue with its representatives.

We are also in discussions with the Association of Racecourse Veterinarians and the small sub-groups of vets, and it’s a very dynamic group. Everyone is putting a lot of consideration into what it is we have to underpin.

“The principles of the HHS document are already enshrined in the Code of Practise for thoroughbred breeders, but we don’t have a Code of Practise for the training side and we need to do that. A lot of trainers do it in an informal way already and this will simply provide the checks and balances.

“It is built on identification, through the microchip, passport, and crucially the markings. These checks are already in the Rules of Racing and there is a reason why they’re in the Rules. We need to keep on top of our health status and keep our ship in order if we want to be able to freely move our animals.

“We are looking closely at equine influenza vaccination, and trainers probably feel we are excessive in correcting what appear to be minor errors in dates, but we need these checks and balances, and having vets working with trainers across the country is so important.”

The first step, of course, is in seeing the HHS in place for March 2019, but seeing it adhered to will involve paperwork and documentation that is already being looked at, for solutions to make the processes simpler, quicker, and, importantly, error-free.

“Weatherbys is particularly proactive and we have had a lot of support from chief executive Russell Ferris,” reveals Dr Hillyer.

“They are looking into a digital solution. A slick database into which all the details can be entered, with less room for error. But that’s the next step. The first step is agreeing in principle to the HHS document.”

If the HHS document can resolve the issue of disease prevention, welfare, and the continued free movement of horses, what of those that take care of them?

Even without Brexit, racing is already facing Europe-wide staff shortages and the inability of trainers to increase horse numbers due to the lack of skilled staff to look after additional horses. Freedom of movement and border control extends to people and, for an industry already struggling with manpower, restrictions on

The EU Commission draft doesn’t fulfil all our wishes as the breeding stock isn’t included in their proposal. A lot of work is still to be done.

To be clear, we are working on an expedited movement system for high health horses PAUL-MARIE GADOT

www.cavalor.com | Consumer line 7/7 +44 (0)1352 746100

| BUSINESS |

employi yiing staff ff and movement of staff ff wiiill adversely aff w ffect f racing.

In France, 9,700 employees work directly wi within i racing industry, w wiith i a further 29,290 indirectly employed, while in Britain 17,400 core industry employees make up a total of 85,200 direct and indirect employees. The Irish sector core is formed by 15,200, totalling 28,900 of direct and indirect workers.

Provi viisions need to be made for staff ff as much as for the horses they take care of.

Paul Marie Gadot doesn’t perceive it a threat in France, but is aware it may cause problems in Britain. “Currently we don’t believe that Brexit would impact staff fffiiing in France, but it could probably impact staff ff movements w wiith i the UK. Because the negotiations are progressing very slowly, it is diff fffiicult i to imagine all the consequences.”

Rupert A Arrnold, r CEO of the National Trainers Federation (NT NT TF), is in no doubt that it could have a negative impact on British racing. “A lot of work has been done by the Brexit Steering Group for the racing industry, headed by Julian Richmond-Watson, chairman of the TBA, and a lot of progress has been made,” Arn rnold says. “Arg rguably the number one issue to do wiitth Brexit is how it wiilll impact on staffi fiin ng. Discussions are continuing and the industry has made representations to the government regarding the immigrant policy postBrexit. Racing needs highly skilled people wiitth certain attr tributes, wherever in the

| BREXIT |

world they are. We have demonstrated the need fo or that. It’s a highly charged issue and racing has to make its case and the need fo or migrant staff ff. f “The N NT TF T and BHA are working together to o communicate to government the industrry’s requirements from a future imm migration system. We have demonstratted that, while proactive steps are beeing taken to counter the current sho ortfall of available staff ff through do omestic recruitment, it is important for British racing to still be able to havve appropriate access to the best internationally skilled workers in the short-to o-medium term. British racing has made these representations to the Migration Advi visory i Committ tttee call for evi vidence i on n the impact of EEA EA workers in the UK lab bour market, which wi wiill inform future Hom me Off ffi fice i immigration policy. ow the serious shortage of “We kno skilled stafff is probably the number one concerrn for many trainers. A key factor behiind the shortage was the governmen nt’s decision to change the rules for migrant workers in 2011, leading to work riders being removed from the Shortage Occupation List.

Brexit has the potential to make matters worse if it puts in place more obstacles for EU workers to be employed in British racing stables.””

The BHA continues to explore opportunities for raising the profi file fil of the industry on these issues and has provi vided written evi vid vidence to the vid

House of Lords EU Hom me Aff ffairs f subcommittee inquiry on peo ople movement in the ffiields i of sport and culture.

Britain already has a reggistration system in place for the thrree million EU workers currently in the co ountry, and their rights wi wiill be protected. With regard to staff ff taking horses abroad to race, A Arrrnold can’t see that it wi wiill be anyy diff ffferent to currently and doubts it w wiiilll be an issue.

“It’s in the nature of Breexit for issues to arise that haven’t been foreseen,” he observes. “The Northern Ireland border is also going to be an issue and the biggest stumbling block in the wh hole process.”

When it comes to the Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland border, hard or otherwi wise i e, an added

Arguably the number one issue to do with Brexit is how it will impact on staffing. Discussions are continuing and the industry has made representations to the government regarding the immigrant policy post-Brexit RUPERT ARNOLD

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| BUSINESS |

complication is the fact that HRI has always operated on an all-island basis.

Downpatrick and Down Royal, the two racecourses in Northern Ireland, come under HRI jurisdiction and 90% of the runners at their fixtures are trained in the Republic of Ireland. All Northern Ireland-based trainers are licensed by the Irish Turf Club, and thoroughbreds foaled on Northern Irish stud farms have the suffix IRE and are not qualified for British breeders’ premiums.

Taking horses across the border to race in a non-EU country could become problematic, but taking them across the sea to mainland Britain may simply no longer be cost effective. Republic of Ireland-based trainer John McConnell has enjoyed great success with runners in Britain, sending across 33 horses in the past five seasons to win 17 races and be placed in a further 15, bringing back over £70,000 in prize money.

“So far, it’s been the same as any other year,” McConnell says, “nothing has changed and we’ll be over there regularly through the summer.” He takes the view “we’ll worry about it when it happens,” and he is optimistic the HHS will retain the current freedom of movement.

“The need to move horses back and forth is the same for all parties – French, Irish, and British – and we’re all working towards the same goal, so I’m pretty hopeful that can be achieved. It’s in everyone’s interests.

“If it doesn’t happen, taking horses across to Britain will still be possible. It will just depend on how much paperwork

WE’RE HEARING INFORMATION FROM THE MEDIA, BUT THERE HAS BEEN NO COMMUNICATION BETWEEN HRI AND TRAINERS. PEOPLE ARE LOBBYING ON OUR BEHALF, BUT THERE’S NOTHING COMING BACK DOWN TO US. 36

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is involved and whether it becomes more expensive. That added cost will have to be factored in. I’ll still be going over for the sales, but any extra cost in fetching a horse back will have to be added to the purchase price. It won’t affect the bigger buyers, but it will affect small trainers.”

Ireland may have been busy with Brexit roadshows and industry dialogues, but in reality, public discussions have been supposition and, as McConnell points out, of no help at grass roots level. “We’re hearing information from the media, but there has been no communication between HRI and trainers. People are lobbying on our behalf, but there’s nothing coming back down to us.”

Even more in the dark are those vital to the industry, but not directly involved: the suppliers who export such necessities as bedding, feedstuffs, supplements, horseboxes, veterinary products, and tack, and the horse transporters themselves, who are already familiar with the challenges of moving animals internationally.

The economic value of the racing industry to the three racing countries most affected by Brexit cannot be underrated. The European Federation of Thoroughbred Breeders Associations (EFTBA) estimates the French industry to be worth Ð2.3 billion. The 2017 Deloitte report in Ireland shows Ð1.05 billion. In Britain, the economic impact was set at £3.5 billion (Ð3.97 billion) by the 2013 Deloitte Report, the most recent of their five-yearly reports.

It was estimated that £150 million of the £221 million spent at Tattersalls Sales in 2012 were made to non-British buyers from over 50 countries, acknowledging significant Irish buyers without specifying amounts.

Britain is Ireland’s biggest export market, taking eight out of every 10

thoroughbreds that are sold abroad.

Irish vendors reaped Ð338 million at bloodstock sales in 2016, and 50% of that value was amassed at British sales, with 4% coming from sales in France.

Any threat to the sales, either through increased transport costs or through new tariffs, will be a threat to the economy of the countries currently trading.

Unfortunately, as vital as the thoroughbred industry is seen by us to the economy, it fails to figure in any of the countries’ leading exports. According to the CIA World Fact Book, the top 10 Irish exports accounted for over 85% of all its exports, worth Ð114.5 billion, and livestock was not among them. Neither was it among French exports, valued last year at Ð443.5 billion.

British exports in 2017 totalled Ð377.5 billion and, again, livestock wasn’t among its 10 highest exports, which between them accounted for over 70% of its exports. Trading with the EU, however, must still be a British priority, as 54.4% of UK exports by value went to the EU, compared to 22.6% to Asia and 15% to North America.

Interestingly, French and British exports each make up 30% of their GDP, but Irish exports represent a massive 120% of its GDP, with 57% going to other EU countries. North America accounted for 29% and 10.5% went to Asia.

Pharmaceuticals lead Irish exports and MEP Mairead McGuinness has pointed out that this sector is also dependent upon the same terms as the Tripartite Agreement.

Companies trading throughout Britain and Europe, however, appear optimistic, and business seems to be continuing as normal, despite the uncertainty of the future. Those we might expect to have the greatest concerns are the horse transport companies, yet Liz Mulroy of

| BREXIT |

Horse France is typ ypical p off the operators when she says, “We’re currrently movi ving i breeding stock back to Frrance from Ireland and it’s business as usual.”

Her counterp part in Fran nce, Simon Bressollett tte, t road operation ns of STC Horse France, is in the same posittion. “At the moment we have no diff fffiicu i ulties and the rules are the same. We are still waiting for the HHS document to be accepted and to see whether the rules wi wiill change in the future, but we just don’t kn now.” hat until a The general feeling is th document such as the HH HS is off fffiicially i agreed, no one knows wh hat the way forward wi will i be. There aree simply no procedures currently in n place, no contingency plans, but th hat uncertainty isn’t havi ving i an adverse efffect f on business as yet.

“I’m afraid I’m anotherr head-in-thesand when it comes to Brrexit,” admits dmax, echoing Tim Smalley, CEO of Bed many others. “Not even th he leaders know, and we can’t discou unt what might happen, so it’ss a matter of keeping your house in order and being prepared for the worstt-case scenariio. We are tryying i g to keep our business, fin inances, and customers in order and ensure a strong ship for the waters ahead.

“My three biggest concerns would be the exchange rate and what might happen to sterling; tariffs fs and documenttattion;; and d foreiign work kers.

The exchange rate would be a worry

and losing half my staff ff would be a worry, we have many good Polish workers an nd some at management level.

We have to o hope that tariff ffs f would not be too hig gh, but myy imp pression is that itt might takee a bit longer, but we’ll still bee able to get out.”

Bedmax has been exporting bedding to Europe for over 15 years and exports to leading trainers throughout Ireland, but it also exports further affield, i and off ffi fice i staff ff are already familiar wi with i the form-ffiilling g involved in non-EU exports.

