Month: December 2023

Letter to the Editor: Heed Stark Sales Warnings

With the Arqana sales closing out our breeding stock sales season, there were some very stark warnings for the industry in Europe. Plenty have highlighted the dire situation at the lower end of the market with a frightening number of mares failing to sell for even the covering fee of the foal inside them. However, it is also far from rosy at the top end of the market for our domestic product.

Analysing the 143 mares/fillies that sold for £200,000+ at the three main sales (Goffs November, Tatts December and Arqana), over half will be leaving European shores and travelling to Japan, Australia or America.

Obviously this is not an exact science as a number of lots were knocked down to agents or aliases. However, I'm fairly confident to within a 10% error margin with the figures.

 

Australian entities (including all Yulong pseudonyms) signed for the most number of £200k+ lots (35 in total over 24%) and spent over £20.1 million (21%).

The Japanese were stronger than ever and bought 17 lots (12%) and spent over £13.3 million (14%). The Americans bought 20 lots (14%) and spent over £9.2 million (10%).

English Studs bought 29 lots (20%) for a total of just over £20 million (21%). Were you to take out Juddmonte's two major purchases, Godolphin's sole purchase and Graham Smith-Bernal's continued significant support, this would look even more dire with only a little over £11 million spent.

Coolmore, as ever, reinvested heavily and helped keep Ireland high up in the list. In total, 23 (16%) of the £200k+ lots look likely to head to Ireland for an outlay of over £24.9 million (26%).

French interests bought 17 (12%) lots for £6.1 million (6%) while German studs bought just two.

While these figures alone are highly worrying, when comparing them to just ten years ago, you realise that we could be well past the tipping point.

Back then over 74% (in comparison to just 49% now) of the 136 fillies/mares that sold at the corresponding sales stayed in Europe. Furthermore, over 32% stayed in England whereas only a tick over 20% will stay in England from this year.

Such a rapid trajectory in the wrong direction needs to somehow be halted or we will lose our seat at the top table of the racing world.  The BHA and all factions of the racing hierarchy need to put self-interest to one side and work in cohesion to address the issue. Not only will we not be producing enough horses to fill the racing programme, but the quality will continue to slide in comparison to our counterparts in other jurisdictions.

Tom Pritchard-Gordon, Badgers Bloodstock

 

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Trainer Reed Saldana Suspended Two Years, To Pay $37,000 After Losing HIWU Arbitration

The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has suspended trainer Reed Saldana 24 months with a $25,000 fine after he lost an arbitration over his trainee Ice Queen testing positive for the vasodilator diisopropylamine, according to the public disclosures section of the website for HIWU, the enforcement arm of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA).

Saldana has also been ordered to pay $12,000 toward HIWU's arbitration cost (he was already responsible for his share of the cost), and Ice Queen was disqualified from her third-place finish in a June 16 starter allowance at Santa Anita Park.

The Los Alamitos-based Saldana was notified about the positive test on July 6, the same date on which a provisional suspension was imposed, and he initially opted to waive a B Sample analysis. When changes to the provisional suspension rule were announced on July 28, Saldana took advantage of a second opportunity to have the B sample analyzed; his provisional suspension was lifted on July 29, and reinstated upon confirmation of the positive in the B sample on Aug. 30.

A hearing was held on Nov. 1 in front of arbitrator Jeffrey Benz, Esq. Saldana's arguments included allegations that hand sanitizer containing the prohibited substance was found in the test barn, that there were chain of custody issues during the testing process, and that diisopropylamine is not a vasodilator but is a “secondary amine.”

The trainer also submitted the following statement for consideration: “The evidence HIWU has presented is very lacking. NO integrity, NO security, NO proof that the urine sample actually was collected properly, stored correctly or even transported securely. This urine sample MUST be INADMISSIBLE and case needs to be dismissed, to continue to proceed is just a travesty. We are in a country where we are innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and the evidence shows no proof of guilt. HIWU has failed to demonstrate Burden of Proof in this matter. HIWU has claimed that Diisopropylamine is a vasodilator when in fact by scientific proof it is not, it is an amine. These false claims and misclassification by [the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act] of Diisopropylamine have cost me my livelihood, has caused stress, emotional, monetary and repetitional damage that I can't ever get back, to continue would just be injustice.”

