The National Breeding Credit Scheme: Can it go further?
With all the banter about the Australian Standardbred Panels report on the Breeding industry, it might be worth looking a bit more in depth at what appears on face value a very good initiative and the main recommendation by the panel.
In a nutshell the scheme aims to reward owners of a racing filly by allocating them credits when a female first races, each time it races and when it wins as a 2yo, 3yo and 4yo.
These credits are retained by the horse (thats an important point) and can only be used for the purpose of purchasing services to Australian domiciled Stallions for that mare.(another very significant point).
So basically to encourage an owner of a filly to breed from her once the racing days are over, he can used the credits accumulated from her racing career to purchase services fees.
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I have some questions about this scheme. On face value it looks very promising. but is there some areas that could be looked at and improved / altered?
Take the credits for instance. What if the owner held the credits instead of the horse?
I gather the owner was taken away from the equation because this is a numbers game. all about getting numbers of foals up, irrespective of how well performed the mare is and so forth. If the owner is given the chance he / she may accumulate all the credits and use them to service other mares that they own to more expensive stallions that would otherwise be out of reach.
There could be plenty of debate on it, but it could work both ways. What if half is retained by the horse and half goes to the owner? This then ensures there isn't an imbalance one way or the other. I think most breeders would (I hope) realise that certain mares just wont be for breeding, but they won't lose out on the benefit totally.
Allocation of the credits:
I wonder how the credits will be allocated. Interesting to see credits allocated on first 2/3/4 yo wins? And beyond?
You would think that the main volume of credits would be directed at winners of races but in many ways, they could be 'wasted' that could be utilised elsewhere. If you have a well performed track mare, you would think that owners would breed anyway. Take Courageous Annie. If the main reward is given to winners, then she would have a hatful, on top of everything else she has done, but would they be needed to incentivise Dean Shannon to breed? I think not. What band of horses are the ones that never seem to get bred with? it is the 3yo fillies that struggled to make it in their 3yo year and the owners decide not to persist into country front company?
This must be a tricky area to determine. Maybe it hasn't been determined. Maybe there could be a threshold in $$$$$ that once achieved within reasonable number of starts that could see an allocation of credits. All sorts of permutations but you would think that the best credentialled racemares and fillies through their deeds on the racetrack wont need any incentive to breed.
Redeeming Credits: Purchasing of Australian domiciled stallions
This is another interesting area. With all this heated debate about how the NBCS is funded, what about where the dollars end up? The credits go to the owner to encourage them to breed which then gets passed onto the stud and where do the dollars go from there?
Well a massive chunk of it will leave the country to the overseas stallion owners. Many of our top sires are still owned by US interests and are here on deals with domestic studs. Not that many sires are actually fully owned by Australian breeding interests.
For those worrying about the money flooding out of the country through the purchase of NZ horses, or NZ horses taking our race stakes, what about this drain?
And I am sure if those willing to divulge the figures, will show it is pretty damn significant indeed. So maybe the NBCS needs to go a step further. Maybe the credits should be only redeemed against domestically 100% owned stallions, or colonial bred stallions. You cannot support the local breeding industry more than that could you?
Alright. Can hear people screaming already. '...not being able to go to the top sires means the breed isn't as good as it should be etc,etc,etc'. Defeats the purpose does it?
So in many ways the import fee (the main avenue for funding the intiative) is a tax on Australian owners to line mainly Amercian pockets down the line instead of keeping it within the country. It seems to me a tad conflicting in the overall scheme of things but it still has a clear purpose. Maybe the credits you accumulate could go further if used with a colonial sire of sire standing that is 100% Australian owned. We are supporting the aussie breeding industry aren't we? Not the american one (I know this will generate vigourous debate but bring it on!).
Redeeming Credits: Why can't they be used for other breeding costs too?
what surprises me a bit when reading the report is the failure to be able to use the credits for other costs associated with breeding. Like vet bills, agistment, transport to sales / even for futurity payments and so forth. With more and more wealth concentrated in the cities, the most likely avenue for new breeders might not be the ones whom have their own farms where they can essentially go through the whole operation (agistment etc ) for incredibly low cost. Agistment and vets bills etc are a cost. Just like service fees. As shown above, if the credits are used to pay for these kinds of costs, then they truly are going into the australian breeding industry, not losing a chunk going to US stallion owners. Agistment doesn't necessarily get another foal on the ground but it is still a cost nonetheless that would otherwise have to be met financially. some horses might accumulate more credits than they can actually handle. Would be good for them to be utilised in some way.
At the end of the day the NBCS has merit but could do with some tweaking IMHO. Probably the moot point is how the Australian owners are getting slugged dollars that inevitably end up in the pockets of yanks. Maybe something that is tweaked to make it more benefical to go to colonial breds down the line when they come through (Lanercost, Blackie, For A Reason etc if up to it). This might not be in the best interest of the actual breed in terms of quality of stock, but the NCBS doesn't seem to worry about that. It is after numbers first.
