Change isn’t always for the better.
Newsletter #43
George talks…
Easter has come and gone. A holiday that primarily ushers in the fun of summer for me. Unfortunately, no gorging on chocolate eggs this year. A date with the Donegal hills awaits both Thomas and myself for the Wild Atlantic marathon this June. At Brownsbarn we train as hard as the horses!
There was a strange twist to my Easter, one more recognisable to our Irish contingent of subsricbers.
The hurling championship kicked off in mid-April! This new move is part of the GAA’s (Ireland’s National Gaelic Games body) changes to our national sports of Hurling and Gaelic Football, others are so farcical I wouldn’t even write about them. I would call them more meddling than fixing. We now have a sport that begins too early in my mind and finishes on the 17th of July (much too early). This is a break from the traditional All-Ireland final date, the first Sunday in September. For me it was a final sporting feast that nourishes us right through the winter hurling famine.
Why do sporting organisations fiddle with something that is working?
Cheltenham will almost certainly now be pushed out to 5 days. We had record small fields, more odds on favourites, less compelling tight finishes, yet the powers are still pushing for an extra day. Like the Irish GAA, against almost unbridled opposition, the executives want to meddle.
Sports must change, no doubt. But the pursuit of stretching a cash cow for the detriment of the product is short sighted. I’m firmly in the camp of four days and would much prefer the debate focused on dropping to 3 days!
Instead, sports should change to improve the product. Yes, a simple statement, what would I do? What would I change in horse racing now that will improve the product, and improve revenue long term?
The major impediment to horse racing in the UK and Ireland right now is simple, prizemoney.
Our sport has been gouged by the major bookmakers, that don’t give a toss about the actual product. Happy to have mickey mouse races ran day in day out, akin in my eyes to betting on flies climbing walls. They contribute an equally mickey mouse amount of money (10% levy in place in the UK and the 2% levy in Ireland) back into racing and anecdotally have a very strong lobby on the government that scuppers any proposed increases.
A Radical idea to Bully the Bookmakers.
Our biggest racing and betting days are the festivals. The cream of the crop battling against each other. Betting licenses and the technology to set up a bookmakers is becoming easier to create. One must only see the raft of new online betting companies coming into the market. Why can’t a racecourse or racecourse organisation open their own online bookmakers? Where for their racing festival you can only bet through their system. The money then flows into their next racing festival. Offering larger pots, attracting better horses, intriguing battles and more drama.
Interestingly, Chester and Bangor adopted this to a degree with their own on-course betting system but they did not exclude other bookmakers.
Bookmakers have diversified into other sports, online casinos and even esports. While, racing is left begging at their front door shaking the basket looking for more spare change.
Racing enthusiasts can’t even get a decent bet on these days and bookmakers close accounts down on a whim.
A dedicated racing bookmakers ran by racing for racing COULD work in my eyes. This is certainly a back of a napkin idea and one which requires more detail, what do you guys think?
The Classics.
While some things need to change others should never change and hopefully never will. The end of April brings the talk of the upcoming Classics.
The mile Classics, (1000 Guineas for fillies and the 2000 Guineas for colts) have never been more significant. The Derby in my eyes is a race that’s clout is on life support. Only a few weeks back we heard the news that Serpentine a previous winner of the race was gelded and is now shipped to Australia to run in staying races there. The continued appetite for breeders to produce speed horses has hit a crescendo. There are very few breeders who will breed to a Derby winner because there are few owners who will wait the time required to race its progeny. This sea change in breeding theory has allowed the Japanese to leap frog every nation in breeding high class middle distance racehorses, this was highlighted by their rout of the Dubai Carnival a few weeks back.
The Guineas on the other hand are the golden grail for stallion masters looking to make a stallion. Both races showcase the mix of speed and early season 3 year old precocity that breeders want.
The first meeting back at Newmarket last week we had two key trials for both races. Our very own George Boughey won the fillies trial with Cachet. Superstitiously, she is out of a Teofilo mare, like our Holy Roman Emperor filly heading to George this summer. What does that mean? In reality nothing, but when you get immersed in this sport you grab on to any positive that in your mind that gives you an edge!
The Craven (colts trial) was won by the monstrous Native Trail, the stand out colt of last year he seems better than ever heading to the classics. A contender to Native Trail is Perfect Power. He bolted up in fine fashion in the Greenham last weekend at Newbury, a mouth-watering clash is already taking shape.
Both colts were sourced last year as 2 year olds from the breeze up sales. That sales circuit began in earnest again in the UK with the Craven Breeze up sale running in tandem with the race meeting and duly moved to Doncaster this week with it’s one day sale. Both sales produced a strong trade building off the momentum that the breeze ups graduates are producing on the track.
Budgetless Buys…
We judge thousands of yearlings every autumn at the sales. The horses that we buy we obviously follow every detail of their training and progress. But the horses that we saw and loved but fell out of budget, how do they end up? As more and more 2 year olds hit the track we will keep you updated on ones that got away from us.
Our King makes the Paper…
Watching what hits the track is fascinating. But it all starts in the field, on the farm. Last weekend I got down to see our King of Change colt at the farm. I posted a picture of the colt on twitter the day after he was born and we made the Racing Post foal gallery, let’s hope its not the last time he makes the paper! Related now to two winners, he is the first colt we have bred from the mare since we purchased her 6 years ago. To say we are delighted with him is an understatement.
King of Change Colt at 2 Months
King of Change covered only a small book of mares and will cover even less this year, more symbolic of the stud farm the stallion is situated in rather than the calibre of the horse himself.
As aforementioned on this newsletter, Shadwell is a force winding down so promoting a stallion through them probably isn’t going to cut it in Ireland where a plethora of new stallion stations are setting up shop and are innovating in advertising their wares.
Syndicate Update…
Both our fillies are training impeccably with Brian O’Connell. The Sioux Nation filly has just 2.5% left in her. We had several existing and new owners snap up shares during the Aprils Fools promotion we ran a couple of weeks ago. The Holy Roman Emperor filly has 15% equity left. She will be heading away to do her first away gallop in the next few days.
Holy Roman Emperor filly after cantering
Sioux Nation filly after cantering
Irish Breezer…
We will be active at the upcoming breeze up sales to purchase something that will run for us earlier in the season. Both fillies are still a distance off a run, we want the BBT jersey out on the track. We haven’t got a horse based in Ireland at the minute and want to put it to you guys to see who you would like to put a horse in training within Ireland right now.
Send me back a reply to this email!!
Like the new stallion farms on the block in Ireland and Europe, we must think outside the box, we want to grow our owner base.
Refer a Friend
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Refer a Friend **
We are now introducing Refer a Friend. We will reward anybody who is an owner with us who introduces a friend to us who purchases a share.
- Email racing@Brownsbarnthoroughbreds.com
- Provide us with your friends: Name, email, phone number
- We will run them through the syndicate options
- They will receive a 10% discount off their share purchase
- You will receive a 10% discount off one future share purchase
A bumper newsletter this week. Let me know your thoughts on my lateral racecourse/bookmaker idea for racing. Could it work?
Throw me a few names for a trainer to take a BBT breezer this year.
We won’t be as long with our next edition, next week we are going to announce something even more lateral.
Read this article for a taster.
Cheers,
George