SUPREMACY IS THREATENED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 44, 14 May 1927, Page 8

SUPREMACY IS THREATENED

BREEDING IN ENGLAND—LACK OF INDUCEMENT To “The Times,” H.H. the Aga Khan contributes an article on Bloodstock, his matter dating back to the year 1755. when the principles of the English Stud Book had been established, and a distinct race of thoroughbred horses had been started from the ordinary well-bred horse. From 1790 to IS3O England had unheard-of advantages over the rest of Europe, during which 40 years no Continental country was able to pay attention to the improvement of its horses through the thoroughbred. “This accidental and, in the long run, temporary advantage has given English breeders, even to this day, in some cases a false idea of security and an impression of monopoly which Great Britain in no way enjoys. Her only advantage over France has been the fact that she had much greater variety of dosage of blood in her thoroughbreds. ENGLAND AND FRANCE “By the first years of the 20th century a new situation had gradually arisen. No one who went racing in both England and France regularly, as I did, says the writer, from 1900 to 1914, will deny that the best horses of the two countries were about equal, though, owing to the greater variety of dosage in blood in England, due to the 40 years’ start at the end of the 18th century, there certainly were a larger number of good horses in England than in France. “In the first 14 years of this century a new type of owner-breeder appeared in France —men like Mr. Vanderbilt. From the thirties of the 19th century onwards well-to-do foreigners sojourning in France had helped the French breeding industry by their importations. Right up to the nineties the ambition of most breeders in France, whether individually Frenchmen or foreigners, was to win the highest trophies of Great Britain. NO FRENCH INVASION “From the nineties till the outbreak of the war all material incentive for trying to win trophies from across the Channel gradually came to an end. The French added money, thanks to the totalisator, was larger by far than that of the English. Great owner-breeders like M. Edmond Blanc, Mr. Vanderbilt, and others felt that they could pay their way, and also have the satisfaction of making their establishments a financial success, without betting. The price of entries had dropped to vanishing point.”

Then came the war, with the disastrous fall in the value of the franc after the peace. “The conditions of breeding have suffered through the economic consequences of the devaluation of the franc. With one or two exceptions French owners now, for the sake of cheapness, have got into the fatal habit of buying or making for themselves, one or two second, and even third-class, stallions, and giving him or them all their mares, whether suitable or not. Thanks once more to the totalisator, the consequences of even these disasters are disappearing. If the franc has gone down values are going up slowly but surely. SERIOUS COMPETITOR

“At this rate, in four or five time we shall find far more added money'in France than in Great Britain. Then again the French breeding industry will become a serious competitor, and as an inevitable result more variety of blood will be brought into the country, not only from England but from Germany and America.

“On the other hand, German and both North and South American breeders will turn towards France, How are we proposing to meet this onslaught? By ruining the home market, by bringing about conditions that will be more disastrous to the thoroughbred industry than any war could be, for they are a permanent crippling of it. SPORT FOR BOOKMAKERS

“What do we find in England to-day? With one or two exceptions the old aristocracy has disappeared from the Turf. Even the new plutocracy is not as numerous as it was during the days of Edward VII. Other owners have certainly appeared, but they are mostly owners on a small scale. A few nonBritish owners have bought some horses, but none of them has established an important stud on a scale that can be compared with those of men like Mr. Vanderbilt, Mr. Macomber and many others in France.

“There is also the small owner who, like some mid-Victorian aristocrats, hopes to make his racing pay by a coup in betting. Let us take the position of the owners in England. They subscribe £BOO,OOO or £900,000 a year in stakes for which their horses compete. They practically run for thei4 own money. In the Eclipse Stakes the added money to the winner is £1,500; in the Derby the owner of the winner gets the ridiculous amount of £I,BOO in added money. THE WORST PRICES “The sport is provided for the bookmakers, for the public, and for the race-meeting companies by a few ‘mugs,’ who are owners on a large scale and by some scores of people who live in the vain hope of a profitable coup. On top of this comes the betting tax, by which the State is to make several millions out of the racegoer and the patrons of the sport generally. The bookmakers, whose prices are worse than anything that the totalisator gives in any part of the world, take more than the totalisator’s 10 or 11 per cent, for living a comfortable and prosperous life. “I do not often bet, but I will have a good wager that if nothing fundamental is done to put matters right, then in our lifetime France and America certainly—and perhaps other countries, too—will not only be independent of England, but will actually dominate the world market in thoroughbreds. Already French thoroughbreds have a vogue of their own in India. American buyers are turning towards French brood mares and stallions. TERRIBLE MENACE “How can we meet this terrible menace and competition? How can British supremacy in the bloodstock industry be assured? By one method only—the method to which the British thoroughbred owes its supremacy and by which it was first established—by the maintenance of a large variety of dosages; that is to say, as many strains of good horses as possible in Great Britain. “That end can only be reached, and its permanence assured, by making racing without betting possible for owners and by giving large and small owner breeders a chance to make both ends meet and not suffer disastrous loss on their capital, provided that they are ready to give thought and attention to their business.

NECESSITY OF ADDED MONEY “For this, added money is essential. The ridiculous amount of added money at present given in England; the £3OO

race here and there for which the owner is expected to pay £25 to run a horse; the £I,BOO in the Derby for which the owner is forced to pay £IOO even to start —all this must come to an end. An important owner-breeder in England has to pay Messrs. Weatherby between £5,000 and £IO,OOO a year in entries, forfeits, etc., for running his horses. A similar owner-breeder in France, India, Australia, and South Africa for the same number of horses, and taikng into consideration the added money, will pay anything between £SOO and £I,OO0 —probably less. “In England, as a general rule, in important races, each indivdual owner stakes from one-tenth to one-twentieth of the added money to run for it. In India, France, and Australia I believe the owner stakes from A to 1 per cent, of the added money, and, of course, gets the stake money, too. WINNING HIS OWN MONEY “This in England greatly misleads the general public, who do not realise that the stake money comes to the owner plus the large added money in other countries, while in England* the stake money is practically all that the unfortunate owners get. Breeders throughout France, even at provincial meetings, get substantial amounts without contributing anything except the breeding of the winner. In England the breeders’ races are few and far between, and if the breeder is himself a racing owner, it is his own money that he gets back. If he is a public breeder for sale purposes, it is his future

client, the purchaser, who has indirectly and through stakes produced the breeders’ rare and small prizes.

“World experience has proved that there is one method only of meeting this impossible situation, and that is that the hundreds of thousands of people who bet and who do not contribute one penny to racing, the many bookmakers v/ho lead lives of luxury, leaving perhaps not large, but substantial fortunes to thier families, must oontribute to the common fund which renders racing possible—namely, the prizes for which owners and breeders compete. MONEY FROM PENCILLERS How this contribution is to come can easily be settled. In no country in the world it posible now for bookmakers to practice without contributing a substantial sum towards the race money—not the few pounds of their entrance money along the rails, but several hundreds of pounds a year besides entrance fees. Now’, too, most countries have the totalisator. “I have no doubt that, unless a serious attempt is made to make the position of owners—l do not say safe, but at least not an impossible one as at present, and unless the breeders are given a fair possibility of holding their own by contributions of, say* £IOO,OOO to start with from the betting public, who profit by all this, the supremacy in the thoroughbred industry will pass from England to America and the Continent within our lifetime.”