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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Dr. Heinrich Anhold, the former CEO of Stablelab, the world's first horse-side testing platform, is a man in demand once again following the launch of two new tests through his latest start-up, sidekick. With the start of the Thoroughbred breeding season just around the corner, TDN's Adam Houghton caught up with Anhold to find out more about life as an entrepreneur and what makes his new IgG and progesterone tests different to anything else on the market. TDN: Tell us a bit about your background. I understand that you grew up on a farm in Sligo surrounded by horses, so would it be fair to say that your love of horses long preceded this entrepreneurial journey you've been on? HA: When you love horses they seem to precede everything. I showjumped all the way through my childhood and my teens. I then did it professionally for a year, before I went to university. I thought about taking up a career as a rider, but I decided to take up a career in science, which I also enjoy. I always really liked science and, at the end of my PhD [in biochemistry], I decided I'd have a go being an entrepreneur for a couple of years because it felt like I had nothing to lose. TDN: Is it true that you sold one of your horses to raise money for your first start-up business, Stablelab? HA: That is true, yes. He was a horse I'd bred and produced who was starting to jump Grand Prix level when I made the decision to sell him to fund the business. I only breed one foal a year–I'm a small breeder–but I've been doing it for a long time. Now and again, I'll keep one and produce it myself. TDN: Stablelab is described as “the world's first horse-side testing platform”. For those who might not be familiar with the work you did with Stablelab, tell us a bit about the genesis of the idea and what made it unique at that time. HA: I went along to a couple of lectures at university that were talking about point-of-care–or patient-side–diagnostics. It triggered a thought in me that it would make complete sense for horsemen and I basically got stuck into the idea from there. I suppose it was seeing what they were doing in the human field and realising that it would have a direct application for horse vets. Because of my background in horses, I didn't even have to think about that–I just knew it would make complete sense. My first idea was actually to test white blood cells because that's what most people assumed they wanted in a horse-side blood test. I ran a research project that I published with Professor Bill Amos from the University of Cambridge, which showed that white blood cells were not as useful in understanding if a horse was sick or not as inflammatory biomarkers. Specifically, we honed in on serum amyloid A (SAA) as a biomarker of infection. For our study I worked at a racing stable with two-year-olds who were in training for the first time. We had 42 cases of tying up and, while SAA was considered at the time to be a marker of inflammation, none of the horses that tied up had an elevated SAA, so it didn't add up for me. That made me look into it a bit deeper, so I ran a second research project at the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Kentucky, with a genius called Dr. Nathan Slovis. We basically looked at cases that came in through the door at the hospital and what we saw after 100 cases was black and white. The horses who had an infection had an elevated SAA and the horses who didn't have an infection, but still had inflammation, did not have an elevated SAA. Nobody had figured that out before, so we patented that, the idea to use SAA to diagnose infection. We went on further to show that the level of SAA, and the rate at which it goes up or down, tells you whether the antibiotics are working or not. They were our two big discoveries. TDN: It's one thing having an idea but quite another to get the support and funding required to really get the business off the ground. How challenging was that process, trying to demonstrate to people the potential in what you'd found? HA: It was extremely difficult at the beginning to find investors. Essentially, you don't have a track record of credibility as an entrepreneur when you do this for the first time. It didn't matter that I had a PhD and it didn't matter that I had an equine background. You basically have to go out and sell it like you would sell anything else. It took me two years to get my first investment and that was just from building relationships over a period of time and then demonstrating to those investors that I was able to do what I was saying. It was very small steps at the beginning because I didn't have any money. I had a bit from selling my horse and from a couple of small grants, but that was it–I was working on a shoestring budget. Eventually, I managed to raise my first round, which was for €500,000, and that got me going. TDN: What were your next steps in setting Stablelab on the path to what it is today? HA: We worked day and night with the investment we had to develop a handheld blood test. For about two years I hardly left the lab. There were mainly three of us in it; myself and my first two employees, Ruth Candon and Di-Sien Chan. They both joined me as graduates and they're still working with me. We started making the tests ourselves in the lab and I went out to sell it. I was willing to try and find out where the best market was, so at the beginning I sold it everywhere I could, and in as many ways as I could, to see what would work. I sold it to trainers in Ireland, people who owned yards, vets, etc. I went up to Scandinavia and sold it there, I went down through France, everywhere from showjumping to trotting yards. After that I flew to America, then to Australia and back home again. It was in America that I realised there was a really good market in selling it exclusively to horse vets. I found that the distribution partners we took on in America were excellent and they were also able to sell the product without me being present, so we cut everything else out and focused entirely on selling it to horse vets in America. We did that for three years, before it was acquired by Zoetis. TDN: I guess at the start you had oversight of everything, but that's more difficult when you're operating on a global scale and it's impossible to be everywhere at once. That must bring its own challenges. HA: Absolutely. As you grow your company the challenges change. Over time it becomes a lot less about