“We have a decent non-EU export business an nd if we have to o transfer to o non-EU, so o be it,” Smalley accepts. g on behalf of Connolly’s Red Speaking Mills, Gareeth Connolly was another typ ypical p of many industry suppliers in reporting “business as usual,” but he is very consciious of the uncertainty and possible neegative impact on the horizon n. viously, i but “People are worried, obvi it’s not imp pacting on business. You just have to gett on w wiith i it and get stuck into o it. From an Irish point of vie iew, I do feel it’ss going to have a negative impact, wh hattever the tariiffs f and d resttriicttions wi wil ill be once they are in place. It is going to feedback on the industry and we’re already tryiin ng to compete wi with other wit industries, so it wil ill be hard.

“W We have a team in the UK and we see Brexit as a backward step for us. It has the pottenttiall to damag ge the enttire equine industry, including worldwiid de

because it’s such a small community.”

He is conscious of existting customers and w wiill i endeavour to enssure the same quality of servi vice, i reegardless of anyy problems looming g. “F For our UK customers, we are provi vid iding the same servi vice i as always and we wi will i continue to do,” he says.

Trading wi with i a non-EU U country, though not w wiithout i its prroblems, is a challenge Connolly’s Red Mills embraces.

“We are the only foreig gn supplier of equine feed and suppleements into China, and that continuees to be diff fffiicult i in terms of regulations an nd compliance,” Connolly admits, “but wee’ve embraced that challenge and w wiill i co ontinue to do so, whatever barriers of entry are put in place, we set as a priorityy to overcome.

“Requirements are therre for a reason and you need to be fully compliant, and these are the key points when you go into other countries. For our company, welfare of the horse is parramount and we w wiiill conduct whatever testing is required to ensure full compliance and the quality of our feed and supplements.””

We are remiind ded d off Dr Hillyer’’s regard for the unity of the stakeholders and it is clear from Connolly’ss statement that, for once, everyone is singing from the same hymn book.

“IIf the UK is a third country, then so be it,” he concludes. “IIt is still our biggestt exp portt mark kett an nd we w wiil ill continue to export.”

N O T EV E N TH E L EA D E RS K NO W, A N D W E C A N ’T D I SC O U NT W HAT MI G HT H A PP E N, SO I T ’S A MAT T ER OF KEEPING YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER AND BEING P R EPA R ED F O R T HE WO R ST-C A SE SC EN A R IO .

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| INDUSTRY |

B R EX I T I N T E RVI EW

ANDY 38

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| ANDY OLIVER |

Alex Cairns

Alex Cairns

OLIVER Alex Cairns

photography name here

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| INDUSTRY |

A

ndy Oliver has held a training licence since 2004. Before setting up his self-contained establishment on his family farm in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, he qualified as an equine vet and spent time with trainer Mark Johnston in Yorkshire, England. Having built his owner base thanks to consistent success from relatively humble means, his career took off in 2011 when Flowers Of Spring registered a first stakes success for the yard in a Group 3 at Gowran Park. The good results continued in 2012, with Group 2 wins for First Cornerstone and Sendmylovetorose contributing to a prize money haul of over €490,000. In 2014, Team Valor’s Panama Hat flew the flag, racking up five consecutive handicap wins.

Panama Hat went on the next year to prove he was much more than a handicapper, scoring at Listed and Group 3 level as well as running second in the American St Leger.

Though stakes success has always been the yard’s ultimate aspiration, Oliver is also well known for sourcing good value stock and bringing along horses that might then be sold to race abroad. Sendmylovetorose was just a £5,000 purchase, and Oliver also handled future multiple Hong Kong Group 1 winner Luck Or Design and 2015 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Dodging Bullets in the early stages of their careers.

The past two seasons have proven more challenging for the Oliver yard. Having had almost 300 runners on the Flat in Ireland in 2013, this number was down to 92 in 2017. Oliver has taken this time to regroup and recently finished upgrading his facilities. The revamped facility now features a five-furlong woodchip hill gallop, a

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seven-furlong woodchip gallop with a slight incline, and a three-and-a-half-furlong sand gallop. Such advanced infrastructure allows him to train any type of horse, whether Flat or National Hunt, and his 80 boxes have been steadily filling.

With a lot of work having been put in and difficult years weathered, Brexit is surely a complication Oliver could do without. It is still unclear whether a hard border will be instituted between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but we can assume that the UK’s new arrangement with the EU will affect trade, transport, staff, and many other fundamental aspects of the racing industry. These issues will have a strong impact in both Britain and Ireland, with Northern Irish racing finding itself in a particularly precarious situation.

European Trainer spoke to Andy Oliver to gauge his thoughts on how Brexit might affect his business.

RACING IS A GREAT WAY OF LIFE, BUT ULTIMATELY IT HAS TO PAY THE BILLS AND BE FINANCIALLY VIABLE.

| ANDY OLIVER |

1|

What is your business model?

Racing is a great way of life, but ultimately it has to pay the bills and be financially viable. With this in mind, we are trying to design a multifaceted model with various layers to it. Our primary offering is the training of winning racehorses and taking our owners to the big days. We can also bring a horse along to maybe sell at a later stage, as I have often done with horses that I have owned myself. Over the years, we had become more of a Flat yard, but we are diversifying again so as to be dualpurpose and keep the ball rolling year round.

2|

Where do you tend to source your horses? How do you decide which horses to bid for at the sales?

The domestic sales in Ireland and the UK are where I do most of my buying, for yearlings and for National Hunt horses. I don’t have any particular preference for any sale and always just look to get value.

The methodology I have for drawing up a list of possibles is based around conformation and ratings. As a vet, I will make my own physical appraisal based on my own criteria.

Ireland is a very competitive scene, so in order to win a race with a three-year-old, they need to be rated around 83. So I will look at the mare and the progeny and see do they average a rating over 80 before going any further.

3|

Where are the majority of your owners based?

Most of our owners would be Irish and some British. Looking forward, I hope to expand internationally because racing is a global business.

We have had owners from America, Australia, and Qatar, and if you can get the results then you can attract owners from anywhere in the world these days. We have great horse people in Northern Ireland, but a lot of their interest would be in National Hunt, which is part of the reason I want to cultivate that side of the business again and offer that to more local people.

4|

How might training in Northern Ireland be different to training in the Republic of Ireland?

I never made a particular choice to train in Northern Ireland. I just happen to be from here and this is where my family has always been based, so I established my training business here. Although there is great horsemanship in Northern Ireland and great horses have been produced here, there has never really been any significant training centre here. So I was breaking new ground in a way. Building the infrastructure, finding staff, and recruiting owners have been the big challenges, but I can’t say there’s any specific detriment to being in this geographical location. It’s very peaceful for the horses and transport has never been an issue. This is thanks in part to the legacy of the Celtic Tiger, which left us with a very good road structure, meaning all the tracks on the island are accessible to us. And with relatively few trainers being based in the north, we might even be more attractive to potential owners based up here.

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| INDUSTRY |

5||

How would you assess the general heallth off horse raciing in Nortthern Ireland?

I th hink k it’’s pretty good d and d has reallly been improvi ving i over the last 10 years. The two racecourses in Northern Ireland, Downpatrick and Down Royal, have made huge strides. They have made the eff ffort f to address every aspect of their off ffering, f be it the racing surface, hospitality, vviiiewi wiing, owner experience, stabling, staff ff facilities, or whatever you might care to mention. And they have been rewarded wit ith full cards and packed stands. So there is a good d ap ppettite for raciing g in the nortth and d hop peffullly even our local politicians are starting to realise that raciing is a siigniifi fi ficant t ind dusttry wortth supportting.

6||

What challenges do you think Brexit might pose for your business?

We fin ind ourselves in a very particular situation because the border that currentlyy exists between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland wil ill soon become the border between the UK and the EU. Nobody actually knows what the outcome of the current negotiations is going to be, which is difffiic icult for any busiiness owner as it creates uncertaiinty. It had d been suggested that Northern Ireland would remain part of the custtoms uniion, so as to avoiid the need d for a hard d bord der on the island of Ireland. This has some appeal in my eyes, as it woulld cause less distturb bance and d even encourage inward investment. A hard border would pose some challenge to us, as any horse brought across the border,

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| ANDY OLIVER |

whether it is to race or go to the sales, would have to be veriffied. i We might also be aff ffected f w wiith i regard to staff ff. f Because we have fewer horses at the moment, we don’t need d as many stafff and d can fi fi d enough find h among th he locall population. If we did expand again, we may have to bring in staff ff from other EU countries or outside the EU, and we aren’t sure how that would work.

7||

How offten do you travell across thhe border with horses?

Allll the time. Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), the racing authority here, is an all-iisland body, so in myy miind d there is no bord der. We justt go wh herever we need to go. When we are busy we are crossing the border consttanttly, especiiallly as there are onlly two racecourses in Northern Ireland, compared to 24 in the Republic.

Currently, this travel is not an impediment at all, but it coulld be become one postt-B Brexiit.

8||

Have HRI proviidedd anyy guiidance on the potential impact of Brexit?

Obvio iously the horseracing industry is hugely important on the island of Ireland, be it economically, socially, or culturally, so HRI have a responsiibility to work k to ensure a prosperous future for the sport. With that said, just like the rest of us they reallly can’’t know wh hatt is goiing to happen in the comiing years and what the outcome of the current negotiations is goiing to be. So it is prob bab bly a wattch hing briieff for now and d theyy w wiill i have to be readyy to act in order to successfullyy transition to the new arrangement when the time comes.

Jackdaws Castle

| INDUSTRY |

| ANDY OLIVER |

I THINK THE SPORT COULD CERTAINLY BE HIGHER ON THEIR AGENDA. IT CAN BE DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE UP HERE WHO AREN’T IN ANY WAY INVOLVED IN THE SPORT TO APPRECIATE WHAT A SIGNIFICANT INDUSTRY RACING IS...

9|

Do you feel the government in Northern Ireland provides sufficient support for the racing industry?

I think the sport could certainly be higher on their agenda. It can be difficult for people up here who aren’t in any way involved in the sport to appreciate what a significant industry racing is and that racedays are just the end product of a large, complex system in which many people are involved. Of course, Northern Ireland has had its own particular challenges over the years and things have been dealt with by priority, but the profile of the sport is improving and people are beginning to understand that racing can make a significant contribution to the progress of life in Northern Ireland as a whole. Unfortunately our local government is not actually functioning at the moment, and that is holding everyone back.

10|

Do you see any potential positives from Brexit?

In the horseracing industry, not really. I can’t see that there will be any advantage to it, unless we are granted some kind of special status. When the referendum was taking place, I could see that the border was going to be a huge issue, but it was undersold at the time and now we find ourselves in this very tricky situation. We are on this road now anyway and I will just be glad when it is all resolved and out of the way.

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11|

Where do you see Andy Oliver Racing in 10 years’ time?

For five years in a row we were among the top 10 Flat trainers in Ireland.

Our last two or three years have been about investment and backing the quality of our service. I mentioned our multi-faceted, self-sufficient approach before and I want to build on the progress we have made with that. The ultimate aim then is to get the right owners on board, train the good horses well, and be there on the big days.

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ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| NUTRITION |

FEEDING FOR WEANING SUCCESS Emma Hardy, PhD

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| WEANING |

T

he first 12 months in the life of a foal are pivotal in building the foundations for overall long-term health and optimal development. It is also during this initial year that the foal will face its first major life event in being weaned from his dam, and he must cope with the nutritional challenges this may bring.

There are many approaches to weaning and every breeder strives to make the right choices for the best outcome. The reproductive status of the mare, the cost and time available, the plans for the foal, and the physical practicalities of the yard will often dictate which type of weaning strategy should be employed. They all come with their own benefits and drawbacks.

Choosing the correct feeding and nutrition programme is key to your success.

Early growth

The dam’s milk is nutritionally complete, providing all the energy and nutrients required for a foal. However, at around three months of age, milk yield peaks, then naturally starts to decline, along with suckling frequency. At the same time the foal increases its intake of non-milk feedstuff such as grass, forage, and some concentrates as his nutritional needs begin to overtake the mare’s own supply. This period coincides with rapid weight gain, with foals reaching around 30% of their adult weight by this point.

