Of the 11 horses that started the $1.6 million Group 1 Sydney Cup (3200m) on the weekend, a grand total of one was bred in Australia. Europe accounted for eight of the runners. So why can’t we breed stayers?
It doesn’t seem to make much sense, considering our biggest, richest and most famous races are the likes of big Group 1s – the Cox Plate (2040m, $3 million), Caulfield Cup (2400m, $3 million), the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m, $4 million) and of course the Melbourne Cup (3200m, $6.2 million).
I was asked for this column – if the money and prestige is in stayers, why are we seemingly only breeding sprinters/milers? Why the Europeans? And do we focus on two-year olds too much?
Well, let me first say it’s no surprise. I remember CS Hayes being one of the first to venture over to Europe. He came home from the UK with Almaraad, and went on to win the Cox Plate with him as a six-year-old.
It has become more common these days and Chris Waller, Gai Waterhouse and company have been making the trek over to Europe for quite a while now.
They seem to be able to pick the right horses and pay the right price as well, which has made it all the more attractive for them. Although I must say the Poms have started to wake up to this, and have been asking a lot more, price-wise, over the last year or so, compared to when these buying trips first started.
So what’s going on?
Most owners want a horse that can get up and run early to get a quick return for their investment.
I suppose that’s understandable, however this is one of the main reasons our Australian-bred horses can’t stay.
One of the other reasons is the lack of conditioning and base-building races for stayers. If you have a progressive-type stayer, you usually are forced to throw them in the deep end in unsuitable class races to get them fit and seasoned up for the right distance.
I do believe is Australian breeders will continue to breed sprinter, miler-type horses, as Australian owners unfortunately don’t have the patience to sit and wait for a year or two for a horse to mature when there is so much prizemoney on offer.
And just on two-year olds – I don’t feel that there is too much emphasis on two-year old racing. It is certainly well catered for though, which is obviously why owners are happy to race at such a young age and the incentives are way too good to let pass.
The Pumper back on deck
It was great to see Jimmy Cassidy ride Grand Marshal to victory in the Cup on the weekend, especially when he had been struggling to get a ride.
Cassidy is certainly one of the best jockeys that I have had the pleasure of riding with, but only got the call to ride the Waller-trained gelding on Wednesday.
It just goes to show in the cut-throat industry of racing that age and experience seems to lose out to youth.
“You’ve just got to keep hanging around in this game,” Jimmy said after the race – and he’d know, it was his third Sydney Cup victory, after saluting for his first in 1986!
Grand Marshal’s win served to heap more pressure on Joao Moreira, who the press had already given a bit of a going over for a few of his rides at The Championships.
But the fact the ‘Magic Man’ could only manage a third on Grand Marshal in the Group 2 Chairman’s Handicap (2600m), the week before ‘Pumper’ rode the same horse to a win, just goes to show that the Brazilian is only human. Mind you – he still managed to go back to Hong Kong and win on Able Friend the next day – so he couldn’t have been going too bad!
Bondy
Guest
Australia needs patience and perseverance which we dont have unfortunately the mentality in racing and sport in general is hard and fast where New Zealind in realtion to racing and breeding is patience and time and results then flow over ground . Also the Karaka sales are the best in the southern hemisphere ...
Rugby Tragic
Guest
Missed your live blog tonight on the Chiefs v Crusaders match ... the result mate must of hurt, commiserations mate .. tough to make the playoffs for the 'saders now I would think.
Rugby Tragic
Guest
Bondy, the big thing I believe is that in NZ, they purchased a lot of Stallions with staying pedigrees to bred stayers. I think of the likes of Summertime, Sovereign Edition, Sir Tristram (sire of Zebeel who sired Savabeel), the French Zamazaan, Sovereign Prince to name just a few without going back to my breeding books. Greater names than these stood in NZ stud farms over the years, acquisitions mainly from UK (Ireland and England predominantly created a foundation of staying blood for the breeder to consider. This happened over decades. NZ Stud farms also bought Stallions with the pedigree for sprinting from UK and USA but more successful sprinting Sire came from this country, Australia though a few came from USA and Canada. Australia, I believe can bred stayers but it will need the focus of those who are prepared to chase some of the biggest races in the world which generally are not sprint races.
Matt
Guest
Thanks for the article Chris! All of our Aussie bred stayers tend to get gelded as well which doesn't help but I agree that it would be great to have more staying races(can't wait for the 4000m race tomorrow at Caulfield). Who is our best staying stallion currently?
titch
Guest
Thought provoking article Chris. Out of interest, who were the 5 best Aussie bred stayers of all time I wonder?
Bondy
Guest
RT Good post, also with young horses and Muncey should know this but Dance Hero the Slipper winner was gone as a 3 yr old in the spring nothing left .
Brent Ford
Roar Guru
Another cracker Chris, can we learn from our NZ neighbours?
Rugby Tragic
Guest
Colin Hayes was a gentleman an a student of breeding. I meet him in the Hilton Hotel opposite to the MCG with Glynn Jenkins, the then GM of Ra Ora Stud (stood Sovereign Edition as mainstay stayer in those days the late 70's) and recall the same conversation as Chris has written about but then it was all about NZ thoroughbreds no European. Chris I have no answer but it is an imbalance. Breeders and owners need I guess to be conditioned to wait, have patience after selecting the right bloodlines to send broodmares to.
