THE Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association hosted a webinar yesterday [Friday] to assist breeders and the industry as a whole in operating within an ever-changing environment, with particular focus on positive climate change action, dealing with changes brought about by Brexit, tax issues and welfare.

ITBA chief executive Shane O’Dwyer revealed how the Association has been working vigorously in the past 18 months and undertook a strategic review last year, producing a template for future-proofing the Association, with invaluable input and assistance from breeders.

“We have a duty to find new Council members and provide a regional stepping-stone to get new members involved,” O’Dwyer said of the forthcoming elections.

“This year we have 10 places on Council and we need people to put their names down and play a part in their industry.

“The ITBA Next Generation apprentice scheme has been a huge success, but we also need to extend that and provide empowerment for our next generation.”

Welfare issues

The ITBA and other industry stakeholders have worked to address traceability, welfare and anti-doping over the last number of years and these issues were discussed with HRI’s Director of Welfare & Bloodstock, John Osborne.

“The public is more interested in how we do what we do, they don’t necessarily hear a balanced view and that is a new challenge for us. Traceability and verifiable high standards are important,” Osborne said. “Across society internal validation has gone out of fashion, we need external people to come in and allow us to prove we are doing the right thing. We oughtn’t to hide, it’s a huge story to tell that we shouldn’t be shy in telling and we should be able to defend that challenge.”

Health status

Des Leadon spoke on the High Health Breeding status, recognition of the elite health status of our breeding stock. “We can demonstrate our breeding stock has a high health status and we can deliver certificates and demonstrate our freedom from diseases,” he explained, in the move toward free movement post-Brexit.

Playing a major role is the ePassport, as Sharon O’Regan explained. “The ePassport is a digital solution for identification, health and movement, and a huge part in compliance and availability of data. It was partly reactionary to a lot of paperwork and inefficiencies, as well as moving forward to comply with future regulations. Streamlining the registering process when breeders have such a small window to register is of huge benefit to breeders. We at Weatherbys pioneered the ePassport and preclearance was a big factor in the return to racing during Covid.”

Alan Creighton, Head of Environment and Nutrition at the Irish Equine Centre and environmental scientist, spoke in the final session on how the thoroughbred industry can fix the inefficiencies within our system and lead the way in climate change action and sustainability.

Full webinar report in The Irish Field next weekend.