DERBY Festival at the Curragh provided the ideal backdrop for a well-balanced and informative panel discussion last Friday afternoon as ITBA held its flat seminar, entitled The Distance Debate.

The well-attended seminar boasted a stellar panel of Kevin Blake, Stuart Boman, Ado McGuinness, Jason Morris and John Oxx with ITBA chairman Cathy Grassick taking on hosting duties.

The discussion on “Sprinters, stayers and everything in between” set out to look at breeding for different distances to suit market demands and changes in trends over the past number of years, together with asking what the future of the sector might look like.

It opened with a look at recent research produced by Kevin Blake, which delves into the varying trends within the flat breeding and racing sector and sets out to establish what nations are the best at breeding.

In terms of horses rated 115-plus, Ireland firmly cements itself as a top breeding nation. On the back of Kevin’s statistics, however, his opinion is that Ireland is not breeding enough horses that will stay middle distances. He pointed to the fact that international markets (primarily the Middle East and Australia) want horses that stay further than a mile.

Stuart Boman of Blandford Bloodstock discussed the Australian market in greater detail, confirming that he sees an increased demand for staying horses.

Former trainer and current Staffordstown Stud director John Oxx was keen to point out that while speed is important, what we need is balance. He noted that people can sometimes think that just because a horse runs over distance, they don’t have speed which is not the case. “Distance horses are still speedy horses. Carrying speed for longer is what we are trying to produce - the superior athletic specimen’.”

Group 1-winning trainer and chairman of the trainers’ association Ado McGuinness highlighted that not all purchasers are in a position to seek out middle-distance horses. He said many trainers would not be in business today if they focused on middle-distance horses as the wait is too long for a return on investment. To be more commercially viable a percentage of buyers will always be looking for speedy two-year-olds.

The panel was in agreement that changing breeder behaviour would not be straightforward and breeders must be confident that they will get results at the market place. Stallion owners, breeders and end users must be incentivised to change their behaviour. Enhancing the successful median auction series and the later breeze-up sales to shorten the cycle were just some of the suggestions put forward.

Horse Racing Ireland’s director of racing Jason Morris confirmed that more than just pattern changes are required. Bringing in appropriately targeted and structured incentive schemes can change buying behaviour, he said.

Commenting on the seminar, ITBA chief executive Una Tormey said: “A huge thanks to the Curragh Racecourse for facilitating ITBA’s Flat Seminar and to our great panel for giving up their time ahead of a busy Derby Festival weekend.

“The discussion provided some valued insights into all matters pertaining to the current trends around breeding for markets demands. Those in attendance provided plenty of comments and questions throughout the afternoon and the debate was well balanced and informative.

“There was plenty of food for thought and many key issues were discussed. I would encourage those who missed the event to watch it back via the ITBA website.”

Web: itba.ie (or search youtube.com for ‘ITBA’