By Cliff Williams, ContributorTHE history of organised horse racing is replete with outstanding exploits and record-breaking feats by the talented performers, who ever so often gallop to fame and make fortunes for lucky owners, with Menudo's fourth consecutive victory in the prestigious Red Stripe Superstakes. This is easily the most significant achievement by a thoroughbred in the history of local racing as well as being the most distinguished feat ever.
Handicapping by weight-for-age allotment is a method of equalising the chances of horses from both sexes brought together to compete. The mere fact that younger horses enjoy significant weight advantage would seem to suggest that these races are designed to almost ensure that older horses find winning difficult or at least has no decided advantage going in.
It is against this background that I firmly believe that what Menudo did was as close to impossible as a racing feat could get. This speaks to a rare type of durability seldom seen in the sport anywhere on the globe. The fact that the Viceroy put together a string of three victories between 1989 and 1992 does a lot to enhance the point that a horse has to be very special to win the Superstakes more than once, never mind four times consecutively.
Menudo has now beaten four crops at weight-for-age and this does not say a lot for what the farms have been delivering each season for at least the last two decades. The president of the Breeders Association has been sounding quite upbeat about the immediate state and prospects for the forseeable future. Coming from a realist and revolutionary thinker such as Howard Hamilton I suppose we can take some comfort in that, but I need to be convinced with incontrovertible evidence.
Truth be told, the breeding industry has not been the beneficiary of the kind of investment that would have ensured viability. The promoting company's reduction in sales turnover can be attributed to its inability to present highly competitive racing due to the inadequacy of both quality and quantity addition to the horse population, as each succeeding season the breeders are unable to deliver.
Against the background of Mr. Hamilton's optimism it is quite appropriate to examine last weekend's annual Select and Regular Sales. A total of 141 lots went through the ring of which 109 were sold with 95 in the regular sale and 14 in the Select for a total value of just over $33 million, which is neither a disaster nor a boom.
First problem I have with these returns is that 141 is a relatively small offering and with 22 per cent failing to change hands there is absolutely no basis for anyone, if they have a mind to, or is so inclined, to claim that the sales this year was an unqualified success. Still one has to acknowledge that the $33 million grossed from 141 lots this year is something of an improvement, although clearly the average price is down significantly this year, when compared to last year's 86 lots yielding $27.2 million.
There is no doubt in my mind that the local racing market could easily support three live race meetings each week. However, the horse population would have to be 50-60 per cent higher, but with the small number of viable foals being produced each year there is no chance of that happening and in fact the horse population has stood at 1100-1200 for as long as I can remember, with a significant number plagued with bleeding and lameness problems. There are factors militating against serious investment in the industry and these will have to be addressed if progress is to be made.
