Irish thoroughbreds big export earners

Press, 9 May 1985, Page 34

Irish thoroughbreds big export earners

By

COLIN McINTYRE

of NZPA-Reuter Dublin At a time when many of Ireland’s traditional industries are foundering, the most traditional of them all is booming as never before. The breeding and sale of thoroughbred racehorses has grown from a cottage industry to a modern and highly-sophisticated business worth more than 100 million dollars a year in exports and employing, directly or indirectly, some 50,000 people. At Goff’s Bloodstock Sales, the main market place for the industry located in the village of Kill, just west of Dublin, the managing director, Jonathan Irwin, said annual turnover had jumped from two million dollars to more than 40 million in less than a decade. Last year, the number of thoroughbred foals registered in Ireland overtook that in neighbouring Britain for the first time, making Ireland Europe’s, leading base for stallions. One of the main reasons for Ireland’s success is its climate, both physical and fiscal, according to Irwin, who has brought to the auction ring some of the showmanship of the theatrical family into which he was born. The mild damp climate, rich soil and lush green pastures of Ireland have produced fine horses for centuries. At one time most of Europe's cavalry regiments were supplied from Ireland. While Irish horses have traditionally dominated steeplechase racing in Europe,the breakthrough in the more lucrative flatracing did not come until the 19705, after the Government decided in 1969 to exempt stallion fees from tax. “This had a dramatic effect on the calibre of stallions coming to stand here,” said Irwin, adding that the number of classic winners based in Ireland jumped from 60 to 140 in five years. Money poured into the country as some of the world’s richest men—among them the Aga Khan, the Maktoum brothers of Dubai, football pools millionaire, Robert Sangster, and Greek shipping tycoon, Stavros Niarchos—set up or bought into studs. At the other end of the scale, nearly 4000 small Irish breeders, typically farmers with two or three mares as a sideline, give the industry an unrivalled depth and breadth. Successive Irish Governments have confirmed the 1969 decision, and even the Labour Party, junior partners in the present ruling coalition, supports the tax break despite the industry’s far from working-class image. The industry is comforted by the knowledge that the Finance Minister, Alan

Dukes, who has taxed practically everything else to help pay off Ireland’s heavy foreign debts, is the member of Parliament for Kildare, the heart of horsebreeding country. With the very top stallions commanding up to 100,000 dollars a time, and covering between 40 and 50 mares in a season, the attractions of the present tax regime are clear. Many stallions are now owned by syndicates, with several individuals sharing purchase prices—often running into millions of dollars—and the profits from stud fees. But like the sport it feeds, thoroughbred breeding is a gamble. If the stallion’s offspring turn out to be losers when they first run as two-year-olds, that investment is lost. The stallion may be sold at a loss to another gambler who will be taking a chance that future offspring will do better. To make more finance available, particularly to smaller breeders, Goff’s is developing a finance company which will enable clients to raise money using their horses as collateral. Goff’s and all others involved are looking forward to further growth in the bloodstock industry. Fears that foreign owners might leave Ireland after the super-horse Shergar was kidnapped from the Aga Khan’s Ballymany Stud near Kill in 1983, never to be seen again, appear to have been unfounded. Irwin notes that, in an unmistakeable genture of confidence in the Irish industry, the Aga Khan has sent his French Derbywinner, Darshaan, to stand at Ballymany.