Genetics, breed, seasonal temperature differences, and nutrient availability will all contribute to the growth rate of the foal. Small fluctuations in growth rates are normal and nothing to worry about. However, continuing or significant deviations from the National Research Council (NRC) 2007 growth recommendations can predispose the foal to health issues, most notably orthopaedic problems. The structures and tissues of the foal’s body do not grow at the same rate:

THE INTRODUCTION OF A CREEP FEED PRIOR TO WEANING CAN HELP SUSTAIN NORMAL GROWTH RATES.

bone matures earliest, followed by muscle and then fat. Indeed at 12 months of age the yearling will have attained 90% of his mature adult height, which emphasises the importance of correct diet in supporting this rapid early bone growth.

Introducing creep feed

Although the foal supplements his milk intake with small quantities of the dam’s feed and forage, the introduction of a creep feed prior to weaning can help sustain normal growth rates. Highly digestible creep feed is formulated from milk proteins and micronised grain, and it’s fortified with vitamins and minerals.

In addition to encouraging growth, it promotes gastrointestinal adaptation to the post-weaning diet and is also described as a significant factor in the reduction of weaning-associated stress.

The appropriate age to introduce a creep feed depends on many factors. For the foal at pasture and doing well, there should be little need for any additional nutrition until two-to-three months of age, when milk supply begins to diminish.

Earlier intervention may be necessary should the foal be orphaned or fail to thrive due to inadequate milk supply or other environmental influences.

To maintain an estimated weight gain of between 0.8-1 kg/day in a three-tosix-month-old foal, creep feed should be fed at a rate of approximately 1% (to a maximum of 1.25%) of bodyweight/day (bw/d) up to and throughout weaning.

Some of the nutritional requirements of the foal (NRC 2007) and considerations when selecting an appropriate creep feed are:

• Crude fibre should be a minimum of 6% bw/d.

• Crude fat should be a minimum of 3% bw/d.

• Crude protein requirements are 731 g/ day at three months of age up to 980 g/day at 12 months of age, and feed should contain between 14-16% protein.

Protein is crucial for muscle, tendon, and ligament development.

• The protein source should have a high quality amino acid profile. Lysine, threonine, and possibly methionine are the most growth-limiting essential amino acids for foals, so supplementation is prudent. Lysine requirements are between 31 g/day at three months up to 40 g/day at 12 months of age.

• Sources of quality protein are milk protein/whey, soybean, or alfalfa meal.

• Attention should be afforded to an appropriate digestible energy (DE) content for age, from 13 Mcal/day at three months of age to 20.7 Mcal/ day at 12 months of age. It has been established that excess DE is the predominant cause of abnormalities in bone growth in the foal.

• Correct concentrations of minerals necessary for growth, in particular zinc, copper, calcium, and phosphorus.

• Calcium is a major component of bone, and its availability affects bone quality.

However, an excess of phosphorus in the diet will induce a calcium deficiency, and so the correct calcium to phosphorus ratio must be achieved, ideally at 2:1.

• Meals should be small and frequent and use a feeding system that prevents access to the feed by the dam.

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It has been suggested that introduccing creep feed prior to weaning contrib butes to excessive nutritional intake and its associated complications. However,, a study published by Coleman (1999)) found that creep feeding imparts a multitude of beneffiits. It was found that that creep-fed foals exhibited less distress during weaning, maintaineed optimum weight gains and body condition both before and after weaning, and showed fewer orthop paedic problems. In short, creep-fed foals were healthier and appeared to cop pe physically and psychologically betteer wit ith stress and change.

Highly digestible forage, such as good quality grass or a grass-legume hay (which isn’t too mature), should be made available.

When to wean

Non-n natural weaning is tyyp p piical wiitthin the sports horse industry, being more financially economical and practical fin fi from a business aspect. This accelerated weaning may be as fast as four-to-eight months, which is a signifi ficant departure fic from non-domesticated horses, where weaning is usually completed by the birth of the next foal in the subsequent year. Preventing access to the dam’s

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| WEANING |

milk and separation of the foal from the dam represents not just thee removal of nutritional support, but also the psychological bond betw tween w a mare and foal. Unfortunately, this processs can create signiffiicant stress for the foal, which if prolonged can lead to poor ovverall health, delayed growt wtth, and inccreased susceptibility ty to injury and diseease. In addition, stress can easily disrup pt the balance of bacteria in the hindggut.

Gastrointestinal adaptations to a changing diet

Creep feeding and free access to forage contributes to the proper maturation of the microbial community of the hindgut. Initial colonisation of the foal’s intestinal tract is catalysed by the dam’s own microbiota at birth, which is then boosted by subsequent contact wit ith bacteria in the general envi vironment, vir often including the ingestion of the dam’s own droppings. Allo ong wit ith sampling of small amounts of non-m milk food, these behavio iours all help to shape the bacterial profi file, particularly during fil the fi first 60 days of life. At four-tto-ssix fir months, changes of the enzyme activit ity in the small intestines also occur, wit ith a marked reduction in lactase (responsible for digesting milk) and a

corresponding increase in n maltase and sucrase (responsible for digesting starch and sugars). This correlaates well w wiith i the transition from a predominately milk-based diet to a plan nt-based one.

The role of the bacteriaal population of the hindgut is likely most recognised for the fermentation of co omplex carbohydrates, such as fo orages, to generate 60-70% of the horse’s total energy. However, it also plays a key role in optimising immunity, preventing overgrowt wth t of pathogenicc bacteria such fffiicile i , as Salmonella and Clostrridium diff and maintaining the heallth of the intestinal tract mucosa.

The development of a balanced bacterial population is essential, but our understanding of how this complex ecosystem proliferates remains frustratingly limited. It is known, n, however, that the microbial population begins to stabilise around two wo months of age and tends to mimic the dam’s own wn bacterial profi file. To enhance this fil process, some breeders may choose to supplement the foal’s diet wit ith probiotics (“live” bacteria, usually lactobacilli or bifiid dobacteria) or prebiotics (indigestible sugars that feed benefi ficial bacteria). fic

| NUTRITION |

| WEANING |

The effects of stress

WEANING IS UNDENIABLY A STRESSFUL EVENT FOR THE FOAL AND CAN DRAMATICALLY AFFECT THE BALANCE OF THE GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT. Despite being generally regarded as safe for adult horses (though proven benefits remain questionable) caution is advised when using probiotics in foals, following numerous reports of causing or exacerbating diarrhoea and other clinical signs of gastrointestinal disruption (Weese & Rousseau, 2005). However, prebiotics, such as Mannan Oligosaccharide (MOS) derived from yeast (S. cerevisiae) cell walls, can be helpful in balancing the gut microbiota.

MOS is particularly useful in being easily available for digestion by beneficial bacteria, facilitating removal of pathogenic bacteria, and stimulating the immune system.

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Weaning is undeniably a stressful event for the foal and can dramatically affect the balance of the gastrointestinal tract.

Reduced feed intake, increased defecation (indicating increased gut motility), and increased physical activity during this unsettled time can slow down weight gain, or even cause weight loss after weaning. The stress hormone cortisol, which is frequently found elevated during weaning, also plays a key role in disrupting the microbiota of the hindgut.

Prolonged cortisol circulation can modify the diversity of the bacterial population which in turn can limit proper immune response, affect gut motility, reduce integrity of the gut lining, and inhibit effective cellular turnover and repair. This also creates an increased vulnerability to pathogenic infection. Thus, using a method that minimises distress must be a key objective when weaning.

Maintaining digestive tract health

Early planning and preparation for weaning is central for a successful outcome. A fully balanced and correctly rationed creep feed should be introduced in time for weaning. Quality forage and access to clean water will encourage the foal to adapt well to the post-weaning diet

thereby reducing stress. Growth should be monitored regularly, with steps taken to address any deviations in weight or body condition.

The challenges to gastrointestinal tract health during weaning are significant and deserve close monitoring. During a period where growth and maturation of the hindgut microbiota is prominent, the change in diet coupled with the stress of weaning necessitates a robust plan for gastrointestinal support. Introducing a digestive tract supplement to support the health and correct functioning prior to and throughout weaning can complement a carefully constructed feeding programme. Supporting the growth of beneficial bacteria whilst suppressing pathogens can help the foal cope with the rigors of weaning and adjust to his new independence. Optimising gut health also minimises the risk of digestive disturbances and enables the foal to fully utilise the nutrition contained within his feed and forage.

Gastrointestinal tract health underpins all other biological systems in your horse, which in turn contributes to its overall health, trainability, temperament, athletic potential, and ultimately competitive success. Apply these lessons, and your foals will thrive.

ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| INDUSTRY |

Paull Khan

MIGHT TECHNOLOGICAL A D VA N C E L E A D TO G R E AT E R I N T E R N AT I O N A L C O O P E R AT I O N I N R A C I N G ?

I MP RE S S I O N S FRO M KO RE A AN D THE ASIAN RACING CONFERENCE

T

he Asian Racing Conference (ARC) was first staged 58 years ago and attracted less than 70 delegates. These days, it is held biennially, and the 37 th ARC returned to Seoul this year – the third time it has been Korean-hosted.

The Racing

Prior to the conference, delegates had the chance to attend Korean Derby Day at Seoul Racecourse Park. Prize money for the 11-race card averaged over €100,000

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 62

per race, with the Derby itself – won by 2/1 favourite Ecton Blade, a son of imported Kentucky-bred stallion Ecton Park – worth €640,000.

The grandstands at Seoul are enormous structures, stretching far along the finishing straight and reminiscent of those at Tokyo racecourse. For many of the 80,000 racegoers who can be accommodated, there is the option of an individually numbered seat, not with any vantage point affording a view of the track, but rather deep in the bowels of one or another of five identical and cavernous

floors. Each of these floors was packed this Derby Day with studious race fans, mostly deeply absorbed in their form guides, checking betting monitors, and scribbling notes, doubtless plotting betting combinations of fiendish complexity. The bias towards exotic bets is extreme in Korea, with just one percent of the handle directed at win bets.

By the time of each race, the crowds migrated to the viewing areas of the stands, looking out at the biggest bigscreen in the racing world – which, despite its 150m width, is every bit as

| EMHF |

picture-crisp as one would expect from Korean technology.

Racing is an immensely popular spectator sport in the country. Annual attendances of 15 million from a population of just 50 million put European countries to shame. (For example, in Britain, where racing is the second most popular spectator sport, the 65 million population only make 6 million racecourse visits, and even on the island of Ireland, the ratio is not as impressive as in Korea: 1.3 million turnstile clicks from a population of 6.6 million). One might imagine that this results from a monopoly that racing enjoys when it comes to the gambling options available to Korean citizens. To some extent, this is true: there is but one casino in the whole of the country which Koreans may enter, and there is no domestic online betting offering. But betting – albeit to limited stakes – is allowed on a variety of other sports, a curious selection, including cycling and ssireum (Korea’s answer to sumo wrestling). And illegal online betting is widespread.

So the numbers can be seen as a great advertisement for the sport. And the crowds were fully engaged in the day’s activities: noisy and every bit as animated as one would find at Ascot or Flemington.

But there is one striking feature of the scene at Seoul racecourse that sets it apart from virtually every other, outside the Middle East. It slowly dawns on one that these tens of thousands of committed racegoers are enjoying their long day’s racing…with not an alcoholic outlet in sight! Proof that racing can thrive without an alcoholic crutch: further evidence of just how our sport, in all its diversity around the world, maintains its ability to surprise us and challenge our stereotypes.

illuminated such things as the frightening increase in illegal betting, the (to many) puzzling speed of growth of eSports, and the growing menace of gene doping.

