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Letter of the Week

Pony up

So-called “stallion-making races” must be important in the overall scheme of racing. Scribes and commentators love to push up the importance of these races: derbies, sires’ produces, guineas …in fact, any group or listed race that contains colts and/or entires can be deemed to be a stallion-making race.
If these races are so significant why aren’t they run for money provided by the stallion-service providers: the studs? The studs are the ones to benefit most from the running of these races – their stallions’ fees are aligned to a horse’s success in major races and its hereditary connections. And we know that the fees rise as a stallion’s progeny becomes more sought after.
All studs should contribute to the prizemoney pool for certain group/listed races by paying a fee for any runner — male or female — that resulted from their stallions’ matings.
This would not be a set fee but, rather, a percentage of the stallion’s service fee when the mare was served. It would be calculated on the total stakemoney for the race to be contested. The progeny can only get the green light to run in the race once the fee has been paid. (Some thought needs to be given to the discounts offered when a stallion covers more than one mare owned in common but the various bodies involved in the sport can sort this out.)
Only races with stakemoney of $500,000 and above would attract the contribution fee. In the current season there are 80 of these across Australia — an average of one every 4.5 days.
Imagine a sliding scale of, say, one per cent for a race worth $500,000 to $1million up to, say, three per cent for any race with stake money of $4 million-plus.
Under this scale, a contribution fee (based on a service fee at time of conception of, say, $5500 including GST) for a $750,000 race would be $55. Using the same service fee, a $4 million race would result in a stud making a contribution to stakemoney of $165.
Who to pay this money to? I’d suggest that it goes to Racing Australia (RA), Australia’s umbrella body for the control of racing and the registration of stallions.
RA would be responsible for collecting the money at the time acceptances were declared for the race and issuing a clearance for the horse to start in the race.
The money from those final acceptors would later be paid by RA to the state/territory racing body, which would then deduct it from the race’s advertised stakes pool (without affecting the quantum) and this “saved” money returned to their own jurisdiction’s stake money pool, to be used for other races.
Any interest earned on the money banked would go to RA to cover the cost of the money’s management while it was in escrow. A simple computer program could manage all of this, to deduct the appropriate fee from a nominated bank account anywhere in the world.
Overseas studs and bloodstock agents would be advised that these rules apply to all horses registered to race in Australia. (The GST component would not apply to the overseas-bred runners, but the fee would.)
The location of the stallion and stud is irrelevant; the fee is due and payable by the stud once the offspring is an acceptor in a major race anywhere in Australia. All studs and stallions are registered by the authorities, anyway, so their locations are known.
Remember, not all horses can run in the majors – most are not good enough to gain a start. But for those that do the studs should pay.
Based on the principle of user pays (or who benefits the most) the studs would then be seen to be direct contributors to the overall benefit of racing. The payment would encourage each racing jurisdiction to compete for runners for their major races, anticipating that some of the stake money would be returned to them.
It is true that bonus schemes operate in some states/territories to promote the use of stallions in those jurisdictions. (State/territory governments are also contributors to these schemes.)
In Victoria, for example, the three VOBIS schemes – Super, Gold and Sires – are supported by breeders (Super), owners (Gold) and stallion owners (Sires).
But the studs generally only pay a one-off fee per stallion, that covers his progeny’s entire racing life, giving studs the potential to earn tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses — way more than their once-only participation would suggest. This fee, by the way, is a fixed fee — not related to the stallion’s service fee.
My proposal relates only to the major races that provide the icing on the cake.
The studs will squeal about having to pay. But they have the ability to adjust their stallion fees to account for the amount they ought rightly to be paying towards prizemoney.
Shouldn’t they be grateful that they have stallions capable of getting runners into the big races? The contribution fees would be a tax-deductible business expense anyway.
They said that bookmakers would never put any money into racing. They were wrong. It’s time for the studs to kick in their contribution.

 

Alex Risk
Geelong West (Vic)
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