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.

Very few, if any, other parts of the world provide a balanced series of races for such horses and some, such as the USA, appear to have almost given up. It has of course been interesting to witness the growing appetite from Australia for a stayers’ programme, albeit that they have been wholly reliant on acquiring European-imported horses to service it. This not insubstantial exodus of potential stayers to Australia has perhaps enhanced our growing awareness of a need to develop the strength and depth of horses destined to excel over longer distances.

Early in 2017 it was announced that a number of enhancements to the European pattern would be introduced as part of a long-term strategic plan to bolster the staying programme.

During 2016, the European Pattern Committee (EPC) agreed that it remained vital, now more than ever, for Europe to support a strong programme for horses racing over extended distances. Most people would recognise the importance of these horses to horseracing, and to breeding, and not only for flat racing but also in terms of the impact on the pool of jump stallions too.

Whilst the programme for stayers features some important and historic races, it was agreed that the overall stayers’ programme needed to cement together well, and needed to be ambitious enough to capture people’s attention and start to change behaviour, by making the breeding and buying of stayers a more attractive option. The aim was to embrace a small number of meaningful enhancements to the European blacktype programme for 2017, with scope for further developments in the years to come.

It has been the view of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) for some time that there is a need to find ways in which we can grow the strength in depth of the stayers being bred, trained and raced in Britain and across Europe. The BHA had recognised the threat of a gradual decline in the perceived value of the staying horse, which brings enviable vitality and variety to the racing programme and to pedigrees, and hence the BHA embarked upon a focused study of needs and opportunities.

Over the summer of 2016, a BHA-led consultation gathered views from a cross-section of breeders, owners, trainers, racing managers, racecourses, bloodstock agents, sales companies and media. The general theme of the responses was: that it is important to find effective means to encourage the production of more quality stayers, and to incentivise people to patronise middle-distance and staying stallions; that more needs to be done to encourage owners to purchase middle-distance horses; and that an increasing number of high-quality future stayers are being lost to export to Australia.

These views were used to help inform the decision-making of the BHA, and the EPC, as the sport maps out a strategy to address these challenges over a period of time. It was agreed that, in order to address these issues, and to provide the best chance of achieving the required behavioural change, the European pattern programme should be noticeably enhanced, for older horses, for fillies and for three-years-old too, and that the staying race programme should see significant prize money increases to go along with any adjustments to pattern status.

The EPC therefore announced a number of enhancements to the blacktype programme across Europe for 2017, headlined by the upgrade of the Goodwood Cup, run over two miles, to Group 1.

A few years ago the EPC had downgraded the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot from Group 3 to listed (two miles, three-year-olds only). The race served a specific, and at the time unique, purpose, but it was required to be downgraded automatically under the ground rules. This was an uncomfortable outcome at the time, for many reasons, but it helped to concentrate minds on the need to develop greater depth to the pool of young stayers. As part of this project, the EPC agreed to actually reduce the distance of the Queen’s Vase from 16 furlongs to 14 furlongs, whilst upgrading it to Group 2, with both changes helping to make it more of a target for a greater number of quality young horses.

The EPC is to continue its work on the project during this year with an aim to improve the stayers’ programme further, including a particular focus on fillies and mares and on the three-year-old.

It is worth noting that there was little point in trying to enhance the stayers’ programme on the one hand, whilst at the same time see other sections of the blacktype programme for stayers being downgraded and diminished.

As such, the EPC also agreed to the following:

This issue is not something that can be tackled overnight. You may recall the major alterations that we introduced to the three-year-old sprint programme in 2015, and the unprecedented creation of the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot, but with that particular project and indeed with the major enhancements that the EPC made to the programme for older fillies and mares 10 years ago, the horses were actually in existence but just not catered for properly in order to allow them to excel and develop to the best of their ability.

This time it will be much more difficult to easily change behaviour; we’re looking at a different scenario, as we need to encourage the production and retention (from export) of more quality middle-distance/staying horses, and hence it will prove to be much more about laying solid foundation stones for the future.

The stayers’ project is a further example of where the BHA and the EPC have shown vision and flexibility in addressing issues within the programme or within the horse population, with a long-term, strategic aim in mind.