The standout ‘takeaway’ from the conference for me was a talk on broadcasting technology trends by Hong Kong Jockey Club senior consultant Oonagh Chan. While this fell within a session entitled “Reaching and Expanding Racing’s Fan Base” and focussed on technology advances in areas such as picture resolution and clarity, and how 360° video might attract new followers of horseracing, I was left pondering how dramatically they might also have an impact on stewards’ rooms around the world.

We were shown a race from Woodbine Racetrack in Canada, where a small video camera, which captured 360° video throughout the race, had been mounted on the helmet of one of the jockeys. Through complementary technology, anyone armed with a mobile device was then able to live that jockey’s experience of the race – choosing the angle of view as the race proceeded, for example, scanning round to see the horses to the immediate left or right, or the chasing pack. Just the sort of immersive experience that has long been standard fare for the computer gamer.

What was most impressive was the stability of the pictures, which has

improved vastly over the past few years.

The effect is no longer the seasicknessinducing rises and falls that we have become used to from television build-ups to a big race that utilises a ‘jockey-cam.’

One can only expect the size and weight of the cameras to reduce still further, and with the picture resolution – and therefore the clarity of the images – already excellent, it will only get better still as we advance from high-definition to 4K and, soon, to 8K standards. Also, a reduction in the length of time it takes after the race before the immersive video experience is available – currently around 10 minutes onto the YouTube platform.

So, yes, wonderful for the race fans with their mobile phones, and this may well help open up a new area of the market.

But surely, it is also only a matter of time before one racing authority or another picks this technology up and utilises it for regulatory purposes. With the wearing of these cameras made mandatory for all riders, stewards could make extensive use of the images, calling for the view from aboard whichever horses they wished, rotating the camera this way and that, and using these pictures to determine, with greater certainty than from the existing remote camera angles available, whether indeed there was a sufficient gap for the rider to go for, etc., etc.

The Conference

Those whose business is horseracing descended on Korea from Asia, Europe, and beyond. While the total of 600 or so delegates was some way short of the record numbers attracted to Hong Kong four years ago (tensions in Korea were particularly high at the time people were asked to commit to paying their USD $1,300 attendance fees, which could not have helped), to my mind, this ARC scaled new heights, in terms of the interest and relevance of the topics covered and the professionalism of the presenters.

Sweeping a bright but focused spotlight across a broad range of issues of real moment to our sport worldwide, it

The stewards’ enquiry may soon look very different

ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| INDUSTRY |

The EMHF General Assembly at the Ionic Centre, Athens.

Chan went on to describe advances in remote TV production capabilities, enabling ‘outside broadcasts light’ – i.e, with the need only for the cameras themselves, with the job previously conducted from an onsite, outside broadcast van now being perfectly feasibly handled remotely, bringing consequent savings in TV production control rooms and TV production teams.

Again, while her message centred on how these will affect the way in which live racing coverage is produced, they could equally bring about a further revolution in stewarding that could have internationalisation ramifications.

The idea of a ‘bunker,’ or remote control centre from which to hold stewards’ enquiries, is not a new one, of course, but it surely cannot now be long until it is a reality, as it already is in US basketball.

And, once established, I believe it has the potential to introduce an internationalism in horserace regulation which would be entirely new. A forward thinking racing authority establishing a central stewarding centre could offer to handle the stewarding function for others. For impecunious racing nations, this could be at a fraction of the cost of employing, training, and deploying their own team of stewards.

Outsourcing stewarding would promise further benefits over and above this, such as an improvement in the consistency of decision-making across countries, for a start. And secondly, it would offer an escape from accusations of conflicts of interest that can bedevil particularly the smaller racing administrations. In

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countries where the number of people sufficiently well versed and involved in the sport is limited, the task of ensuring an absence of conflicts of interest is a perennial issue. Finding stewards with the necessary expertise but with no connection at all to the participating horses can be difficult, and, however genuinely addressed, the perception of bias in the minds of trainers, owners, and punters will always linger. By passing over the role of a policeman to an objective third party, racing authorities could liberate themselves from this problem in a way which would, I believe, draw support from stakeholders and spectators alike.

National pride has always provided a powerful impediment to international cooperation in racing. Such cooperation as it exists is, it must be said, rudimentary.

Despite the fact that in Europe we have many countries with small-scale racing set-ups, often centred on a single racecourse, each racing authority currently bears the full cost of providing its own, discrete administrative machinery.

But maybe this stewarding example, born of a coalescence of technology advance with economic and administrative benefits, will break the mould. The costefficiency and harmonisation advantages of cross-border cooperation need not stop there. Handicapping could also be handled centrally. And why could we not also have peripatetic starters, medical officers, and veterinary officers whose ‘patch’ would include neighbouring countries? Might we be on the verge of a breakthrough in international cooperation?

Brian Kavanagh, EMHF Chairman

THE FEDERATION IS A VERY GOOD WAY FOR RACING AUTHORITIES TO EXCHANGE VIEWS AND BEST PRACTICE AND TO LEARN FROM EACH OTHER. NOW EIGHT YEARS OLD, IT CONTINUES TO PROMOTE HORSERACING IN THE REGION.

| EMHF |

Athens General Assembly

It is a policy of the European and Mediterranean Horseracing Federation that we hold our meetings in as many different member countries as possible. In this way, we all gain a better understanding of racing across our region, and countries can have an opportunity to showcase their racing. Thus it was that, following Annual General Assembly Meetings in Madrid, Morocco, St Moritz, Ireland and Stockholm, we congregated in Athens for this year’s event. The Acropolis provided a spectacular backdrop and we matched our record attendance of twenty member countries.

EMHF chairman Brian Kavanagh welcomed the turnout as testimony to the relevance of the EMHF to its members.

“The Federation is a very good way for racing authorities to exchange views and best practice and to learn from each other,” he said. “Now eight years old, it continues to promote horseracing in the region.”

All 20 countries confirmed that they had either already introduced the new world standard for the treatment of interference cases – which was adopted by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (the EMHF’s parent body) in October 2017 – or would do so by the end of the year. This will see a harmonised interference rule across the European and Mediterranean region and follows the staging of two EMHF seminars on the subject earlier in the year.

Delegates heard presentations from Danish Jockey Club CEO Peter Knudsen on recent changes to the betting laws in his country, from me on lessons to be drawn from European Commission decisions on the statutory funding of horseracing, and on the WhipChip from its inventors Ferhat and Erin Tigrel.

We also welcomed the Lithuanian Horse Racing Association as the new member organisation for that country.

The LHRA was appointed last year by the Lithuanian government as its governing authority for horseracing, and I carried out an inspection visit last November. The situation of Lithuania’s racing industry (if indeed it can be so termed) is remarkable.

I am frequently struck by how our sport can exist even in the harshest of financial or political environments. For example, after the ravages of war, one of the first examples of a return to normality is often the re-establishment of horseracing. In Lithuania, it is not conflict that provides the challenge, but economics. With a pool of only some 30 horses-in-training (yes, there

THE PRESIDENT OF THE LHRA MULTI-TASKS AS COMMENTATOR, AND THE LIVELY COMMENTARY BEGINS IN THE PARADE RING. is no nought missing, I said 30), and no access (until now) to foreign-trained runners to boost field sizes and negligible income from betting, the barriers to establishing racing on a meaningful and self-sufficient scale are dauntingly high. Efforts are reliant upon the support and enthusiasm of a small number of individuals, and what they have managed to create in the face of these disadvantages strikes me as both extraordinary and heartwarming.

Lithuania’s sole racecourse is at Raseiniai, midway between the capital Vilnius and the Baltic Sea. Run righthanded, it has a 1200-metre sand track with a 200-metre spur, surrounding a 1000-metre turf track. The grandstand is substantial, with a welcoming glassenclosed VIP area and new and extensive seating in the general area.

Eight race meetings are staged annually, with four thoroughbred races on each card. Unsurprisingly, average field sizes fall between four and five, requiring each horse in training to turn out, on average, for five of the eight fixtures. They compete for 600 per race, in front of

crowds that averaged around 50 three years ago but now range anywhere from 300 to over 1000. Spectators are treated to a commentary on the afternoon’s proceedings from which many major racing nations might learn. The president of the LHRA multi-tasks as commentator, and the lively commentary begins in the parade ring, covers the preliminaries, the race itself, and the winner’s enclosure, and it includes informative remarks about the procedures and rules of the day’s racing – all with an eye to educating, as well as interesting, the largely novice crowd.

Key to expansion would seem to be international acceptance, providing opportunities for horses struggling in neighbouring Poland, for example, to compete at a more modest level, and equally to give the best Lithuanian runners the chance to be tested in Poland, or even across the Baltic Sea in Sweden or Denmark. This was conditional on Lithuania adopting international standards of administration, and the LHRA have been keen to enshrine the principles of the International Agreement on Breeding, Racing and Wagering (the nearest that horseracing has to an international rules book) into their rules of racing. This willingness to learn and apply best practice was doubtless critical to achieving the unanimous decision of our members, in Athens, to accept the LHRA into the fold. Survival of racing in Lithuania will not be easy, but there is a great will to succeed and a big step has been taken. Already, a Polish-trained horse has competed at Raseiniai. It is important for all of us that racing, properly and responsibly run, exists in as many countries as possible, and the EMHF wishes Lithuania well.

Lithuanian Horse Racing Association president Evelina Kolbasnik (second from left) with Paull Khan (third from left) at Raseiniai

ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| INDUSTRY |

ELITE SALES HORSES

PREPARED FOR THEIR BIG DAY IN THE RING OR A CAREER ON THE TRACK? Lissa Oliver

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 62

Shutterstock & Caroline Norris

| Y E A R L I N G S A L E S A N A LY S I S |

A

question that continues to divi vide i commercial breeders and racehorse trainers is the defi fiinition of The Big Day. Many trainers believe too much pressure is put on horses during sales preparation, because for breeders the big day is a major price at a major sale. I therefore examined the high-end sales market, looking at the Top Ten sales toppers at major sales over a 10-year period, from 2005 to 2014, and their subsequent racing careers.

As we saw in the previ vious i issue, the assumption that the highest-priced (and thereby possibly the recorders of the fastest times) breeze-up horses would be ready to run wasn’t necessarily the case, w wiith i 40% of the graduates not seeing a racecourse until three-year-olds or older. Of those that raced as two-year-olds, the highest number of debuts were made in July, w wiith i August close behind.

More started in September and October than in May and June, and only 11% managed to wi win i ffiiirst time out at two.

Sixty percent ran at two, 26% won as two-year-olds, and 14% failed to reach the racecourse, w wiith i an overall ffiiigure of 56% win inners from the Top Ten of the selected sales over the decade.

YEARLING SIRES (WITH FOUR OR MORE ENTRIES AMONG THOSE SALES ANALYSED)* Sire

No. Sold

% l BT Gr1 Earniings Winners winners Unraced Total winners winners €100,000+

Galileo

79

49

62%

11

14

4

Montjeu

39

26

66%

1

8

4

Monsun

19

13

68%

1

3

Oasis Dream

18

12

66%

2

3

Dubawi

14

9

64%

2

1

Dansili

12

9

75%

1

1

Sadler’s Wells

12

6

50%

4

Pivotal

10

5

50%

1

Dalakhani

8

3

37%

1

Invincible Spirit

8

3

37%

2 1

Danehill

7

3

42%

Danehill Dancer

7

5

71%

Rock Of Gibraltar

7

6

85%

Sea The Stars

7

5

71%

2

Medicean

6

4

66%

1

Nayef

6

3

50%

1

Cape Cross

5

3

60%

1

New Approach

5

3

60%

Samum

5

2

40%

2

Teofilo

5

2

40%

2

Tiger Hill

5

3

60%

1

Giant’s Causeway

4

3

75%

High Chaparral

4

1

25%

1

Kingmambo

4

2

50%

1

Manduro

4

3

75%

1

Shamardal

4

3

75%

1

7 8 1

1

3 1

1

1

2

2

3 1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1 1

1 1

1

1 1

Similarly, the supposed advantage of choosing from mature horses at the National Hunt store sales wasn’t obvi vious i in the results. There were signifi ficantly i fewer unraced purchases compared to the Flat sales, wi wiith 8% at the Derby Sale and only 4% at the Land Rover, but 59% of graduates went on to wi wiin, which was on a par wi wiith the breeze-up graduates and, as we shall now see, the yearlings. In fact, given the higher proportion of runners, the National Hunt store graduates could even be argued to have produced a poorer proportion of wi wiinners.