The arbitrator's conclusions countered all of Saldana's claims.

  1. Hand sanitizer allegation: “Saldana also advanced a theory that hand sanitizer used by the DCO could have caused the positive result found in the Sample because hand sanitizers often contain the prohibited substance found here. He adduced no evidence on this point, and HIWU's evidence to the contrary was compelling. First, the evidence was unrefuted that the hand sanitizer used in the testing barn and all relevant areas for the Sample's journey to the refrigerator and the next day to the laboratory did not contain the Diisopropylamine. Second, the evidence was unrefuted that the DCO did not use hand sanitizer and instead used surgical gloves when collecting samples. Third, HIWU's expert Dr. [Lara] Maxwell testified, on an unrefuted basis, that the active ingredient in hand sanitizer is ethanol and had the horse been contaminated with hand sanitizer not only would it have required a large amount of hand sanitizer to yield the levels of Diisopropylamine found here but ethanol would also have been found in the sample and it was not found here. Accordingly, the Arbitrator finds that hand sanitizer contamination was simply not possible here, and certainly not at all likely.”
  2. Chain of custody issues: “Saldana argues that alleged errors made in collecting and analyzing Ice Queen's Sample should result in its disqualification. His allegations are vague and unparticularized. The only specific alleged deficiency in the sample collection or custody for Ice Queen was that the Nominated Person was prevented from seeing the collection of Ice Queen's urine. […] There were no irregularities or departures from the relevant standards or procedures with regard to any aspect of Ice Queen's Sample. Contrary to Mr. Saldana's bald assertion that there is “no proof” that the Sample was collected and stored properly and transported securely, the Sample collection was documented, the Sample was sealed and remained sterile and securely locked when not being handled, and the Sample's chain of custody was recorded. Mr. Saldana advanced no evidence to the contrary in his written submissions and did not point to any specific alleged “tampering” in the Sample's chain of custody or otherwise.”
    • “Saldana also argued at the hearing that the chain of custody form used for the Samples by HIWU has ambiguous language on it relating to the time when the Sample was received and when it was placed in the refrigerator. […] HIWU could certainly do a better job of ensuring that the written chain of custody documentation is clearer and that the labs are required to uniformly handle chain of custody issues and documentation in the same manner to avoid the issues raised in the prior paragraph. Having said that, Mr. Saldana's obligation was to show that the irregularities in the chain of custody that he claims were present had some effect on the outcome of the testing and he was unable to make that showing.”
  3. Scientific classification issue: Mr. Saldana's argument that Diisopropylamine is not a vasodilator by virtue of being a secondary amine is false. As explained by Dr. Maxwell, drugs such as Diisopropylamine can be classified both in terms of their chemical structure and their pharmacological or medicinal effects on the body. Diisopropylamine is classified as a secondary amine due to its chemical structure. It is also considered a vasodilator due to its general pharmacological effect, i.e., causing blood vessels or open or dilate. There is nothing inconsistent about the simultaneous application of both categories, which address entirely different properties of Diisopropylamine.”

Saldana's suspension will run from July 6, 2023, the effective date of his provisional suspension, through August 5, 2025 (to reflect that he was not
provisionally suspended for a period of 31 days between July 29 and August 29, 2023). Ice Queen's purse earnings from that race, $4,560, have been ordered forfeit and returned, and the 5-year-old mare will remain ineligible until she undergoes a re-entry test from HIWU with negative findings.

A former jockey, Saldana has posted 88 training victories from 656 starters. His most recent entrant was on July 1, 2023.

