New Stallion discount/bonus scheme in Vic for May/June

[Messenger]

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/art...ates-may-june/

77 fillies and mares races in Vic in May/June will give the breeder a $1,000 stallion discount and the owner a $500 stallion discount

(Note: moved from Positives Only thread - to enable discussion)

[Messenger]

I couldn't put this in the 'Positives only' thread.
Someone suggested to me that the new Vic stallion bonus initiative may only see the recipients reduce their breeding cost rather than cover more mares
What we need next is an initiative for small breeders with broodmares in the paddock that they can’t afford to have covered.

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/art...ates-may-june/

[Messenger]

Alternative suggestion I received:

A grant scheme whereby owners of broodmares that weren’t covered last season could apply for a grant towards having the mare covered in the coming season by either a Vic based or Australian owned stallion. Draw up a list of eligible stallions, and grant criteria. Say $750 for each mare, with $250 increases for things like, winning mare, winner producing mare, sibling to winning/ winner producing mare. Money payable to stallion owner on 42 positive test.

[TeeGeeEmm]

As an owner of several broodmares, its a good idea the stallion bonus but i think the studs will just reflect it their prices anyway
.

[Messenger]

Yes Trent, I have had others suggest this to me.
Maybe studs should be content to encourage an increase in the size of their books.
Maybe the bonus should only be payable for services by stallions that have not increased their stud fee from the previous season?
It may limit the breeders choices a little but it may encourage studmasters NOT to put up their fees if they want to increase their book size

[Dot]

As Trent says, NSW have the $500 rebate for colonial sires ( returned to breeder upon registering a foal) and whilst it can certainly be seen as having been a boost to stallion and foal numbers it is also easy to see it as a way that stallion owners can maintain a higher less competitive fee for their sire so that they moreso then the mare owner is the beneficiary of the scheme. Perhaps it’s time to review this scheme and reduce/remove the rebate for the production of a foal to a scheme whereby the extra is returned to the breeder when the foal becomes a starter.

Obviously every starter must once have been a foal, but not every foal becomes a starter. It is at the level of “starter” that a foal begins to contribute to the governing bodies revenue source by increasing field sizes and wagering returns, and in turn prizemoney. Whilst we do need more foals it is imperative that we get more starters from the foals we do produce. “Wastage” is not only an economic burden for the industry but weighs heavily upon the industry and public alike with regard to animal welfare.

[gutwagon]

Under the upcoming scheme by only offering the bonus to fillies and mares they seem to be encouraging owners to stop racing that horse and start breeding. This would take more horses out of the racing pool. It should be offered to all race winners regardless of sex, after all it is the dams of the race winners that we want to encourage to keep breeding.

[Dot]

Does look a bit that way Rick but some owners are just never going to be breeders regardless of how much their given!

Something is better then nothing but there is a lot of detail missing from the press release. I guess you could say that the scheme is intended to reward successful breeders and owners seeings it goes to winners. But is it intended to push these mares off to stud? Why are only mares who beat mares rewarded ( apart from the obvious, they know how many of those races there are) and not mares who beat the boys?. Are the certificates “attached” to the winning mare and her dam? Or are they transferable? No point giving a breeder a $1000 to breed the dam of the winner if they don’t have her anymore, and if it’s transferable, well it won’t necessarilly then be spent covering the dam of a winner.....Is the owners share transferable to purchases, transferable to another mare or an actual breeder or is it $500 certificate that just “sits” there if the owner is not abreeder?

I like the idea of a staggered grant system, firstly this can be used directly to mobilise broodmares already in the broodmare paddock and not being bred from back into the breeding shed. Staggered grants don’t exclude anyone’s mare but does weigh the money in line with industry expectations for likelihood of producing winners. Like HRNSWs rebate scheme HRV could also use the funds to support a particular tier of sire, $max fee, max book size, colonial bred, Australian owned or Victorian based or a combination of these.

With a criteria of not bred last season it shouldn’t be to difficult with HRVs extensive access to data bases to identify the majority of eligible mares, and then cost the scheme by multiply each eligible mares grant to reach a total, of by having a fixed total dividing that by eligible mares to reach an amount for each grant clause. Depending then on the uptake rate HRV want they could administer the scheme by having breeders apply and with restricted stallions available( low up take) to emailing mares owners with their mares specific grant amount and available restricted sires for a higher up take, or email mare owners with available grant for mare, and no restriction on stallion used for highest uptake.

Such a grant scheme is only good for a couple of seasons as some breeders are already every other season breeders and grants for mares not bred the previous seasons rewards them disproportionately to others and may encourage others to breed less frequently in order to access a grant.

But for a couple of seasons it could be very useful to get empty mares back into the breeding shed and increase foal numbers. ( yes I know some of these mares would have been back breeding next season anyway, so make it for mares left empty for 2 seasons or more if preferred) And give time to formulate plans for more long term schemes to stimulate breeding, and more importantly plans to get more of the horses we do breed to the track as “starters” preferably as multiple starters over a length of time, and best of all for connections a genuine opportunity to be a winner.

[Messenger]

I have been told that Downunder mares from Oz and NZ are doing so well in the USA/Canada that they are likely to be seeking more.
and that the offers from the US are very hard to resist as they are the “bird in the hand” as opposed to the uncertainty of winning it.
We cannot afford to lose too many - just another reason we need incentives
We all know the lag in producing a racehorse from conceiving a foal so hopefully the administrators have not left it too late.

[Messenger]

I have had a couple of people suggest to me that the following owners would or would not have been breeding regardless of the bonus so even though we are only talking $18k, it is not likely to produce more breeding

Today’s announcement means a further $18,000 worth of breeding vouchers will be made available for Vicbred Super Series winning owners and breeders to reinvest in the local industry.

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/art...to-be-vicbred/