In this issue, therefore, I wi wiill examine the yearling sales and the subsequent racecourse performance of the elite Top Ten purchases at the selected sales from 2005 to 2014. Career earnings have been included, but only as a guide to the general ability of the horse. The trading of horses in training means that earnings themselves have little relevance on whether a horse turned a profi fit i on its original purchase price, and the residual paddock value of ffiiillies also renders their career earnings irrelevant.

What the career earnings did reveal was that some British-trained wiin nners have amassed only €4,0 000 or less in earnings. This covers just eight weeks of training fees and is a derisible reward for a w wiiinning owner, partiicullarlly wh hen in Irelland d, for examplle, miiniimum prize money has risen from €6,000 to €10,000 and a sing gle w wiiin could payy the bills for four or ffiive i months.

Despite the prevailing idea that sales toppers don’t live up to expectations, the last 10 years of data of graduates of racing age (400 horses in total) paints a far rosier picture. Though 14% remained unraced, there is still a reasonably high strike rate of 59% wiin nners graduating from the Top Ten of the four major European yearling sales, 11% of graduates wi wiinning at blacktyp ype p level.

Goffs Orby

Goff fffs Orby graduates showed the highest percentage of w wiiinners, 61%, but also had the highest proportion of unraced graduates, at 17%. The period also recorded the lowest proportion of Group 1 wiin nners of the selected sales. Though only fractionally below Arqana and BBAG, it was still half that of Tattersalls Book 1. Blacktyp ype p wi wiinners comiing from the Top Ten were allso lower, though not signifi fiicantly, than Arqana and BBAG, but far short of Tattersalls Book 1.

Notable wi wiinners from the Top Ten over the decade were Cape Blanco, Together Forever, Lost In The Moment, Contest, and Theann.

Tattersalls Book 1

As the prices would suggest, Book 1 proved the marketplace for the better quality performers. The proportion of wiin nners was only slightly behind Goffs fs Orby, at 60%, as were the proportion of unraced graduates, 15%, but the elite end of the sale produced wiinners (6%) and a double the percentage of Group 1 wi signifi fiicantly higher proportion of blacktyp ype p performers (18%).

The headline horses w wiiithin the analysed group included Camelot, Was, Curv rvvyyy, Charming Thought, Leading Light, Rewi wiilding, Frozen Power, Berling, Anton Chekhov, Mount Helicon, and Sir Isaac Newt wtton.

* 2005 to 2014 ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| Y E A R L I N G S A L E S A N A LY S I S |

| INDUSTRY |

BBAG

YEARLING SALES TOPPERS Arqana

Career

Price

2014

Fadillah

Winner, €14,237

€1,200,000

2013

Propel

Unraced

€1,500,000

2012

Edkhan

Unraced

€1,200,000

2011

Flight To Fancy

Placed, €2,297

€1,700,000

2010

Caskelena

Winner, €4,800

€600,000

2009

Konsal

Unplaced

€900,000

2008

Tall Poppy

Unplaced

€770,000

2007

Age Of Aquarius

Gr3 winner, €299,456

€1,400,000

2006

Sortita

Winner, €15,316

€750,000

2005

Scotch Bonnet

Winner, €29,853

€580,000

BBAG

Career

Price

2014

Fast Lightning

Placed, €4,252

€450,000

2013

Santa Fe Chief

Winner, €240,535

€390,000

2012

Edda

Winner, €16,350

€320,000

2011

Broughton

Winner, €104,614

€220,000

2010

Eagle Spirit

Unplaced

€170,000

2009

Salvador

Winner, €21,800

€240,000

2008

Dawn Twister

Winner, €78,107

€480,000

2007

North Star

Winner, €66,680

€710,000

2006

Fortunato

Winner, €12,500

€200,000

2005

Persian Storm

Gr3 winner, €69,850

€300,000

Goffs Orby

Career

Price

2014

The Major General

BT winner, €64,975

€1,500,000

2013

Ol' Man River

Winner, €92,902

€2,850,000

2012

Burning Desire

Placed, €2,097

€800,000

2011

Rasmeyaa

Winner, €20,973

€350,000

2010

Irish History

Winner, €46,221

€950,000

2009

Pink Diva

Winner, €5,488

€475,000

2008

Famous

Winner, €159,579

€1,000,000

2007

Jane Eyre

Unplaced

€2,400,000

2006

Albarouche

Winner, €6,934

€2,000,000

2005

Shaafi

Unraced

€1,800,000

Tattersalls Book 1

Career

Price

2014

Pietro Testa

Winner, €1,265

£2,600,000

2013

Al Naamah

BT winner, €44,399

£5,000,000

2012

Hydrogen

Unplaced

£2,500,000

2011

Nazym

Unraced

£1,700,000

2010

Was

Gr1 winner, €319,386

£1,200,000

2009

Rudolf Valentino

Winner, €16,235

£700,000

2008

September Morn

Placed, €4,841

£650,000

2007

Liffey Dancer

Unraced

£2,500,000

2006

Time Control

Winner, €6,066

£1,200,000

2005

Bold Glance

Winner, €10,164

£1,250,000

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The German yearling sale proved one of the better markets for high earners, with 14% earning €100,000 or more on the racecourse, which compared favourably to Tattersalls Book 1. Although the Top Ten purchases were not among the highest priced of the four sales examined, 59% of them won and only 12% failed to reach a racecourse. 10% of the Top Ten went on to become blacktype winners and 3% won at Group 1 level.

Notable performers to come from the sale’s Top Ten were Dschingis Secret, Potemkin, Be Fabulous, Night Wish, Alianthus, Persian Storm, and La Luna De Miel.

Arqana

The Top Ten yearlings from the 10 years at Arqana were marginally the lowest proportion of winners, but 58% wasn’t too far behind Goffs Orby’s 61% high. Twelve percent remained unraced and 11% became blacktype winners, with 3% Group 1 winners more or less matching all bar Tattersalls Book 1. A good proportion of the elite graduates (11%) went on to earn €100,000 or more on the racecourse.

The stars of the decade were Chicquita, Immortal Verse, Recital, Age Of Aquarius, Montclair, Kreem, and The Juliet Rose.

Yearling sales elite overall

It is interesting to note that the cream of the European yearlings produced remarkably similar results, the only major fluctuations being a far higher proportion of blacktype and Group 1 winners emerging from Tattersalls Book 1 (reflected in sales price), a much lower percentage of Goffs Orby graduates managing to earn €100,000 or more, and a significantly higher number of BBAG graduates recovering their sales price on the racetrack.

Of the 400 highest-priced yearlings, only Camelot (£525,000 Tattersalls Book 1), Rewilding (£500,000 Tattersalls Book 1), and Cape Blanco (€330,000 Goffs Orby) became millionaire earners, despite a highest price of €5 million and 41 yearlings (10%) fetching €1 million or more. The lowest price within the Top Ten of each sale was €64,000 (BBAG, 2009), which secured World Star, who went on to win €133,850.

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ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| INDUSTRY |

Also l att the BBAG was Spriingb bok k Flyer, wh ho solld for €110,000 and earned €109,994 and was therefore included w wiithin i the 8% of those earning their sales price by dint of such a near-miss. At the Arqana sale, while only one off th he yearllings managed d to earn its salles price or above on the racetrack, this did not include the Classicw wiinning i ffiiilly and future sales topper Chicquita, who came very ry close, fetching €600,000 and earning €597,455.

With a lowest price of £425,000 and 21 yearlings fetching £1 million or more, the highest being £5 million, it should be no surprise that Tattersalls Book 1 showed the better racecourse results overall.

Looking at the sires whose progeny featured in the Top Ten of the decade, there are few surprises, although of Galileo’s 49 w wiinners, i only Cape Blanco managed to earn his purchase price on the racetrack. Fourteen percent, which translated to seven horses, of the w wiinning i Galileos earned €100,000 or more, but he also sired 11 who remained unraced (13%), by far the highest proportion of unraced yearlings. Thirty percent of the late-lamented Montjeu won at least €100,000 in prize money.

When we consider the similar statistics of the breeze-up sales and National Hunt store sales, spending heavi vily i on the highest price animals seems to yyiield i a 60% chance of securing a wi winner, i regardless of whether it’s Flat or National Hunt or ready-to-run. A store horse may provi vide i

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 62

| Y E A R L I N G S A L E S A N A LY S I S |

the greattestt ch hance off acttuallly havi ving i a runner, butt it’s fair to say all of the sales have performed equally well at this top end of the marketplace.

The biggest question going into future sales would appear to be more ab bout stalllions th han progeny. Th he big names currently dominating the catalogues wi will i not be there forever and many represented here, between 2005 and 2014, have already been lost to us. Looking at those coming through, it’s hard to see which stallion might provi vide i the same dominance we’ve been used to. Whether that w wiill i be benefi fiicial to the market, we’ll have to see.

TOP 10 PURCHASES FROM 2005-2014 SALE

WINNERS UNRACED

TOTAL BT WINNERS

GR1 WINNERS

EARNINGS €100,000+

Arqana Yearlings

58%

12%

11%

3%

11%

Goffs Orby

61%

17%

8%

2%

7%

BBAG Yearlings

59%

12%

10%

3%

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ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

61

| BUSINESS |

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 62

| APPEARANCE FEES |

SH O UL D HO R SE S B E PAI D T O RA C E ?

Chris Cook

H

orseracing has never been the kind of sport to rely on a maxim like: ‘If you build it, they will come.’ If you want people to run horses at your racecourse, you have to give them a good reason, like prize money or the promise of a good time or the chance of landing a prestigious and historic contest.

And some go further than that, offering an additional payment as incentive to owners to show up. Racing has, over the years and in several countries, dabbled with various schemes that might broadly be grouped under the heading of appearance money, without really talking through the implications.

This might be a good time to have that conversation because the incentive for tracks to attract the big-name horses is only going to increase. For evidence of that, one only has to ask Nick Smith, director of racing and communications at Ascot, about the benefits that flow now and will eventually flow to the Queen’s track from having a good number of international raiders at the Royal meeting every summer.

“We started chasing international horses just because we wanted to make the meeting more interesting and develop an identity,” Smith said. “The Gold Cup is a wonderful race, but it’s a long time since people woke up in the winter talking about the Gold Cup at Ascot. It doesn’t happen.

“So the Royal meeting needed an identity over and above fashion, globally. And that’s why we worked from the start on bringing the internationals in, to make it Europe’s international hub. Now the benefits are really starting to flow in because the media rights money is all

Eclipse Sportswire, Shutterstock, Caroline Norris

linked in, the betting will become linked in -- that’s a bit further down the line but it’s coming -- and there’s the intangible sponsorship benefits. Plus, it’s what people talk about in the pub, they talk about the Australian winner, the American winner. It’s one of the key selling points.”

