In November, American racing will celebrate the 40th running of the Breeders' Cup, with $28 million in prize-money for 14 races across two days.
Breeders' Cup Limited, the organising company for this global highlight of the Flat racing programme, was founded in 1982 from an original suggestion by John Gaines, who proposed that the prize-money for the Breeders' Cup races would come from contributions made by stallion owners. The contributions paid were decided on a sliding scale relative to each stallion's nomination fee and number of mares covered in a season.
At around the same time as the Breeders' Cup was inaugurated, a group of breeders in Britain were discussing concerns surrounding the axing of Levy Board funding for two-year-old maidens. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and by the following year, that group, in association with their Irish counterparts, had suggested that a similar scheme be introduced in Europe. Christened the European Breeders' Fund (EBF), it has endured, for a time including cross-registration with Breeders' Cup Limited, but mostly independently, across four decades. Britain and Ireland were the initial member countries, with France joining shortly thereafter, and Germany, Italy and Switzerland several years later.
Where the EBF differs from the Breeders' Cup is in its support across a wide-range of races on a near-daily basis rather than one major end-of-season championship. Indeed, it was set up by a founding committee that included Peter Willett–who also played a key role in establishing the European Pattern–Bob McCreery, and Sam Sheppard, who served as chief executive of the EBF for 30 years. Early members of the co-ordinating committee included many whose names still loom large in the annals of the Turf: Major Victor McCalmont, Jonathan Irwin, Hubert de Chaudenay, Louis Romanet, Elie de Brignac, Roland de Chambure, and Michael Wates have all been succeeded by those with similarly strong ties to the breeding scene and with a shared desire to ensure its continued success.
As it celebrates its 40th anniversary, the EBF can be considered a crucial component of the funding mechanism for European racing, with more than €130 million allocated during that time making it one of the largest sponsors in the sport. It currently distributes around €5 million per year to boost the prize-money in races restricted to EBF-eligible horses. Those include all of the juvenile maidens run at France's metropolitan tracks, along with 90% of two-year-old maidens run in France, and 75% in Britain. That support is no longer restricted to the juvenile division, with funding extended to three-year-old maidens, selected fillies' handicaps, some Listed contests, and a variety of National Hunt races.
“Because of the strength of the European stallion market it has become even more important,” says Kerry Murphy, who has been CEO of the EBF for the last decade. “In the 40 years it has been running, the income into the fund has really grown and grown, and that's due to the success of those European stallions, their fees rising, and the number of mares using them. We pull the money in, and that money goes straight back out into prize-money the following year.”
More than 650 stallions are registered with the EBF and that is not confined just to those standing in Europe. Japan's Shadai operation registers all of its powerful roster of stallions, while Lane's End Farm, a long-term supporter of the EBF, has recently signed up its star new recruit Flightline.
EBF chairman John O'Connor says, “It's a very cohesive piece of support from the stallions masters right across Europe. Big, small, National Hunt, Flat, and that cohesion is really important. It's a way for the stallion industry to give back to the industry that it generates its income from.”
So ubiquitous are the letters EBF in the title sponsorships of races that it has become all too easy to accept them as part of the wallpaper without truly appreciating the worth of what they stand for. But, while other schemes have come and gone, it has stood the test of time, its strength indicative of the health of the European stallion market and the desire from many breeders worldwide to invest in this part of the world.
It remains, as described in its founding years by the former British Home Secretary William Whitelaw, “an outstanding example of self-help”.
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