The post Trainer Reed Saldana Suspended Two Years, To Pay $37,000 After Losing HIWU Arbitration appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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‘We Have a Significant Supply Chain Issue’: Engelbrecht-Bresges on the Need For More Horses in Hong Kong

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has been at the helm of the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) since 2007, presiding over a significant expansion of the Asian racing scene. Emmanuel Roussel received an update from the CEO during last weekend's Hong Kong International meeting, with topics including the development of racing at Conghua on the Chinese mainland, and the potential for the HKJC to establish breeding bases in Europe and Australia to boost its supply of Thoroughbreds.

Emmanuel Roussel: The international week is always a great event, so close to the festive season. Are you happy with what was under the Christmas tree for the Club?

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges: It's great that we are back in full swing. Last year, we were open but not yet quite out of our bubble, while what we saw [at the International Jockeys' Championship] with such a tremendous atmosphere, demonstrates that the city's vibrancy is back. The night went extremely well. And for me, one of the highlights was Vincent Ho winning the International Jockeys Championship. His victory meant a lot to Hong Kong people. Despite economic challenges and some geopolitical tensions, Hong Kong can be a centre of growth and excellence. That was a great symbol. Vincent is one of the most professional athletes you can find. During COVID, Amy, our head of the Sports Institute, said that very few athletes showed such dedication in training. And I want to really express my gratitude to Ryan Moore for having helped Vincent to develop into the great athlete he has become.

ER: The Club must also share the pride of Hong Kong, since Vincent is a local apprentice…

WE-B: This is one of our strengths. We put people and systems in place to develop our community. And we have transferred the same now to Conghua, our mainland training centre. We went from zero to 600 people there. Most had never seen a horse before. And if you go to Conghua today, you can always appreciate their horsemanship. 

We enabled platforms which allow us, since last month, to issue vocational training licenses in Conghua. We can bring up people from every province to follow vocational training to become jockeys and horse workers. That's quite a breakthrough.

ER: What is next at Conghua?

WE-B: In April, we will be able to show more. We are still building and will have to complete phase two of our stable expansion with another 450 spaces. We will also have the staff accommodation ready. The topping of the grandstand should be completed in February, too. It is planned to accommodate 10,000 people, as it is supposed to be a boutique racecourse. I have to admit that I'm very excited about it. This is one of the most iconic grandstands I know, built with full design on sustainability. Seventy per cent of the energy will be produced on site. And then we have plans for a wind farm which will be five or six kilometres away, that would allow us complete energetic independence.

ER: What about racing at Conghua?

WE-B: The first race meeting is planned for April 2026. We have to finish everything by October 2025, and then practice for six months, running simulations.

ER: First race in April 2026, and then?

WE-B: We will have the first meeting in April, and then that will do for the season. The following season, in 26/27, we will probably conduct one meeting a month in Conghua, from October to April.

ER: What is the Club's long-term plan in China? 

WE-B: This is only a part of our overall strategy for China. We want to contribute to the National Equine Industry Development Programme, which was published in 2020 by the Minister of Agriculture and the Ministry of Sport. We now try to outline an equine value chain and this includes breeding, training people, holding auctions and races, and horses going back into breeding. This is a long-term plan that would also include veterinary studies. Equine veterinary science is one of the development areas where one would need further progress. Last week, we met 160 equestrian vets from all over China in Conghua and they are really keen. We want to build a specific one-year training programme for equestrian vets.

ER: Will Conghua become the centre of the Club's strategy in China?

WE-B: We want to create a sustainable model in Conghua. Around 90 owners from all over China joined our members' clubhouse in Beijing. We will open up another such clubhouse in Shenzen, which will also be cultivating interest in horseracing, including an equestrian interest. In September, we will open an Institute of Philanthropy, through which we will make donations to China. 

People have to understand we are not only a racing institution, and especially not only a wagering organisation. What I found really fascinating in our surveys and the discussions we have had with potential owners is their will to understand breeding and racing, but rather from a sporting and cultural point of view. It's a little bit like what you find in Japan.

ER: How is ownership doing in Hong Kong at the moment?