Thanks to a steady stream of US-trained winners at Royal Ascot in recent years, notably the star mare Tepin, NBC covered at least four races in that country on all five days this summer, broadcasting from two fixed positions at the course. Smith adds: “If you can put a presentation together for new sponsors that [shows coverage by] NBC, Channel 7, NHK, Fuji TV, and ITV, then you can go to sponsors and say, ‘This is what we deliver.’ Everything comes together for the general good.”

As you might expect, Ascot has sought to be responsible in its means of attracting those valuable raiders to Britain.

Smith pays a fixed sum to each runner from outside Europe, depending on which part of the world they’re coming from, the aim being to cover about half of their travel costs. But he will only pay for “Group One horses in Group One races,” with the result that Wesley Ward’s many two-year-old raiders have never qualified and must pay their own way.

“What you don’t want is too many horses coming just because it’s a good gig. Whilst we’re really happy to have a 115-rated horse run in our Group One races and we are very happy to pay a travel allowance towards that, if we did full payments for those kind of horses, we would be overwhelmed and most of them would be out of their depth.”

Smith stresses that what he is paying is “a travel allowance,” to avoid any suggestion that it might be appearance money as understood in some other sports, i.e an amount that might actually be greater than the prize ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| BUSINESS |

money on offer. No one can hope to secure a net profit just by having a runner at Ascot; for that to happen, the horse must perform well.

Nevertheless, Smith is considering whether to introduce a “double allowance” for horses rated 130 or over, on the basis that there will only be one or two in the world at any time. “What I wouldn’t do is change the rules for a particular horse. Black Caviar got the same allowance as everybody else and they wanted to run, so they invested in it as well, like every other horse owner.

“In the case of horses like Winx, there is an argument that the merit of having them here, in terms of media rights value and marketing, does merit you being slightly more flexible. But what I don’t want to do is be so flexible that you’re having 15 different conversations with 15 trainers, who all talk to each other and then it isn’t fair.”

In the end, Winx’s connections decided that staying in Australia was in her best interests and it does not appear that cold, hard cash would have changed their minds.

Would Smith have been prepared to make an offer, had it seemed likely to make the difference? He doesn’t think so.

“You want to talk to people whose mentality is, ‘I want to do this,’ and then you assist them. What you don’t want is to put an incentive in place that makes them want to come [when they otherwise wouldn’t].”

Other tracks, in Britain and elsewhere, have discovered that a range of financial incentives can help to get the right horse to a major race. An owner might be allowed a “risk-free entry” for an early-closing race, the fee being refunded if their horse doesn’t run. The cost of stabling an international runner might be paid for by the track.

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ABOVE: Tepin, Julien Leparoux up, is led in by owner Robert Masterson and Sarah Campion after her win in Royal Ascot’s Queen Anne Stakes

At Goodwood, staff have discovered that “experiential” incentives can have more impact than money. The horses they hope to attract tend, after all, to be owned by people whose need for another dollar is not pressing. But those people might very much enjoy spending the night before the race in Goodwood House as a guest of the Duke of Richmond, or perhaps taking a spin round the estate’s motor racing circuit in a Ferrari.

Such deals are private arrangements between owner and racecourse and, in Britain at least, they often go unmentioned in public. The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) says it has no concerns about that from a regulatory perspective, as every horse is still regulated independently.

My personal preference would be for such deals to be acknowledged in public by the parties, providing the transparency which is so healthy for a public sport; but then, as a journalist, I would say that, wouldn’t I? Ireland has remained innocent of such incentives, the Turf Club’s Denis Egan telling me that the priority remains offering good prize money. But Leopardstown was part of a joint effort by several tracks to attract Winx, and a new willingness to reach out to foreign raiders is also evident at the Curragh, where a smart new yard has been built in the stable block specifically for horses from overseas.

France also remains aloof. “It wouldn’t be appropriate or fair to the connections paying regularly to run in our races to give appearance money to their competitors,” said a statement from France-Galop, which runs the sport as well as six of the biggest French tracks. It is prepared to assist in organising logistics for foreign raiders, but no money changes hands, I was assured.

| APPEARANCE FEES |

WE WERE TRYING TO SAY TO THOSE OWNERS OF HORSES DRAWN WIDE, WE DO UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE AT A DISADVANTAGE BUT PLEASE DO RUN BECAUSE THERE IS A FINANCIAL REWARD. Germany’s Direktorium insists that a sum to mitigate travel expenses is paid to every runner in every race there, though the amount varies from track to track and runner to runner, depending on distance travelled and recent form. That assertion clashed with the experience of three British trainers I asked, who are not aware of having had such payments when they raced in Germany.

“The prize money is dire in Germany and Italy don’t pay, so I’ve virtually ruled them out,” the Newmarketbased William Haggas told me. “And in Germany, those races are not that easy to win, either.

“I’ve got a runner in New York and I get a $20,000 travel allowance for him, which covers about half my costs. It’s the Belmont Gold Cup, an invitational. I think I’m right in saying that, if they’re invitation races abroad, you then get their travel allowance.

“For example, Moonee Valley will pay you quite considerable costs to run in the Cox Plate. But the Melbourne Cup is not an invitational, so Flemington don’t pay anything towards your travel costs.”

Haggas is comfortable with Ascot’s efforts to attract foreign runners to Britain, even while it makes their prizes harder for him to win. “They’re taking Ascot to the rest of the world. So if you get a big Hong Kong horse coming, does it make it better for us? As trainers, as participants, probably not. But for racing as a whole, it surely does. And that’s what we have to look at, I think, is the big picture.”

Huge sums were bandied about in public when US tracks were trying to lure American Pharoah in the weeks after he won the Triple Crown in 2015, including a touted

$5 million bonus for a three-race series. In the end, the colt followed an orthodox route that could have been mapped out for him before the Kentucky Derby. And therein lies a major limitation of using money as a lure.

Getting horsemen to deviate from established paths is hard work.

This is also what Ascot found when it tried another variation on the theme of appearance money in relation to its jump racing. Frustrated by small numbers of runners, course officials offered field-size bonuses for some races, which would significantly improve the prize money if a certain number of horses ran. In Smith’s recollection, the bonus was triggered just once before the project was at length abandoned.

More success has been enjoyed by Chester with a scheme it introduced in 2016, guaranteeing a minimum of £500 to connections of every runner, regardless of where it finishes. The aim is to compensate for the notorious draw bias at the almost circular track.

“We were trying to say to those owners of horses drawn wide, we do understand that you are at a disadvantage but please do run because there is a financial reward,” says Chester’s head of racing, Andrew Morris. “We also looked at the return an owner gets on his investment, which we know in the UK is pretty low. If we have 12 runners in a race, only six are receiving prize money. So we wanted to widen that, to reward owners for their investment.”

It worked. In the first year, withdrawals dropped from 106 to 81, while total runners went up from 597 to 667.

Other tracks with awkward topographies or ineradicable biases should surely be considering similar action.

ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| BUSINESS |

On a much more ambitious scale, the BHA started 2018 by committing £6.5 million of central funds to an appearance money scheme aimed at the sport’s middle and lower tiers. Qualifying races now have prize money of £300 or £350 for horses finishing fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth.

The initiative was prompted by the discovery that the owner of an average Flat racehorse in Britain was getting back just 8p in prize money for every £1 he spent on its upkeep. Surveys also identified an unsurprising correlation between horses who went an entire year without getting prize money and owners who drifted out of the game, never to return.

Richard Wayman, the BHA’s chief operating officer, says that in addition to offering those owners a return, the hope is to increase the number of races with at least eight runners, which are more attractive to bettors, and perhaps also to drive up the average number of races run by horses each year.

AS LONG AS THE WINNER GETS HALF OF THE POT, I’M NOT AGAINST IT. IT USED TO BE THAT THE SECOND PLACE WAS PAID VERY HIGHLY IN FRANCE. 66

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| APPEARANCE FEES |

ABOVE: Wesley Ward gives Lady Aurelia water after her King’s Stand Stakes win at Royal Ascot last year

Similar thinking is behind the decision in France to pay prize money down to seventh place in some handicaps, to which some object as tending to reduce the pressure to obtain a better position. The Arc-winning trainer Nicolas Clement sees the positives, however. “They’ve done it in America,” he says, “and studies show that, if you give up to seventh or eighth place, your chance of having an extra runner is good and the extra runner is going to boost income, which is going to boost purse money. More runners, more betting, more income.

“As long as the winner gets half of the pot, I’m not against it. It used to be that the second place was paid very highly in France. You would get 40% or 45% of the winning prize and you even had people who would rather be twice second in handicaps, get no penalty and stay at the same level than win.” Now that prize money is spread further down the order, the return for running second is reduced.

It’s too early to say whether such schemes can be called a success, but anyone who loves racing could be pleased by the attempt to do something in support of the game’s general health. The motivation is much less altruistic when it comes to major tracks battling each other for star names or big fields.

“We, racecourses, are all in competition for runners,” says Morris. “Not many people seem to say it but there is only a certain horse population.”

If Smith is right about the gains to be made from high profile runners, that competition will intensify over time and across Europe. Inventive use of appearance money could become a factor that separates successful tracks from those that just keep going at the one pace.

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ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

67

| VETERINARY |

Celia M. Marr Shutterstock, Sarah-Jane Bullock

OSTEOCHONDROSIS:

GENETIC CAUSES AND EARLY DIAGNOSIS

O

steochondrosis (OC) is a common lesion in young horses affecting the growing cartilage of the articular/ epiphyseal complex of predisposed joints at specific predilection sites.

In the young thoroughbred, it commonly affects the stifles, hocks, and fetlocks. As this condition has such important impact on soundness across many horse breeds, it is commonly discussed in Equine Veterinary Journal. Four recent articles covered causes of the disease, its genetic aspects, and a new and very practical approach to early diagnosis through ultrasound screening programmes on stud farms.

OC is a disease of joint cartilage. Cartilage covers the ends of bones in joints, and healthy cartilage is central

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to unrestricted joint movement. With OC, abnormal cartilage can be thickened, collapsed, or progress to cartilage flaps or osteochondral fragments separated from the subchondral bone leading to osteochondrosis dissecans (OCD). OC and OCD can be regarded as a spectrum rather than two discrete conditions.

Certain joints are prone to OC & OCD, and there is

| OSTEOCHONDROSIS |

b

d

forest-dweller with which equine evolution started some 65 millions of years ago, had evolved at this speed, the average horse would now have stood a staggering 40 miles at the withers.

Drs Naccache, Metzger, and Distal, based at the Institute for Animal Breeding and Genetics in Hannover, Germany, have worked extensively on heritability and the genetic aspects of OC in horses. Their work has shown that there is not one single gene involved. In fact, genes located on not less than 20 of the 33 chromosomes of the horse are relevant to OC. These researchers use whole genome scanning â&#x20AC;&#x201C; otherwise known as genome-wide association studies, or GWAS. This approach has only been possible since the equine genome was mapped. GWAS look at the entire

LEFT: Fig 1. Each row of radiographs on the left and standard and magnified ultrasound images on the right are from the same young foal. In the top foalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ultrasound (US) images (b) distinct V shape indentations and in the next row, small circular areas of cartilage retention in US image (d) are normal. In the bottom set (f) early osteochondrosis creates the semicircular wider indentation.

f some variation between breeds on which joints have the highest prevalence. In Australian thoroughbredss, 10% of yearlings had stifle OC, 8% had fetlock OC, and 6% had hock OC. The prevalence data may seem verry high, but thoroughbred breeders may take some com mfort in learning that similar, and indeed slightly higher prevalences, are reported in the warmblood breeds, standardbreds, and Scandinavian and French trotterss.

Heavy horse breeds have the highest prevalences.

