The 2024 sales season is now behind us – and I am more confused than ever! Once again, at the top of the tree, there were some spectacular results proving that it still does only take ‘two to tango’ to generate huge returns. Unusually, the demand in Book 1 at Tattersalls then filtered into Book 2 and there were some satisfied vendors as a result, but the going then became very tough.

Too many yearlings didn’t recover their costs and some struggled to sell at all, delivering a double slap; first comes the financial consequence but next the humiliation that the market didn’t value that animal at all. I heard several of our members express this view, and why wouldn’t they? It’s 32 months of hard work, investment and dreams down the pan.

The foal and mare sales reflected the same market conditions – if the right pedigree and performance were on the page, then some were well paid, others made a profit, and some recovered their costs, but yet again the majority looked at a completely different loss-making landscape. The headline acts, though, apply the law of unintended consequences by delivering these eye watering numbers that persuade those with influence in racing – but not a detailed knowledge of the breeding industry – that everything in our profit and loss columns is positive.

One senior executive said in a recent radio interview that the industry must explain itself. Successive TBA economic impact studies have painted a challenging picture of British breeding, and it is from these that the TBA has been able to persuade those in power that intervention and incentive is required to support the industry.

These interventions could now be at risk and so it is the TBA’s job to provide an explanation; an in-depth review of all British based yearling sales has been commissioned and it will deep dive into the top of the market, the export market, the special purchaser, and the Brexit impact upon the lower market and so on. This work will be completed in early March and will provide vital evidence when presenting the challenges of the British breeding sector both across the wider industry and externally to the Levy Board and government.

I can hear some asking why we are wasting money on that as we know the answers, and maybe we do in part, but as an old Chairman of mine would say, “If you can’t measure, you can’t manage” – we need to be able to measure with confidence to continue to press the case for support of the British-bred product!

The good news upon that front is the ongoing success of the Great British Bonus, which is proving the case daily that intervention, properly targeted, can and will work. Expect more of this as soon as new money is available and I cannot in that respect emphasise enough the importance of a GB suffix to be eligible for all existing schemes and those to come.

Breeding British makes sense for the short and long term; the more we invest in ourselves and in our domestic industry, the stronger it will become. Bemoaning the lack of choice in British-based stallions will become self-perpetuating if we don’t support our current British-based sires, whose owners incidentally provide a financial contribution of around £2 million annually to prize-money via the British European Breeders’ Fund, in so doing supporting the case for reinvestment in new and exciting stallions.

British breeders are a tough lot – proof of that pudding is they keep coming back and as we turn into January, plans are advanced for this year’s matings. The TBA has been contacted by several members in respect of nomination contract terms and conditions with suggestions of how these might be improved. We engage with the stallion owners regularly and will discuss both mare owners’ concerns and how that might be assisted whilst respecting the significant capital and risk that standing a stallion entails.

There is that old horse adage ‘caveat emptor’ and I urge all mare owners to read the small print before they sign any contract and make the amendments required before buying rather than
relying upon a contract to provide for every eventuality. Introduce your own terms and if you can’t agree, review your choice. You make a profit when you buy something and not when you sell, so
dotting i’s and crossing t’s seems a good plan at this point.

The TBA continues to support breeders large and small; we do have your back and we do listen. Never has there been a more important time to stick together. Breed, buy and race British is my new year shout.