The ASBP Report: How can they be serious? Bad news for harness owners
First time poster on this forum, I see that there is a topic on this report under 'Breeding' but as this affects all aspects of the industry potentially, I feel it is right to discuss one particular part of their recommendations here.
The ASBP should be commended for their efforts to address problems with breeding and exploring avenues on how to sort these issues out.
They recommend a National Breeding Credit Scheme for mares which it is anticipated will stimulate the greater participation in racing by those fillies and mares, by funding F&M racing, giving credits to horses themselves so as to be used as credits against future stallion fees against that mare and so forth.
This scheme requires funding and one area that the Panel suggested funding the $2.1 million per year that was needed was by the introduction of IMPORT FEES on horses that are bought from overseas to come here to race.
The suggested fee was $1500 for 4yo and up mares, and $5000 for C&G.
In NSW this fee stands at $150 and $500 respectively and the suggestion is to increase 10 fold to fund this breeding intiative.
I am really disappointed that this has been recommended as the major source of funding for the Breeding Proposal. There seems very little consideration given to owners, in fact a small percentage of owners whom source their racing product from overseas.
Can anyone tell me how creating such a disincentive for ownership can be good for the sport? Harness Racing struggles enough as it is to attract owners and let alone retain them. One very attractive way to do this is to source horses from NZ because you can get them here and race them soon after. Australians don't sell and are habitual overpricers.
According to the figures 13% of racing horses are from NZ. If you create barriers or make the sourcing of horses from NZ not as attractive, then there will be less horses coming over here to race.
I saw in the other thread some suggestions that the NZ breeders will absorb the costs.
What rubbish.
At the end of the day a $5000 impost in importing horses from NZ will equate to a greater cost to owners no matter which way you look at it.
A $20k horse now based on its relative ability will not be $20k in the future with the $5000 import fee. There will be other horses for sale at that price, but they will generally be ones of lesser ability, and therefore the import fee would encourage the importation of lesser grade animals as a result.
I find this recommendation to be completely at odds with what we are trying to achieve in the wider industry. By all means the breeders need supporting but breeders themselves are to blame for a lot of their woes with the ordinary stock they bring to sales. How can they expect to generate a return when they produce a product that people swat away? Any look at a sales catalogue shows it is often a great reference point for ordinarily bred horses, that any sensible yearling purchaser will simply shun.
And another consideration too: Breeders complain about the rising costs making it harder to attain or reach break even. Do the Breeders think that increased feed costs, fuel costs, general costs are only felt by Breeders?
No they are not. Everyone in the industry feels these costs. One cost they might be relatively alone in feeling is the cost of servicing mares. Breeders themselves create the demand that determines the pricing of stallions. Breeders want greater access to better stallions and the NBCS should give them that over time, but as we have seen by Alabar and so forth, service fees are coming down this season. They realise you need it to make it more economical to prudce good quality racing stock.
There is plenty more to debate on this topic, but this ridiculous IMPORT FEE needs to be stopped dead in its tracks.
Alternative sources of funding?
Hey TBM,
You might have missed my previous post to this effect.
Just wondering, have you come up with any ideas as far as alternative sources of funding is concerned?
You've aimed up on this 5k proposal and that's fine, it's there for discussion, and as far as your particular racing model is concerned I can completely understand why you're doing it. What I'm interested in however is alternatives.
If you really want to knock this 5k fee over then you've got to offer them other avenues to explore. Any ideas what they might be?
Incidentally, the way you've been painting this...as though the Breeders will skate...is not correct. If you also consider the $$$ that are expected to be raised by new/increased fees and specifically which will directly and indirectly fall upon the breeder to pay...then there's some $900,000+ that's being proposed to come out of their end.
On a personal note, here's a bit of a case study.
A basic calculation of what we can expect to pay by way of those proposed changes will see the cost of PTIF service fees from NZ based sires go up by around $400-$500-$600 per mare across the board & depending on the fee of the sire. It is unlikely Studs will absorb any of those costs. Breeder pays.
If those services then result in colt foals...it will serve to all but double registration costs.
Each & every colt foal resulting from imported chilled or frozen semen will cost his proud breeder approximately $725 more.
Essentially, breed half a dozen mares to chilled semen shipped from NZ, get all colts and what do you reckon the damage is for us? I make it to be somewhere around $4,350 and I think that's conservative. Food for thought.