In an article discussing progress in OC/OCD reseaarch, Professor Rene Van Weeren concludes that the cliniccal relevance of OC is man made. In feral horses, where there is no human influence on mating pairings, OC does occur but at much lower prevalence than in horse breeeds selected for sports or racing. Similarly, in pony breed ds where factors other than speed and size are desirablee characteristics, OC is also rare. These facts suggest that sports and racehorse breeders have inadvertentlyy introduced a trait for OC along with other, desired traits. There is a strong link between height and OC, suggesting that one of the desired traits with uninten nded consequences is height. This is of particular relevancee in sports horses: the Dutch warmblood has become talller at a rate of approximately 1 mm per year over the passt decades, which might not seem much but it is still an n inch in 25 years. Van Weeren points out that if the tw wohands tall Eohippus or Hyracotherium, the browsing g ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

69

| VETERINARY |

| OSTEOCHONDROSIS |

a

b

e

f

c

d

g

h

Fig 2. The top row shows subclinical osteochondrosis lesions in a 67-day-old foal. The OC lesion is obvious in the lateromedial radiograph (arrow, a) but not on the oblique projection (b). Ultrasonography showed defects in two areas, visualised here in long axis (c) and transverse planes (d).

The lower row shows a 118-day-old foal with a healing lesion. Changes are minimal on radiographs (arrows e & f), but the ultrasonographic examination revealed a multifocal semicircular defect (red circle, g & h). This illustrates that ultrasonography is a more effective tool for monitoring healing that radiography.

genetic map to detect differences between subjects with and without a particular trait or disease. Millions of genetic variants can be read at the same time to identify genetic variants that are associated with the disease of interest. Based on the number of genetic markers already found in warmblood OC, it is unlikely that a simple single-gene test will prove to be useful for screening young thoroughbreds for OC. Understanding which genetic variants are associated with a particular disease can give important clues on the biological processes that contribute to that condition.

This, in turn, can reveal novel drug targets and improve therapy. Gene expression studies can also explain exactly how some undesirable traits, like OC, are closely linked to desirable traits. Equine genetic studies of this type are still relatively rare. Dr Naccache’s group in Hannover are applying these cutting edge technologies to study OC in the hanoverian breed, where OC is highly heritable. But this research area is relatively unexplored in racing breeds and more work is urgently needed for the thoroughbred.

What we do know about genetics and OC in thoroughbreds is that OC actually has lower heritability compared to warmbloods. Drs John and Tom Russell of Victoria Equine Group in Australia recently reported some of their work, which involved collaboration with researchers Richard Reardon and Oswald Matika from the University of Edinburgh to look at this issue. Sales radiographs from almost 2,000 thoroughbred yearlings were reviewed, and horses were classified as being OC-affected or not. Pedigree information was analysed to granddam and grandsire level. An important outcome was that it showed that non-genetic factors such as

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nutrition also are very important in thoroughbred OC. Heritability of OC is lower in thoroughbreds than in other breeds, but amongst the various forms of OC seen in this group of yearlings, stifle OC and in particular OC lesions of the lateral trochlear ridge of the distal femur (LRTF) were more heritable than OC of the hock and fetlock.

LRTF lesions are one of the forms of OC most likely to adversely affect a horse’s racing career. On the other hand, these lesions can heal in foals up to about eight months of age with appropriate management. Therefore, there is considerable benefit in identifying these lesions early – ideally before joint distension is easily apparent on visual inspection. To meet this clinical need, a group of Canadian veterinarians lead by Professor Sheila Laverty has developed an ultrasound technique for screening the stifle of young foals. Dr Gabrielle Martel reported on work performed on 46 thoroughbreds on a single farm.

The foals were examined with an ultrasound unit similar to the equipment used for tendon scanning. Radiographs – the current standard technique for diagnosing OC – were obtained for comparison.

Very young foals have thick cartilage that gradually remodels to bone as the foal grows. The interface between the cartilage and bone – the chondro-osseus interface – is highly indented in young foals and gradually becomes smoother and thinner with age. There is also change in the pattern of small blood vessels within the cartilage as the joint develops. Looking for changes in these three features can identify OC. In early OC lesions, characteristic semi-circular indentations are easily distinguished with ultrasound.

Ultrasound imaging effectively monitored healing, and subtle changes not obvious with radiography could be picked up with ultrasonography. Ultrasound is widely available and, with training, easy to perform. Repeated ultrasound exams are more practical than multiple radiographs. In this work, Dr Martel has provided stud vets with very useful information that will allow them to more effectively identify and manage OC of the stifle in young thoroughbreds.

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ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| TRAINING |

STARTING OUT Charting Gavin Hernon’s plan to become a trainer

Gavin Hernon is about to set up as a licensed trainer. He’s young, ambitious, and internationally minded.

With experience of training yards in Ireland, Newmarket, Chantilly, and the USA, Gavin is hoping to launch his career in Chantilly. Over the coming months we’re going to be charting his progress, looking at all the highs and lows of a young trainer starting out.

IN HIS OW N WORD S: I’m 26 years of age and from Cork (Ireland). Having grown up on a stud farm, I started in the racing industry with Jim Bolger and spent four years with him whilst at school and university, where I studied international commerce with French at UCD in Dublin. I had ambitions to be a jump jockey, but during my time with Mr Bolger, it quickly became apparent to everybody that this was not what nature had intended. So, through my passion

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for racing and all things horses, training seemed to be the route for me and I put France on a shortlist of places to do it from.

As part of my degree, I spent a year studying in France and learned the French language and the French culture. Thanks to Christy Grassick at Coolmore, I was able to secure a pupil assistant role with André Fabre and I simply fell in love with Chantilly. It’s a picture perfect training centre. Having spent the best part of the 2013 and 2014 seasons with Mr Fabre, I had my heart set on the place but was aware that with the vast array of gallops available I still had a lot to see, so in 2015 I decided to move one mile up the road to Mr Nicolas Clement. I am fortunate that both Nicolas and André were and remain to this day great mentors to me.

For the past year, I have been based with Graham Motion working as an assistant.

I worked in Fair Hill (Training Center), Maryland, during the summer and spent the winter with his string at Palm Meadows (Training Center) in Florida. Leg maintenance, gate work, and the different medication usage were all of the utmost importance to my learning experience

with Graham but above all else was the organization and diligence required to run a business of that magnitude.

Why have I chosen Chantilly?

I promise it’s not all about cheese and wine. Economics are the primary reason. The average prize money of circa €25,000 per race, coupled with up to 60% in premiums, makes it hard to look elsewhere in Europe, and I would argue that given a lower average training bill than our American and Australian counterparts, it is one of the most economically viable countries in the world in which to own a racehorse.

The sheer choice in the range of gallops in Chantilly is mind boggling. Les Lions Gallop is where I’m hoping to do much of my work. I draw a lot of similarities with it to Jim Bolger’s incline gallop. You can do different levels of intensity work. Being surrounded by the forest is invaluable in getting these horses to relax and enjoy their work.

Fifty-five percent of France’s group winners are trained here, and I believe that is a statistic that speaks volumes.

| GAVIN HERNON |

The training centre is meticulously maintained by Matthieu Vincent, Marin le Cour Grandmaison, and the whole team there.

I could have easily chosen to train in Ireland or the United Kingdom. If I had been training back home, with one or two race meetings per day, it would be much

I COULD HAVE EASILY CHOSEN TO TRAIN IN IRELAND OR THE UNITED KINGDOM. IF I HAD BEEN TRAINING BACK HOME, WITH ONE OR TWO RACE MEETINGS PER DAY, IT WOULD BE MUCH TOUGHER TO COMPETE.

tougher to compete with some of the big yards. If I have an average horse in France, I can travel two hours away from Paris and get away from the big trainers sporting their blue blood pedigrees and find a winning opportunity to put the horse in the right direction. And what’s more is France Galop will subsidise the cost of travelling a horse to the races for up to €3,000 per year.

Attracting owners is a challenge faced by all new trainers and one that I’m acutely aware of, but the challenge only starts there, as once an owner comes on board it becomes about retention, and that is where owner participation and communication are important to me. The proximity to one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations allows Chantilly to seamlessly fit in to a weekend break. I much rather the idea of an international owner being able to see their horse 40 minutes after getting off a plane than having to make the journey to the other side of the country.

But there are more immediate tasks at hand that require focus, attention, and hard work before getting too far down the road.

The licensing process is a bit nervewracking in France but I believe it’s for

the best. It’s quite a lengthy process with many hurdles to cross, but you are given an intense five-week course on accounting and social security in France, which will hopefully set me in good stead.

I am also planning on looking further afield for owners, paying particular attention to China.

I would hope syndicates will become more prominent in France. Their success in Australia speaks for itself and it’s encouraging to see France Galop taking steps to make syndication more accessible in France.

I know that my eyes are going to be opened once I get going, as apart from managing the business side of things, I’ll have the horses to train, and regardless of what I say in theory it’s the results on which I will be judged.

It’s going to take a lot of hard work at every step along the way, from exams to sourcing a yard and staff, and it’s only then that the hard work of securing horses and owners formally starts. Like everyone in this business I’ll need a lot of luck along the way, but I’ve got good experience behind me and I won’t be shy about the hard work.

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| TRAINING |

Oscar Yeadon

The Balding family

IAN BALDING A lthough it’s now been more than 15 years since Ian Balding handed over his training licence to his son Andrew, he remains an active team member at Park House Stables. The former champion trainer wiilll turn 80 later this year but continues to ride an ex-racehorse on a daily basis, still pursuing a passion which could have led him down a diffe ferent career path but for some timely advic ice.

“I loved riding jumpers and wanted to concentrate on that, but I very nearly didn’t take up the chance to train until Prince Philip talked me out of it. I was stayin ing wi with my then future mother-in-law, wit Priscilla Hastings-Bass. At dinner, Prince Philip said to me, ‘It’s important that young people take their golden opportunities, as this is what made our country great!’”

Balding became a trainer through the death of the then-trainer at Park House Stables, Peter Hastings-Bass. Park House Stables was patronised by some of the sport’s most infl fluential owners, and flu Balding found himself in charge of one of the country’s most powerful strings.

“It was 1964 and I was 25 and had been assistant trainer for only three months.

At that time, the Jockey Club wouldn’t allow ladies to hold a trainer’s licence, so followin ing Peter’s tragic death at only 43, Priscilla couldn’t take over. The Jockey Club wouldn’t let me train professionally and ride as an amateur, but they made an allowance to accommodate so I could still ride horses that I owned myself.

“I think it was because I was so young that I don’t remember being daunted by

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the owners. I met the Queen very early on and she was lovely, very understanding and very knowledgeable.

“In becoming trainer in the circumstances I did, I was rather overwhelmed and nervous. Happily, we had a wonderful head lad in Bill Palmer, and Priscilla helped me tremendously.

Thank God we had some decent owners

and horses in the yard at that time.”

Just weeks into his training career, Ian Balding trained two Royal Ascot win inners on the same day, which included Silly Season’s vi victory in the Coventry Stakes, vic cementing the young trainer’s relationship wit ith the two-year-old colt’s owner, the American anglophile and philanthropist, Paul Mellon.

| HINDSIGHT |

“I was incredibly lucky to have the two Royal Ascot wi winners so soon, and I win think we fi finished second in the trainers’ fin championship that year.”

Owner and trainer would scale even greater heights on the racecourse wiitth the legendary Mill Reef.