WE-B: We don't have an ownership issue per se. There is a risk of an ageing ownership population you have to build up again. Many owners also lost interest in owning a horse during COVID because they could not go to the track. This has resulted in a higher retirement rate in the last two years. Secondly, owners used to go to the sales a year or two before getting their purchases home, and they have not been able to travel to buy during COVID. Therefore, they couldn't replace the horses they were retiring sooner. The optimal number of horses in training in Hong Kong is 1,280. We have probably at the moment 1,160 horses ready to run, that's 120 short due to these effects. The economic situation will probably delay the recovery. It will probably take a year and a half to two years to build back up to the normal level, and we need this for Conghua.

ER: How do you recruit new owners?

WE-B: We recruit potential young owners through our racing club. Traditionally, young club members are not allowed to own horses on their own for a while. We have 1,400 racing club members and 200 of those are very keen to become owners. So, we have created a pipeline racing club to allow them to be syndicate owners, and then become partnership owners or individual owners.

ER: You also have opened the doors to foreign owners last year…

WE-B: Yes, major breeders and owners can now come through our overseas ownership scheme. We have now some prominent owners from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. We must do this carefully, because we want to be sure that they are really committed and we look at a combination of owners and breeders because, in the end, we will venture more into the breeding industry. And if you look at owner-breeders, they usually show longer stamina and they have a greater interest because they can breed horses and showcase their horses.

ER: Talking of breeding, are you also looking for breeding ventures in China?

WE-B: The Beijing government looks at the industry and sees that we have unique skills that we can share. Beijing understands what a developed equine industry can give. Besides, a lot of the breeding or training would be located in rural areas and would have a great impact on rural economy. It already has in Conghua. The economic impact there is already significant and growing. If you look at related industries, starting with bedding and other supplies, you create supply routes, logistic networks that boost the overall local economic development.

ER: Meanwhile, has the ever-growing sales market in Australia created issues to recruit new horses?

WE-B: We currently have a significant supply chain issue. Prices have gone through the roof. We bought a lot of horses from Australia, and it gets more and more difficult to buy them because they are owned by syndicates. So we have now a turned-down offer of  A$1.7 million for a three-year-old who won one race and a Listed race.

I see that if China opens, we will need a bigger supply chain. This is the reason why we are exploring strategic partnerships or maybe even buying ourselves a breeding or racing operation in the Northern Hemisphere and in the Southern Hemisphere. We need approximately 450 horses every year. If at least a quarter is guaranteed, our supply chain is back on. We will relaunch the Hong Kong International sales and if you look at the quality of horses that will come out of them, you will notice that it's completely different from what we had five years ago.

ER: How far into this project are you already?

WE-B: We have certain targets. All I can say is that we are beyond the feasibility study. We still have to assess the opportunities. There may be clusters if you buy a couple of operations that you combine, but this would not be run by the Jockey Club, rather by industry experts in this field.

ER: Where would you elect to establish a breeding operation in the Northern Hemisphere?

WE-B: We would be aiming more for Europe because of our focus on turf races. Australia will always be a key provider of horses but most of them are sprinters. When it comes to a mile and further, it's another story. We have already started to slightly shift our racing programme for it to focus less on short distances. I am not willing to talk about cheap speed but if there isn't enough quality available, we'll go to 1,400m and over. This shift will affect our supply chain, as Europe is a more appropriate provider of such horses. We will not focus on 2,400m horses because it's not appropriate for our climate and our trainers. Our focus will be more on horses to compete on distances from 1,400 to 2,000 metres.

ER: Can you provide an update on the World Pool?

WE-B: The World Pool keeps expanding and I think that in every continent people now see the benefit of this. 

I can understand why fixed-odds, especially in Australia, is so successful now: 83% of the win and place bets in Australia are fixed-odds. It is, I think, because of the number of daily meetings there – it is like every minute – and there is not enough liquidity. If you want to have a real bet with such limited pools, you can't. But with the liquidity gathered by World Pool, with the different views of the world from Hong Kong, from Great Britain, from Australia, you offer prices that a fixed-odds betting product cannot match. Suddenly, the bookmakers could not lay off certain things, because the value of the Word Pool product was too high. Customers get a choice. 

