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Bloodstock Topics: An international numbers game

Posted: Saturday, October 07, 2000

Worldwide statistics on foal production and racing reflect economic trends in the industry

International competition is almost as old as Thoroughbred racing; international cooperation has taken longer. As soon as French owners possessed horses that were good enough, they began to raid England's racecourse prizes. Elizondo at Newmarket in 1836 was the first French runner, and Beggarman in the 1840 Goodwood Cup was their first winner.

Both those horses were bred in England though they were trained in France, and the first foreign-bred winner in England was the German colt Turnus, successful twice at Goodwood in the space of three days in 1850. The French-bred fillies Jouvence and Hervine completed the exacta (though it would be many years before anyone thought of that bet) in the 1853 Goodwood Cup.

Surprisingly, the South Americans were the first to see the need for international cooperation. The Organizacion Sudamericana de Fomento del Pura Sangre de Carrera (OSAF) was established in 1958. It was followed in 1960 by the Asian Racing Conference, which includes Australia, New Zealand, and Turkey, and by the Four Power Conference (France, Great Britain, Ireland, and the United States) in 1962.

All this activity coalesced into the International Conference of Racing Authorities, whose first meeting was attended by representatives of 70 countries, including the U.S., in Paris in 1967. The annual meeting of what is now called the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) is still staged in that city each year on the Monday after the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Fr-G1). It is that body that produced most of the statistics used in this article.

For a long time, the authorities were reluctant to release their figures, but they are now available on the World Wide Web at IFHA. The 1999 figures should be available soon.

The accompanying Tables 1, 2, and 3 include statistics from all IFHA member countries detailing foal production, number of races and racecourses, and number of starters and starts.

Some countries appear to have settled for approximations in the early years, but the task is taken more seriously now. Even so, complete accuracy is impossible-for instance: in foal counts, late registrations mean that the final total is likely to be a little higher.

Political upheaval has caused the absence of some countries on occasion while others showed no interest or were newcomers to the sport. Political consolidation has also had an effect. The 1980 and '90 statistics refer to West Germany, but the reunification in October 1990 means that figures now include the entire country. Political change in South Africa is beginning to have an effect, and foal production fell from 3,608 in 1997 to 2,850 the following year.

OSAF gathered the statistics for Brazil, Chile, and Peru for 1980, when those countries did not attend the Paris conference. The South Americans concentrated on the leading 20 countries in terms of foal production and the volume of racing. Uruguay, Mexico, and Colombia, respectively 16th, 17th, and 20th in number of foals in 1980, have been left out of the present tables because of the collapse of their racing industries-though all three are now attempting to revive the sport.

The sport also has been in poor shape in recent years in Spain and Belgium.

It has recovered to some extent this year in Spain, although La Zarzuela, the Madrid racecourse, remains closed. Belgian racing is still struggling, with only two surviving courses, few young horses, and prize money below 1970 levels.

Improved statistics

Statistics for some categories have been improved. Some countries at one time only presented data for the flat while it was impossible to tell with others how many individual horses ran both on the flat and over jumps. Jump racing is a vital part of the industry in Europe and a natural direction for many horses after a career on the flat. Ireland is the only country where jump racing is more numerically important, but it used to provide the only winter racing in Britain and France as well.

In the past 20 years, however, dirt tracks have made a growing contribution in Britain, Germany, and Italy. France, where the closed season on the flat now extends for only a few weeks either side of Christmas, introduced limited racing on dirt this year.

Racing on that surface is also gaining greater recognition in Japan, where the first Japan Cup Dirt, with a winner's prize of approximately $1,238,000, will be run at Tokyo Racecourse on November 25. This is part of the increasing integration of the Japan Racing Association (JRA) and the National Racing Association (NRA) tracks.

In 1980, the JRA, which operates under the control of the national Ministry of Agriculture, presented figures for its ten courses, operating a maximum of 288 meetings. Nowadays, JRA tracks account for about 3,200 races a year, all on weekends or on public holidays but drawing crowds like the 161,406 at this year's Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby).

These figures, however, ignore the vast substructure of NRA racing, conducted under local government control, which is permitted on weekdays, often at night and on dirt tracks. The difference is easily recognized in Table 3 by a comparison of 1981 and '90, which includes NRA figures.

Japan has led the rapid development of racing in the Far East, followed by Hong Kong and Macau. Hong Kong now has the biggest betting turnover per race of any country. Almost every race there has a maximum field of 14, but the most significant expansion has been in terms of equine quality rather than quantity.

Macau, now also under Chinese control, is very much a junior version of its near neighbor.

Mainland China is the real prize for the future of the sport if ever the government in Beijing gives full approval. In the meantime, racing is expanding in such countries as Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand.

Malaysia and Singapore, although independent countries, have presented joint statistics thus far because the sport has been governed for many years by the Malayan Racing Association. However, the opening of the new course at Kranji in Singapore late last year coincided with the closing of the border to equine traffic because of an outbreak of disease in Malaysia. Singapore, which had introduced a much expanded and richer racing program with the opening of Kranji, had been edging toward independence, but this problem speeded up the process.

Exciting new racing countries

Jump racing's importance in Britain and Ireland has already been mentioned, but harness racing is of even greater significance in many countries. It dominates the Thoroughbred competition in Scandinavia while France, Germany, and Italy staged a total of 36,944 harness races in 1998 compared with 14,760 Thoroughbred races.

Ownership is another vital factor. There are too many owners and too many horses competing for moderate prize money in countries such as Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand, while richer racing countries like the U.S. would welcome more owners and more horses-especially good ones. Those countries can only dream of full fields or fierce competition like that in Hong Kong.

Racing and betting have always been easy to organize and, more recently, easy to tax. Racing has often been the first sport offered to a new public, and it is still doing best in those countries where it is a relative novelty. In addition to those already mentioned in the Far East, racing is enjoying tremendous success in Turkey and, considering that betting is not allowed, in the countries of the Persian Gulf, such as Dubai.

Abu Dhabi and Qatar have concentrated their domestic investment on Arabians, and the Maktoum family is almost as keen on their native horse when at home in Dubai, but general interest in the Thoroughbred is also immense.

Dubai is the obvious success story, but Saudi Arabia could one day rival it.

The Saudi Arabian Stud Book has only recently received international recognition, but Markan became the first Saudi-bred to race abroad when he competed creditably in Dubai early this year, and Saudi horses could soon be travelling farther afield.

Overall, the statistics in Tables 1, 2, and 3 reflect the effects of the worldwide bloodstock boom of the 1980s. Number of foals produced, number of races, and number of starters and starts all ballooned in the late 1980s and early '90s as breeders, particularly in the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom, geared up to meet what proved to be short-lived demand. Those figures have since declined, and it is too soon to tell whether the current boom will have a similar effect.