TDN Q & A With Ruth Quinn: BHA Stayers’ Project Advancing Well

[Wandering Eyes]

Victory in the G1 Qatar Goodwood Cup for Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) sets up the prospect of the 4-year-old challenging to become the first ever winner of the Weatherbys Hamilton Stayers’ Million if he can add the G2 Lonsdale Cup at York to his prior victories this season in the G1 Gold Cup and G2 Yorkshire Cup. The very existence of such a valuable bonus owes much to the generosity and idea of the sponsor, but also to a longer-running campaign to try to reinvigorate the breeding and racing of staying-bred horses in Britain.

Back in February 2015, the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association (TBA) published the findings of a special study on the future of the British stayer, highlighting its concerns about the demise in production of this sector of Thorougbreds so beloved by the racing public but often overlooked in an increasingly speed-orientated yearling market. Over the last two years, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), led by Director of International Racing and Racing Development, Ruth Quinn, has been working on a number of incentives for potential breeders and owners of stayers, not least through significant enhancement of the staying programme and increased prize-money for these races.

TDN‘s European Editor Emma Berry spoke with Ruth Quinn this week to hear how the BHA’s work in this field is progressing.

EB: How well has the stayers’ project been received by the racing industry in general?

RQ: it’s a subject which finds all of us facing in the same direction. Everybody supports it. Everybody’s behind it. That’s different to everybody voting with their feet, clearly, but we are all pretty much saying the same thing, which is terrific. That doesn’t happen very often in racing.

EB: How did you go about deciding on the changes to the programme?

RQ: I had lots of meetings with trainers throughout the second half of 2016 on the back of the consultation process that I started in 2015. They’re all hugely supportive and offered lots of advice, lots of different opinions about what they would want to see in terms of race programme and alterations. Whether and to what to degree any of that will translate into a change of behaviour [at the sales], I don’t know. It’s too early to tell.

EB: You’ve talked about this being a long-term project, with results not really able to be properly assessed until 10 to 15 years down the line, but are you encouraged by any early findings?

RQ: I do think the data is much better than most people would expect. It’s great that in 2017, of the horses who won black-type races over 13 furlongs or more, 90% ran as 2-year-olds and 60% won at two. I think that would surprise a fair few people, though I’m very much aware that every year is different, and that data is probably going to be volatile.

EB: With a number of measures already in place, such as doubling the number of 10-furlong 2-year-old maidens and upgrades to staying contests such as the Goodwood Cup and Queen’s Vase, what’s your next step?

RQ: What I’d quite like to do, in as much as we’re all able to do so, is try and work on persuading people to actually start breeding, buying, pulling these horses out of the box at the sales and actually having a look at them. Some of those horses are beautifully bred, and only two or three people will ask to look at them at the sales.

I think we are providing a pretty strong message already, bearing in mind we only started trying to improve the race programme in the last two years. It’s reminding people that this kind of horse can be around for a number of years if that’s what they want. There are also options to sell on, either abroad or for jumping, much more than you would have with an average sprinter.

EB: How do you get that message across, especially at this year’s yearling sales, for example?

RQ: Anything we can do to increase the prize-money of these races will give us the biggest chance of getting owners and trainers to change their behaviour, and so will helping the TBA to find an effective and meaningful breeders’ incentive to get people to patronise middle-distance sires more. That’s going to be something that will drive breeders’ behaviour.

We’re going to be producing a leaflet detailing all the improvements to the stayers’ programme and prize-money increases which will be available for the sales. We’ve got to keep trying to find different and effective means to tell people about this.

EB: Recent data shows that average prize-money increases have been much greater in the longer-distance races, with a runner in the 11-13f or 14f+ categories in 2017 typically earning 70% more than a runner in a sprint race. These increases presumably needed backing from racecourses?

RQ: We have a commitment from racecourses to continually invest in this new programme up until at least 2020. Now obviously, this time next year or a lot earlier than that, probably late spring of 2019, we’ll start the negotiations to get a financial package in place beyond 2020.

If it looks like there is no positive change in behaviour of any shape or form two years from now, then we’ll start the process again and be asking people, ‘Well, okay, this isn’t working. What might work instead? But hopefully, we won’t have to do that because I think we’ve pretty much put in place already or are hoping to put in place very shortly everything that everybody asked for.

It’s something that we’ll obviously monitor constantly. I have it in mind to do another big industry focus in 2021, and then at five-yearly intervals. But a marked improvement in the race programme and a marked improvement in the prize-money available for these horses in a short period of time is the kind of message we need to be getting out there.

EB: Finally, how did the Weatherbys Hamilton Stayers’ Million come about?

RQ: One of the things that came out of the questionnaire sent out in 2016 was the suggestion to have a big bonus scheme linking some of the key cup races, and there was a very positive response to that. Weatherbys Hamilton obviously sponsors the Lonsdale and they came to us and said they’d been putting some ideas together. We talked back and forth about some of the races that they were looking to include. The BHA was very supportive but Weatherbys Hamilton needs a lot of credit for actually pulling it off.

EB: And now we could be looking at the £1 million bonus being won in the first year…

RQ: Absolutely. In the first year, to have a horse with clearly a live chance going into the final leg is brilliant. Hopefully [Stradivarius] will win, but even if something went wrong, it’s still been a really good story for year one.

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