However, I don't see bookmakers as mere competitors. Pari-mutuel gives the highest return to the industry and the industry needs growth. Secondly, there are certain bet types that cannot be operated as fixed-odds bets. They are different products, offering different opportunities. 

We want to have the best 100 races in the world to be made available in the World Pool. We are working on a new platform and new wagering information protocol, which hopefully could be launched through a first pilot in April or May. We then would have the ability to take exotic bets on quartet, to six up to triple trio, and include wagers from the bookmakers into such pools. Bookmakers could find an interest in connecting with the World Pool, and that could be an option for them. What is important is differentiation. You need to have enough time between races to build up your liquidity. 

The next development would be more combined meetings. We did this already in France and Germany, and we could look at something like the Everest and the Caulfield Guineas, in Australia. We have done the top races as a separate, highly attractive product, and we could focus on quality to reach that level of differentiation from the intense simulcasting you find in Australia or in England. It's too much. We did a lot of market research, and it comes to this: horse racing cannot be a game of chance. It cannot be only a game of somebody's tips. You must make your own judgment. This research was conducted in Hong Kong, and you would have to do more studies globally but one of the reasons why the World Pool works is that it doesn't promote a game of chance. It is a game alright, but people get satisfaction in working on their own strategies and analysis to pick a winner. If you have a start every two minutes, you can't do that.

 

The post ‘We Have a Significant Supply Chain Issue’: Engelbrecht-Bresges on the Need For More Horses in Hong Kong appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Lawyers Available for HISA Covered Person Pro Bono Program

A trio of law firms will now be available to provide pro-bono legal representation to eligible recipients under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA)'s newly established program. The program, open to covered persons who fall below a certain income threshold and are alleged to have violated HISA's Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) Program, will match recipients with volunteer attorneys who have agreed to provide legal services without any expectation of compensation.

The participating lawyers include Howard Jacobs, Jackson Kelly's Equine Group, and Wyatt Tarrant & Combs, LLP.

“We are pleased to participate in HISA's Covered Person Pro Bono Program, so that those who truly cannot afford a lawyer can have access to the same depth of experience and zealous representation that we provide to all of our non pro bono clients,” said Howard Jacobs, international sports law attorney specializing in disciplinary cases involving anti-doping and other disputes. “As a result of HISA's Covered Person Pro Bono Program, we hope that no covered person will feel that they simply cannot afford to defend themselves against a potentially life-changing charge.”

Jay Ingle, Chair of Jackson Kelly's Equine Group, said, “Jackson Kelly is always glad to help support the industries we serve. We quickly said yes when asked to participate in this program and donate our legal services and expertise, and hope that our contributions will help the sport and the horsemen and women in it.”

Craig Robertson, Partner-In-Charge, Lexington Office of Wyatt Tarrant & Combs, LLP, said, “The Wyatt firm is honored to be part of the HISA Covered Person Pro Bono Program to support those in need of legal assistance and to help promote the health and well-being of Thoroughbred racing and the equine industry as a whole.”

If the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) has alleged that a covered person committed an ADMC Rule Violation, and the covered person has an annual household adjusted gross income of $75,000 or less and no significant liquid assets, the covered person will be eligible for free legal services from a volunteer attorney and limited reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses incurred by the volunteer attorney.

“I am incredibly proud to be launching this free legal services initiative, the first of its kind in American sport,” said HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus. “Providing all Covered Persons with the tools to properly defend themselves in these cases is critical to ensuring integrity in our ADMC program adjudication procedures. We don't want the cost of legal services to ever be a barrier to pursuing a rigorous defense. I'm grateful to the reputable law firms and experienced attorneys who have already agreed to participate, and I look forward to expanding their ranks.”

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