Rugby Tragic
Guest
Very interesting article but nothing new.. The 'impatience' that Muncey talks about is very real in this country. The 'demand for a quick return' has focused local breeders in to breeding for early speed. This has propels The Golden Slipper and other high stakes races as the incentive for this. Also as a result many of the two year olds here are over raced, made to perform before their bones have matured and many are unable to continue on beyond 3 - 4 years. I know a bit about this being an ex race horse owner and amateur breeder (another very 'expensive hobby) in New Zealand. Exasperating to see your young 2 year old horse in training for weeks and weeks, paying the bills for them to run a single trial before the trainers said "right ... now out for a spell". ..... My then trainer, the late Brian Deacon did not believe in racing young horses until their "bones had hardened" (his expression, not mine). His contention, you breed a horse, wait so long so you want it to be sound (as possible) so it could race for a few years not just for one or two seasons. Muncey would know the late Brian Deacon and his wife Pauline... the salt of the earth these guys. He'd also now jockeys like Greg Childs, Brian York, Gary Stewart, all of who were stable riders from time to time, Greg was apprenticed to the Deacons. Stayers mature later than sprinters, and that is why there are so many NZ breed horse on the Australian racing scene. A few year back before the Europe invasion the staying races in Australia, I believe were dominated by NZ bred thoroughbreds, I believe that NZ breds horses at one time (these numbers are not verified, they are heresey - and going on memory a bit here so excuse me if not completely accurate - if anyone wants to correct me, I have no issue), had about 10% of the horses that were racing on Metropolitan courses in staying races but won over 80% of the stake money. I suppose if you looked at the Melbourne Cup alone the results up to at least 2000 might support that. Then the European staying raiders came in. NZ could not match the purpose bred sprinters in Australia and I think it is fair to say that up to the turn of the century, the reverse would be true of NZ stayers. The other point is that I think of these NZ stayers, very, very few of them were younger than 5 years old.
Bondy
Guest
I think also the breeding industry controls racing if you have a very successful horse chances are he'll be sold to stud for $20-30 million or thereabouts or if the colt has a good 2 yr old campaign then wins the Caulfield Guineas and the Coolmore at Flemington as a 3 yr old then there's $20 million in the bank and that's how racing horses is programmed, money . Jim's got another 2-3 years in him easy as a hoop and I dont think Ryan Moore in relation to the Moreira bagging should be left out of the picture either he had a book of rides mostly under 10-1 and failed to deliver also ....
Patrick Effeney
Editor
Chris, once again it's a pleasure to read these thoughts. It's great to have someone of your experience lending your insights once a week. Get around it Roarers!
sheek
Roar Guru
Hi Chris, I agree with you 100%. As a kid drawn to the mystique of the Melbourne Cup as a nine-year-old in 1965 (I tipped Light Fingers & jumped on the Bart wagon right at the beginning), I find the change to sprint breeding bewildering & disappointing. I used to think that the change to sprinting occurred in the 70s with the arrival of Robert Sangster & his very influential views on the preference of breeding sprinters over stayers. Yet I have read recently that the love affair by Australians with sprinters began in the 50s & possibly in the immediate post-war years. Sangster merely tapped into this already fertile well of thinking. In the 50s & 60s as Australian breeding slowly turned to sprinters, the NZers filled the staying void. Between 1950-79, roughly 80% of MC winners were Kiwi bred. The Aussie love affair with sprinters was a slow burning wick. The first Golden Slipper was run in 1957, but my understanding is that the race was 10 years in the making. I've been told that the obsession with sprinters is all about a quick return on your investment. But as the old saying goes, if you do something ONLY for money, then eventually you'll lose. If the Australian racing industry continues its obsession with sprinters at the expense of stayers, then eventually the whole industry will suffer. While some punters might only care about their winnings, I suspect there are plenty of racing lovers out there who like the variety of racing, with distances ranging from 3200m down to 1000m, & from wfa to handicaps. Variety is the spice of life. Kill the variety, & we'll kill racing. We might as well go to the Dogs!
Aransan
Guest
I am concerned that the breeding of two year olds and sprinters is a dead end. When analysing the breeding of our horses you find that imported blood dominates. We have the best sprinters in the world but the only contributions that Australia can make to world breeding is through shuttling horses overseas which have predominantly imported bloodlines. To maintain our sprinting stocks we need continual infusions of middle distance imported bloodlines.
Simon
Guest
Very few british bred horses in the races, Majority are Irish bred
Geoff Parkes
Expert
Hi Chris, thanks again for the column. Obviously for the vast majority of owners the chance of winning one of the big cups is minute. Just as it is for winning the Slipper. Therefore if a realistic potential for most horses is a city Saturday race then I don't get why most owners end up in the mass of 1200m and 1400m racing, instead of middle and longer distance racing where the density of horses racing is much lower and there are decent money opportunities with country cups and the like.