THERE is a weighty responsibility to protect the future continued production of quality stayers, for a number of wide-ranging and significant reasons; the rich diversity of the race programme, maintaining variety in the gene pool and, as a consequence, the horse population, certainly creates one of the most important, enviable and fascinating dimensions of European racing.

The programme needs to be ambitious enough to create a change in behaviour which is sufficient to safeguard the staying programme and gene pool for the future. There appear to be certain elements relating to the staying horse that are in steady decline, and it would not be a trend that one would want to see continue as it will certainly be virtually impossible to reverse after any period of time.