SUZANNE Eade and Brian Kavanagh, the current and former chief executives of Horse Racing Ireland, took part in panel discussions at the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities annual conference in Paris on Monday.

Throughout the course of the day, over 150 delegates from about 40 countries heard from leaders from around the globe on the sport’s most pressing issues.

The conference’s keynote address by Princess Zahra Aga Khan, whose Daryz was a repeat winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe the day before, received a standing ovation.

“That horse [Daryz] represents what we do as breeders,” she said. “We are trying to preserve the genetic diversity of the families. A horse like Calandagan is probably not something everyone wants to breed at this point in time. It is not necessarily fashionable, but it is necessary.”

She went on to discuss ways to improve the sport, including making it easier for new fans to understand and promoting the amount of care and work that goes into getting horses to the races.

“It’s important for the people in this room to solve the misconceptions in racing,” she said. “Everyone sees the racing part of things, but they don’t see the industry, the number of people employed, and every link in the chain.

“From the covering shed to Longchamp yesterday, that represented literally hundreds of people who had influenced that horse’s life. That is something we need to carry in our hearts, always: the people who are not seen, the people who are not on the racecourse, the people who work behind the scenes.”

Andrew Harding, executive director of the IFHA, then presented on the origins and evolution of the IFHA over the past 60 years. Among other topics, he highlighted how racing led human sports on anti-doping including the IFHA’s work to confront gene doping, the development of the International Agreement to shape a harmonised regulatory approach, and the IFHA’s focus on using science and technology to improve equine welfare globally.

“Self-evidently, the challenges and opportunities facing our sport are not static,” said Harding. “They are constantly evolving. So too has the range of the IFHA’s efforts. The ICHA, then the IFHA, created the international architecture that has allowed racing to function as a global sport rather than a collection of separate national sports.”

IFHA chair Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges addressed the conference exploring the IFHA’s transition to become a more active global leadership organisation, as well as the major challenges currently facing the sport. Topics he covered included widening the sport’s fanbase, the sustainability of the Thoroughbred, and tackling threats to racing’s funding structure.

“In this time of great social, political and economic uncertainties, and significant challenges to our sport’s relevance and sustainability, it is more important than ever that we unite as an international racing community,” said Engelbrecht-Bresges.

“The future of horse racing can only be secured by working together to address the key challenges that we face, and the IFHA is at the heart of that coordinated, collective action that we must pursue.”