Whilst it has not really been possible to measure the specific reasons behind the gradual reduction in the number of staying horses over the last 20 years, clearly there are fewer of them being produced. I recognise that it is expensive to breed stayers; they tend to be less attractive at the yearling sales and unfortunately are harder to sell. We know that breeders, and owners, around the globe are noticeably more inclined to search for speed, with an increasing number of people searching for that quick return. Despite the fact that the Derby-winning sires often (not always) still dominate at the top-end of the market, there appears to be a lessening demand for them overall.

Another factor is that the old-fashioned owner-breeder, who has always tried to breed a top-class middle-distance horse, is undoubtedly, and very sadly, diminishing in number.

I do appreciate that, for obvious commercial reasons, no one really sets out to breed a horse that will excel over, say, two miles on the flat, and yet we all love them. The sport loves them. And for the continued long-term health of the thoroughbred the sport needs to take a collective responsibility towards protecting, encouraging, nurturing bloodlines with stamina.

So, in a bid to provide a more progressive programme for stayers, the over-arching aim would be to encourage more breeders to patronise middle-distance stallions in the knowledge that there are better opportunities for their offspring to prove their worth, in turn making them more desirable to yearling buyers.

We have an ambition to start changing some trends in breeding, or the behaviour of owners (and bloodstock agents/sales companies). This, naturally, and as stressed earlier, will not happen quickly, it may take many years, but we should be striving to build a stronger foundation for the future of the staying horse. The downward trend is steady and progressive over the last 20 years and if that trend line were to continue along the same trajectory for the next 20, we would be in a dark place.

The upgrades within the pattern and listed race programme will also be supported by a series of grassroots measures introduced in Britain. The BHA has introduced a number of new races to the programme, with above-average prize money, in the form of two-year-old longer-distance maiden races, maiden races restricted to the progeny of sires who have won over 10f or more (with a small number restricted to sires who won over 12f or more).

In addition there will be an increased number of 12f maiden races for three-year-olds, 14f handicaps for three-year-olds, 14f handicaps for fillies and mares and some 14f conditions races. Whilst there is likely to be only a limited and gradual increase in the number of longer-distance maiden races, or maiden races restricted by sire, these races might help a certain type of horse to win who might otherwise struggle to progress to that point at an early stage of its development. We’d like to hope that this approach may, over time, help to effect some small, but hopefully continual and therefore cumulative, change in attitude towards the breeding and/or buying of this type of horse, and the desire for this step change approach came through strongly within the BHA consultation process.

The stayers’ programme in Britain will continue to be enhanced over the next three years or more, in the hope of creating a more attractive incentive over time for people to breed, buy, own or train a stayer.

Discussions are taking place about how we might embrace a process of directing additional funding to certain sections of the stayers’ programme – there’ll be some evidence of this next year and I’m hopeful more to come in 2019.

Amongst the proposals of investing some of the additional levy income for 2018 is the intention to boost the Plus 10 bonus scheme in 2018, with around £300k of revenue being invested to support returns to three-year-old staying horses, thereby aligning the scheme with the broader objective to encourage the breeding and racing of stayers.

We will be working with the Thoroughbred Breeders Association (TBA), through a specially-created working group, to find effective means to encourage the production of more quality stayers, and to incentivise more people to patronise middle-distance stallions. We will be exploring ideas to help drive such behaviour (there are any number of options in terms of the best way to do this, but we will try to find the most effective means, and then a pragmatic way to fund it).

Stayers do tend, on average, to have a longer racing career, certainly longer than milers, for instance. It is fair to say that the relatively short racing careers of flat horses versus National Hunt horses does provide a genuine challenge in creating popularity. The public does have a better recall of the best jumpers who are simply around longer, so their exploits become more widely known.

The best all-time recalled horses, according to Great British Racing, are Arkle (NH), Red Rum (NH), Desert Orchid (NH), Shergar (flat, but famous for being kidnapped), Kauto Star (NH) and Frankel (flat).

Therefore, the likes of Big Orange, for instance, would likely resonate with people more than an average Derby winner, retired at three, simply because he’s around longer and perhaps because he demonstrates considerable fortitude. Horses like Double Trigger, Persian Punch and Yeats were extremely popular with the public and had a huge following.

Finally, in terms of betting activity, the top staying races perform well. It is often quoted that the Gold Cup is the most popular betting race at Royal Ascot, for instance.