“It was clear he was special from a very early stage,” remembers Balding. “When he fi first came here, he went for a canter fir over four furlongs. Beforehand, I said to his lad, John Hallum, ‘Go at a nice sensible pace, up the hill and round the corner, and then a stride faster.’ Suddenly, Mill Reef was 10-20 lengt gths clear. Before gth I could give John an almighty b******ing on his return, he said, ‘Guv’nor, I promise you, I did just what you said…’”

Mill Reef would realise the potential shown on that spring morning at Kingsclere several times over and was crowned champion English three-year-old colt at the end of the followin ing season, which played a large part in securing the championship for his trainer.

Balding rates his favourite memory from the period as the Gimcrack Stakes, when Mellon att ttended to see his horse race for tte the fi first time but heavy fir vy rain had soft ftened fte the ground. Afftte ter walking the track at York, Balding and jockey Geoff ff Lewis is both felt

Father and son Ian and Andrew Balding

the going was against Mill Reef.

“We had a crucial meeting wi with Mr wit Mellon outside the weighing room and he just said, ‘Let him run, I have a funny feeling that everyth thing wiilll be alright.’ Mill Reef skipped over the ground and won by 10 lengt gths.” gth Balding believes that Mill Reef ’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe win in was the highlight of his three-year-old campaign. “He was the fi first English-trained horse to win fir in

for many years and there were so many English supporters there, wearing black and gold scarves.”

The Arc win in was one of many for Balding’s string on the international racing scene, including several win ins in the Grosser Preis Von Baden wi with sons of wit Mill Reef. “I loved going abroad. It was probably easier to win in a Group 1 race overseas than at home, and that may still be the case now.”

Clare, Ian, Andrew Balding, and Alice Arnold

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| TRAINING |

| HINDSIGHT |

Ian is still an active member of the Park House team (see below), including playing football with his grandchildren, Jonno and Toby

At the start of the 1980s, Ian Balding was still riding competitively in amateur riders’ races and fi finished fourth in the fin 1983 Foxhunters’ aboard Ross Poldark.

“By this time I was in my mid-forties, and I think Mr Mellon and the Queen may have both felt the time had come for me to hang up my saddle. The Queen simply said to me, ‘I really think it is time you stopped riding in races.’”

As the decade progressed, Balding says the stable probably reached its zenith in the era of top-class horses such as Lochsong and Selkirk. “It all depends on havi ving good vin horses and we were lucky to have those horses in our stables at the same time

time, as well as own wners such as Mr Mellon, wne George Strawbridge, and Jeff ff Smith.”

Away from the results on the track, one area in which Park House Stables has always excelled is in its staff ff development, as evi videnced by its list of former apprentice vid jockeys, which includes the likes of the late John Matt tthias, Davi tth vid Probert, and William vid Buick, and the number of long-term staff ff working at the stables.

“I still talk to the lads at the British Racing School once a year and I cannot stress enough the importance of looking after staff ff, from the provi ff, vision of decent vis accommodation to simply making time to talk to them and listen to their feelings.”

THE QUEEN SAID TO ME, ‘ I R E A L LY T H I N K IT IS TIME YOU STOPPED RIDING IN RACES.’ To that end, Balding is supportive of industry initiatives such as the NTF’s Team Champion Awards scheme, which recognises the contribution of stable staff ff. ff.

“Anyt ything that acknowledges the yth importance of stable staff ff is worth doing, and awards for staff ff are admirable.”

If staff care has remained a constant at Kingsclere, Ian Balding fi finds that the fin methods he once employed have changed.

“I used to let horses cover a bit of ground, yet Andrew rarely even goes to the Downs these days. I understand that it takes less time to get from A to B in the mornings if you have a four-furlong allweather surface close by, and that horses are more fragile these days and rarely go fl flat out, but Andrew is successful so I fla won’t quibble!”

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ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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PRODUCT FOCUS NEW TO THE UK MARKET – THE HIDEZ COMPRESSION SUIT New to the UK market is the Hidez compression suit, which joins the proven and trusted horse healthcare range under the umbrella of the Niagara Healthcare Group, and that includes the leading equine cyclo therapy sports massage product Equissage Pulse.

Compression suits are already a wellestablished therapy used extensively by human athletes across the globe, and are well documented for their contribution to improving performance and aiding in injury repair and recovery. Hidez graduated compression suits have been developed to offer our equine athletes the same performance enhancing and recovery technology opportunities.

Hidez works by applying graduated compression to muscle groups which forces the return of fluid from the

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limbs back into the bloodstream. The enhancement of blood flow and oxygen availability to the animals’ muscles speeds up the removal of waste products such as lactic acids, and so can play a major role in relief from pain, muscle fatigue and stiffness whilst supporting the stabilization of joints and reducing risk of injury.

Hidez also provides the perfect solution to protect muscles and reduce fatigue during travelling when vibrations and standing can overstretch muscles.

Niagara Healthcare Group has a long history of providing a range of proven and trusted horse health care products.

‘Some of the biggest names in the equine market use and endorse our products including leading show producer Katie Jerram, world class dressage rider Isabell

Worth, show jumper George Whittaker, and racing’s Willie Mullins’ said National Manager Victoria Archer. ‘We are very proud to have added Hidez to our product range and look forward to working with horse owners every step of the way to provide superior care for their animals to help them achieve their personal performance goals.’ ● To find out more about Hidez or Equissage Pulse call Team Equissage on 0800 689 9844 or visit at www. niagaraequissage.com

| PRODUCT FOCUS |

KEEP YOUR HORSE MOVING WITH TRM’S KURASYN 360X

STAY HYDRATED WITH TOPSPEC ELECTROLYTES

New TopSpec Electrolytes are designed to help compensate for electrolyte loss after heavy sweating.

This new additive has a high salt formula, contains wildberry to aid palatability and is recommended by equine veterinary practices and independent nutritionists.

What are electrolytes?

Some minerals are also called electrolytes. This is because when dissolved in body fluids they carry spare ions which give them an electrical charge.

Electrolytes use this charge to help control the water balance in a horse, trying to maintain a sufficiently hydrated status at all times. Electrolytes also play an important role in muscle function and through their role in hydration both temperature regulation and the transport of nutrients and waste products throughout the horse’s body.

If electrolytes are not added to a horse’s diet many problems may occur including dehydration or excessive hydration. Dehydration can be life-threatening and is frequently performance-limiting, with colic and ‘Tying-Up’ the most wellknown consequences.

A horse has only to become mildly dehydrated in order to lose performance, sometimes reported as a lack of stamina and slow recovery rates. If the losses of electrolytes are very high a disruption in the balance of electrical charge both inside and outside of a muscle cell can upset normal contraction and relaxation processes.

TopSpec Electrolytes can be fed to horses to help compensate for electrolyte loss during sweating, with many resulting benefits.

The addition of salt to the diet should be sufficient for horses only sweating lightly. TopSpec Electrolytes should always be added in addition to any salt already in the diet and not instead of that salt. Salt-licks should always be available 24/7.

Divide the daily amount fed equally amongst meals and mix well. It is recommended that this electrolyte preparation is used for at least two days after sweating.

TopSpec Electrolytes are available in 1.5kg - £17.50 / 3kg £24.50 / 9kg - £55.13 and 20kg - £98.

TRM’s new product KURASYN 360X provides horses with the optimum ingredients to assist with action, suppleness and ease of movement.

KURASYN 360X is a complementary feed supplement for horses, containing highly bioavailable Curcumin combined with Hyaluronic acid. TRM’s Curcumin is a concentrated extract of turmeric, which has 4.24 times more activity than standard turmeric. However, standard curcumin is poorly absorbed from the intestine due to its low solubility but this is where the clever science comes in. TRM encapsulate their curcumin with natural oligosaccharides, which enormously increase solubility and thus absorption from the gut.

The net result is a staggering 85 times better absorption of curcumin derived from KURASYN 360X when compared with curcumin in standard turmeric powder. KURASYN 360X contains 150 mg Hyaluronic acid per 50 ml feed which can assist in the maintenance of synovial fluid – the joint lubricant.

KURASYN 360X can be used before and after periods of physical stress and continuously for horses in hard training, and intense competition. Use KURASYN 360X additionally for the maintenance of normal joint function in the horse and also during periods of rehabilitation from injury.

KURASYN 360X contains no prohibited substances and is a vegan formula. It also contains powerful and natural antioxidants, and is available in 1 litre and 3.75 litre pack sizes. ● For further information please visit www.trm-ireland.com

● For further information please contact the Multiple AwardWinning Helpline on 01845 565030 or visit www.topspec.com ISSUE 62 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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PRODUCT FOCUS CAVALOR© GASTRO 8 AND GASTRO 8 PASTE Every equine practitioner knows the delicate nature of the equine gut.

Problems related to the small and large intestine are well understood and routinely treated.

What may be surprising is how often the stomach is affected. Several studies (post mortem and gastroscopy studies) show that 75-89 % of horses in active training have gastric ulcers.

The major cause of gastric ulcers is prolonged exposure of the stomach wall to gastric acid. The only natural protection that the horse’s stomach has against gastric acid and pepsin comes from saliva production. Grain meals lead to excess gastric acid output without adequate saliva production. Extended periods of fasting can cause the stomach wall to be harmed by the gastric acid.

Intense exercise causes the gastric acid to splash around, further increasing the chance of a damaged stomach wall.

Symptoms of gastric ulcers may be: Drops in performance, sour attitude, poor coat, grinding teeth, picky eating, weight loss, etc. Performing a gastroscopy is the only way to confirm the presence of gastric ulcers. In practice however, to save costs, standard treatments are often started up without it.

Treating ulcers involves inhibiting gastric acid secretion, neutralizing the produced acid, protecting the stomach wall from acid exposure and aiding the healing process of gastric wounds.

How CAVALOR© GASTRO 8 works Cavalor© Gastro 8 stimulates saliva production. Saliva contains substances such as sodium bicarbonate that buffer the acidity of stomach juices. The more saliva is produced, the more the gastric acid is neutralized, thanks to the buffers in the saliva.

Cavalor© Gastro 8 protects the stomach wall from exposure to acid and so reduces gastric wound formation.

Cavalor© Gastro 8 enhances the healing of the gastric wounds and the regeneration of the gastric epithelium so the horse will sooner be cured of gastric problems.

Recommendations to treat and prevent gastric issues Feed your horse small quantities at least 5 times per day, provide hay ad libitum.

This stimulates saliva production and fills the stomach. Keep cereals to a minimum and divide them over several portions.

Omeprazoles are often prescribed to combat ulcers as they will shut down gastric acid production completely.

However, when the Omeprazole treatment is stopped, the gastric acid levels can rise even higher than before. Always follow up an omeprazole treatment with Cavalor© Gastro 8 to protect the stomach against acid production and prevent recurring stomach problems. ● Cavalor consumer line number: +44 (0) 1352 746100

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ICE

FMBs Therapy Systems is delighted to introduce Ice Horse, a high quality set of ice wraps and boots designed to apply compression and long lasting snow- like cold therapy to the legs, hooves, stifles and back.

“The technology behind the ice packs was what first attracted me to this brand” said Managing Director, Serena Hickson. “The ice packs freeze like snow, making them easy to mould into the limbs, but they also hold the cold for up to 2 hours. In addition, the packs are seam-free to provide even cold therapy around the leg, which I felt was very important but so often gets Overlooked.”

The Ice Horse range comprises of leg wraps, knee and hock wraps, stifle and back wraps and hoof boots. The wraps are made from breathable non-neoprene material to ensure that compression is applied at the same time as the ice packs are held in the perfect position. ● FMBs is the UK distributor of the Ice Horse range. To find out more about the Ice Horse range, see www.fmbs.co.uk or call the team on 01494 883433.

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FEED YOUR DESIRE TO WIN

NOTHING ACCIDENTAL ABOUT SUCCESS! Congratulations to Eve Johnson Houghton on training her first Group 1 and Royal Ascot winner, Accidental Agent in the Queen Anne Stakes.

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