doing things yourself. It's about managing people and everything else that comes with it. It's a whole different skillset. There's the technical side of things at the start and you have to learn how to fundraise and how to recruit staff. Then there's the marketing, branding, sales, finance and HR–all of those things. The skillset changes many times as you go through the steps in an entrepreneur's journey. TDN: How do you reflect on that journey now and all of the success that you've had? HA: It's definitely been a life-changing experience, in many ways. It's given me the opportunity to go on and do all kinds of things in life that I wouldn't have if I hadn't decided to go for entrepreneurship. It's a very worthwhile career journey if it's for you, but it comes with a lot of sacrifices. There's risk involved and, in hindsight, if I was to do it all again, I'd try and enjoy it more because I was very attached to the outcome and that makes it stressful. I did get there but, if I were to do it again, I would probably not give myself such a hard time because it's really tough. TDN: You've led me on nicely to what was going to be my next question about the advice you'd give to anybody who has ambitions of starting a business in the equine industry. HA: The first things I ask people who come to me for advice on a start-up are, 'Do you have kids? And do you have a mortgage?'. I was 27 when I started and I didn't have any kids at the time, nor a mortgage. I wouldn't start a career as an entrepreneur now that I have a family, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who does. It's very different when it's your second time around and you have built a team around you. I also think, with a business in the equine industry, it's important to assess the size and scale of the opportunity properly before you go into it. You really have to start with the business, who it is you're going to sell to and where it's going to end up. I really like the equine veterinary industry. It's a market where you can sell your products based on real science that the customer understands and values. If I think someone has a product that veterinarians will like I always recommend them to go there first and to start in America. My main job right now is in human diagnostics. The equine market was a fantastic place to begin. Horse people are generous with their time and they're accessible, even the top sports people. It helped that I knew the industry and I found the Irish diaspora particularly helpful. Irish people I didn't even know at the time have been tremendously supportive. And because it's niche you don't need a huge budget to get into it and you can go sell to people directly. It's small enough to be able to do that yet wealthy enough to be able to make a success from your business. I found some of my best investors through connections in the horse world. All of those things offer great opportunity within the equine market, but I would say that it's important to put the business first, not the lifestyle, and to make sure that the opportunity you're addressing is large enough. TDN: Tell us more about the licencing deal you reached with Zoetis and your reasons for going in that direction. HA: It was the obvious thing for us to do. Whilst we grew very fast and the market opportunity was big, it's difficult to really grow into that market and compete with the really big companies. We didn't sell our entire company to Zoetis, we licensed our patents for the use of our products. Essentially, it was a partnership where they have taken the product forward to grow it, which they have done very successfully. We did a good job in the US market, but we didn't have the resources to grow it elsewhere, which they did. It's worldwide now–there's a Stablelab test used somewhere in the world every three minutes. TDN: You're now running another start-up business in the field of equine diagnostics called sidekick, through which you've launched two new tests, both the first of their kind. What can you tell us about them and how they're different to anything else on the market? HA: So, we've just the launched two tests for breeders, an IgG test and a progesterone test. We decided to focus on them because we basically saw a gap in the market that hadn't been addressed. Foals are born without any antibodies and the IgG test is a means of measuring the amount of antibodies that they've received from the mare's first milk which is called colostrum. You do it after they nurse for the first few times and, if their antibody levels are too low, you basically need to give them supplementary colostrum or plasma. They can only absorb colostrum in the first 24 hours. After that it needs to be plasma and you need to be quick. The IgG test is different to anything else out there because it's horse-side and it gives a number within five minutes. It addresses a very specific need and it does it really well. The vets seem to love it and the uptake has been huge. We launched the IgG for the first time last year and we sold out, so we've made tons of tests for this season. It's a very different sell to Stablelab. Stablelab was new and required a lot of education for people to understand exactly what it did. But every vet knows what IgG does and they know the value of having an immediate number. The progesterone test is the same. The main use for that is when you scan a mare and find that she's pregnant. You can measure her progesterone level immediately to determine whether or not she has enough to retain the pregnancy. And if she doesn't, then you'd need to supplement her progesterone. Of course, then you can monitor her during her pregnancy to determine when to take her off progesterone supplementation, or just to know that she's fine. TDN: It sounds like you're going to be incredibly busy with the start of the Thoroughbred breeding season just around the corner. And yet you said that your main job now is in human diagnostics. HA: That's right. Once I did the licensing deal with Zoetis–I still own all of the original patents on the technology and the biomarkers–I started a new company called AbacusLabs which is focused on human healthcare. I found it so much easier to raise funds the second time around. The success I had with Stablelab gave the original investors seven times their money back which was a really strong return for them. Based on that and having done it once, it was a totally different story to raise funds the second time. Abacus really got off the ground very well and that's mainly what I'm doing