I don’t know if you noticed but The Irish Field changed its logo this month. The old one was stark black and white lettering, quite like The Irish Times, very serious. The new one uses a softer font, the lettering is a bit more stylised, and I’m told it’s more dark brown than black.
And we’ve brought back the horse illustration. Up until May 2019, the masthead included a block green racehorse. He was put down humanely in that redesign as it was felt a racehorse graphic didn’t truly represent The Irish Field’s breadth of content, specifically the sport horse sector.
But we have missed the galloping equine imagery so we’ve added a simple line drawing of a horse which could be a thoroughbred or sport horse, in training or at stud. Hopefully it says ‘we cover everything equine’, because that’s what The Irish Field aims to do.
From pony clubs and pony racing to the Olympics and the Breeders’ Cup.
The big money is in the thoroughbred side. You see it in the stud fees, sales prices and prize money. But the sport horse side has higher participation levels. According to Horse Sport Ireland, there are more than 47,000 active participants in the sport horse sector. The most optimistic estimates for the numbers actively involved in thoroughbred racing and breeding comes up a little short of that but, as mentioned above, the economic activity is bigger on the thoroughbred side.
Of course there’s a fair bit of crossover.
The security of Ireland’s €2 billion per annum thoroughbred business depends hugely on the sector’s international reputation and so there is plenty of high-level regulation and licensing by the likes of Horse Racing Ireland, the Department of Agriculture and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board.
Racehorses are subject to be tested for prohibited substances almost from birth. Samples are taken from every winner at all levels of racing, and vaccinations are mandatory.
This is not the case in the sport horse sector. Horse Sport Ireland does not have the same authority as HRI or the IHRB. Those racing organisations have statute-backed powers to govern and regulate. HSI is an umbrella body for over 20 affiliate equestrian sport organisations and gets far less state funding.
HSI says it operates “anti-doping and disciplinary processes aligned with FEI and international standards” – and they do assist their affiliates in this regard - but the fact is that neither HSI nor its affiliates have the authority or the manpower to implement a comprehensive testing regime.
HSI reports that last year “306 tests were attempted on behalf of five affiliated bodies electing to use the programme”. The vast majority of samples collected were at show jumping events. There were 16 positive findings, or 5% of those tested.
Compare that with racing, where there were over 5,600 samples taken and only 11 “adverse analytical findings”. That’s less than 0.2%.
Right now there is a serious equine flu outbreak in Britain.
According to the British Horseracing Authority, “cases in the non-thoroughbred population are higher than at any time in recent history, with more than 68 reported outbreaks across 36 counties.”
Even though the thoroughbred population has been vaccinated, the outbreak has impacted racing in Britain. Vaccinated horses can still carry and spread the disease. One racemeeting was cancelled due to its proximity to an infected herd, and the hunter chase season was brought to a premature end in order to reduce the risk posed by ‘amateur’ racing yards.
The aim is to keep the vaccinated racing herd in a ‘bubble’ away from non-thoroughbred unvaccinated horses.
The IHRB told The Irish Field “there are currently no diagnosed cases in the Irish thoroughbred population” and “the strains currently circulating are covered by existing vaccines and, as a result, any potential disease challenge is expected to have minimal impact.”
Equine flu spreading
But a report in next weekend’s edition of The Irish Field will confirm that cases of equine flu have been found in 12 premises in the past six weeks and that the virus is circulating in the non-thoroughbred population. This could develop into a major risk to the thoroughbred sector and shows the need for more regulation of the sport horse sector.
Following the tragic Katie Simpson case and the subsequent report from the Northern Ireland Policing Board which suggested there are likely more predators out there in the equestrian world, I had planned to mention the lack of adequate safeguarding in that sector but I’m not sure that the thoroughbred side is much better, so we will leave that for another day.
But I’m still worried that, overall, the sport horse sector is lacking regulation in a number of areas and it could potentially bring us all down.
The Dublin Horse Show will start 10 weeks from today, hopefully with a ‘business breakfast’ hosted by The Irish Field. As usual we will invite sport horse industry stakeholders to join us for a 30-minute discussion that morning on an important topic.
As you can see, there’s a lot of options for what the day’s subject should be but I’d love to hear your thoughts too. Feel free to drop me a line at the email address below.
Mark Costello
markcostello@theirishfield.ie