now, running a human diagnostics start-up. But I'm still running sidekick because we saw that gap in the market. That [the equine industry] is where I started, it allowed me to get my first win under the belt. At times things didn't work out and other things worked out better than we expected. You work hard, and you might work smart–most of the time I was just working hard–but you still need some luck, you really do. The post Q&A with Equine Entrepreneur Dr. Heinrich Anhold appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Group 1 winner Laws Of Indices (Ire) (Power {Ire}) has returned home to Ireland and will stand at Kiltown Stud this year. Best known for landing the G1 Prix Jean Prat when in the care of Curragh-based trainer Ken Condon, Laws Of Indices showed high-class form as a juvenile, beating Lucky Vega (Ire) in the G2 Railway Stakes. He had spent the latter years of his career in Australia, the majority of which was spent with trainer Annabel Neasham, for whom he ran creditably in a number of races at the highest level Down Under. All told, Laws Of Indices amassed well over €1.3 million in career earnings and achieved an official rating of 119 in his pomp. Martin Walsh of Kiltown Stud commented, “I was struck as to how good-looking and correct he is. Laws Of Indices has excellent conformation and is a lovely size–he's over 16.1hh on the stick. He's a Group 1 winner and was the champion of his generation in France. He's everything you would want in a stallion. He was tough, genuine and sound on the racetrack and in time will let down into a lovely stallion.” The post Group 1 Winner Laws Of Indices Back In Ireland And Will Stand At Kiltown Stud appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Special Agent · Posted
We are not privvy to riding instructions but the race at New Plymouth referenced by Wingman was a shocker. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
After seven placings in his last eight starts, Bunker Hut broke through with a dominant return to winning form in Saturday’s A$160,000 Captivant @ Kia Ora Handicap (1350m) at Rosehill. The Savabeel gelding has rarely run a bad race in his career, but he went into Saturday’s Benchmark 78 handicap with a win drought dating back to September of 2023. Bunker Hut’s connections kept the faith, however, and their patience was rewarded with an emphatic performance on Saturday. After taking up a handy position in third along the rails, Bunker Hut and jockey Chad Schofield cruised up behind the leader but briefly found themselves boxed in at the home turn and had nowhere to go. Schofield found some room to angle his mount off the heels of the front-running Infatuation and into clear air. Bunker Hut produced a turn of foot that belied his 60.5kg weight, bounding to the lead in the final 100m to win going away by a length and three-quarters. “He rarely runs a bad race and this prep he has been in super form without winning,” trainer Michael Freedman said. “It has been frustrating more than anything, because you see what he can do at home, then you come here race day. “The way Chad rode him today, with that nice ‘suck’ run up behind the leader, it worked out perfectly for him. When he has that one sharp dash at them, it’s when he races best.” Bunker Hut was originally raced by a China Horse Club and Newgate Farm syndicate, having been sold at the Easter Yearling Sale, where he was offered by Sledmere Stud on behalf of breeders Waikato Stud, for A$520,000. Bunker Hut posted two wins and four placings from 10 appearances before he was secured by Darby Racing for A$155,000 online. His career now spans 24 starts for four wins, 11 placings and A$374,450. Bunker Hut is out of the Pins mare Pretty and is a half-brother to seven winners including stakes winners Bonny O’Reilly and Pretty To Sea. Another half-sister, Dahooil, is the dam of Group One winner Espiona. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
High-flying Kiwi-bred Name Dropper continued his unbeaten summer with a record-breaking victory in Saturday’s A$130,000 Sportsbet Handicap (1400m) at Sandown. The five-year-old’s time of 1:21.74 broke the Sandown Lakeside record for 1400m, which Group One-winning sprinter Swick set back in 2006 with his time of 1:22.00. Name Dropper has a fair way to go to match the deeds of that elite performer, but Saturday’s win was his fourth from only eight career starts and took his career earnings to A$225,500. Trainer Richard Laming has previously tried Name Dropper up to 2040m, but his five starts at 1400m have now produced four wins and a placing, and returning to that trip this summer has reaped rewards. The Tavistock gelding won impressively fresh up at Flemington on January 11, and Saturday brought a repeat result. Name Dropper broke well from the inside starting gate and showed good early speed, but jockey Dean Yendall was happy for Sassy Boom to move across in front of them and take up the lead. Name Dropper trailed Sassy Boom up to the home turn, then angled to his outside and began to wear him down. Name Dropper lengthened stride and finished over the top of that rival, pulling away to win by three-quarters of a length from the fast-finishing Impending Link. “I just popped out when I wanted to in the straight, and the horse has done a very good job to kick on,” Yendall said. “It’s a long way up that straight, but it was a very tough effort today. I think there’s a lot more in store for him, especially if he can get up to the mile and open up a few more options there.” Laming has been pleased to see Name Dropper start to deliver on his potential in this campaign. “Second-up was my worry today, but I’m pleased he’s put that to bed,” he said. “He’s always shown lots of promise. We’ve had to wait for him, and now he’s repaying us and has a bright future in front of him. “He’s bred to stay, which we’ve tried to do with him in previous campaigns. But it’s obvious now that he’s better over these shorter trips. We’ll keep him fresh and race him over 1400m to the mile. “Horses that roll along like he does make their own luck. They’re always going to be hard to run down when they get their own way.” Bred by Gene Tsoi’s Standard 2080 Ltd, Name Dropper is by the late Tavistock out of the O’Reilly mare Mandy O’Reilly, whose three winners from four foals to race include the Group Three-placed Miss Mandito. Mandy O’Reilly is a half-sister to the stakes performers and black-type producers Dating and Miracle Miss. View the full article
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