The Global Horseracing Industry

Social, Economic, Environmental and Ethical Perspectives

Phil McManus, Glenn Albrecht, Raewyn Graham

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136477447
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ethics & Moral Philosophy

Horseracing, thoroughbred breeding and gambling on racing are global industries worth several hundred billion dollars. They are also industries facing serious challenges, from the rise of alternative forms of leisure gambling to concerns about the ethical treatment of animals in all equestrian sports. This book offers a broad-ranging examination of the contemporary horseracing industry, from geographical, economic, social, ethical and environmental perspectives.

The book draws on in-depth, mixed-method research into the racing and breeding industries in the US, Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand, and includes comparative material on other key racing centres, such as Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong. It explores the economic structure of the global racing business, including comparisons with other major international sport businesses and other equestrian sports. It examines the social and cultural roots of the sport through its association with, and impact on, rural places, communities and environments from Kentucky to Newmarket – highlighting racing's particular blend of tradition and scientific and technological innovation. The book also explores the ethical issues at the heart of horseracing, from reproduction to the use of the whip, and the inescapable tension between the horse as an instrumentally valuable commodity and the horse as an intrinsically valuable animal with needs and interests.

The Global Horseracing Industry concludes by considering alternative futures for this major international sports business. The book is illuminating reading for anybody with an interest in sport, business, cultural geography, animal studies, or environmental studies.

1Introducing the global horseracing industry

Thoroughbred breeding and racing is a global industry, as confirmed in 2003 with the establishment of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA), an organization based in Paris. Amongst other activities, this organization operates the World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings, a system designed to compare the racing performance of thoroughbreds in different parts of the world.

In excess of 110,000 thoroughbred foals are born each year throughout the world. While the numbers have been declining in recent years in countries such as the USA, the UK and Australia (partly due to concerns about quality at the lower end of the market, but more recently due to the state of various national economies), the breadth of participation spreads across many countries. As of 2011, there were 67 recognized national stud books in the International Stud Book list, including in the USA, South Africa and Zimbabwe, Morocco, Lithuania, Lebanon, India, Denmark, China and Argentina (International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, 2011). In 2009 there were 162,891 thoroughbred races held in 47 countries and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, with over a quarter of a million different horses starting a race and the total prize money being the equivalent of nearly US $4,437 million (The Jockey Club, 2011). The industry is valuable to particular countries for employment, export income and gambling. For example, in Australia in 2009/10 this industry distributed prize money in excess of A$427 million, with yearling sales of over $256 million, 1,833 thoroughbreds permanently exported to at least 16 countries and total wagering approaching $14.4 billion (Australian Racing Board, 2010). Numerous other industries, such as veterinary services, stock transport, pasture management, tourism and hospitality, to name a few, rely to varying extents on the thoroughbred breeding and racing industry for their existence.

These statistics highlight the economic importance of the industry. They do not tell us much about the role of the thoroughbred breeding and racing industry in constructing the identity of settlements and regions, or about the importance of culture and tradition influencing the perspectives of breeders, owners, trainers, jockeys, administrators, punters and spectators. They say little about the animal itself, apart from the fact that it has an economic value. What does the industry mean for the life trajectory of particular thoroughbreds?

This book attempts a rigorous examination of the linked activities of thoroughbred breeding and racing, taking into consideration the economic scope of this activity, its cultural significance, its environmental impacts (often hidden) and ethical issues, and aims to address the following questions:

•What is the importance of tradition and innovation in the thoroughbred breeding and racing industry?

•What significant changes have occurred within this industry over time?

•What economic changes are impacting on the structure and practices of this industry?

•What scientific and technological changes are affecting the industry?

•How are thoroughbred breeding and racing related in the industry?

•When are their aims and practices aligned and when do they diverge or conflict?

•How is “nature” or the site of breeding and farming constructed and used in this industry?

•What current ethical issues is the industry facing?

•What happens to thoroughbreds when they finish racing?

•What is the likely future of this industry given economic changes, technological changes and ethical concerns?

Despite its obvious economic importance and centrality to many people's lives, very little has been written from a critical academic perspective on this important industry and popular cultural activity. Most academic research on thoroughbred breeding and racing has been undertaken by economists and veterinarians. The lack of critical social science engagement with such a valuable and controversial industry, with the notable exception of the work of Rebecca Cassidy (2002a, 2002b, 2003, 2007), leaves many important issues neglected. Most popular accounts of thoroughbred racing are reminiscences of trainers, jockeys, commentators and punters (see for example Myers, 2006; Cummings, 2009; Haynes, 2010; Palmer, 2011). While they are filled with humorous and sometimes sad stories, they are generally written within the confines of the industry, and particularly the racing side of the industry. Personal decisions about which horse to bet on, or which race to enter, may be questioned, but the structure and culture of the industry itself is rarely open to scrutiny.

Thoroughbred racing is highly visible, and made even more so by the use of television cameras, dedicated racing television stations and the growing popularity of social media. While this has aided in spreading racing culture to many parts of the world, and promoted increased gambling through the live broadcasting of international races, the use of social media by animal welfare activists to protest against jumps racing has had a profound impact on this activity.

If the racing side of the thoroughbred breeding and racing industry has become more visible in recent years, it remains the case that the breeding side of the industry is still hidden from popular view. This is ironic, because the breeding component of the industry is where the big money is made. The high-value end of the racing industry is primarily oriented to providing the raw materials for the breeding industry, namely young stallions with excellent racing records (particularly as two- and three-year-olds) and broodmares with outstanding pedigree, based either on their own racing achievements or the records of their close relatives.

The two components of the industry can be further subdivided, as demonstrated later in this book. Suffice to say at this stage, the two components of the industry, breeding and racing, are connected. While some people within the industry lament the apparent separation of these components of the industry, through the establishment of breeding operations with no racing component that operate only to sell young thoroughbreds, when viewed at the scale of the industry as a whole, the links between breeding and racing are maintained.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the emphasis on two-year-olds racing for large purses, in order to be retired soon after and to commence breeding. The ownership of successful young racing entires (male horses not yet breeding) is the key to establishing a presence in the lucrative thoroughbred breeding industry, although racing success does not automatically translate into breeding success. The emphasis on the discourse of “tradition” in this industry, coupled with the use of “natural” as a discourse, enables the perpetuation of particular breeding practices. This means that newcomers have to buy their way into the industry, by purchasing established breeding stock, or buying successful young racehorses, or by investing in the offspring of the breeding animals at the yearling sales and hoping that these young animals in turn become successful on the track and later in the breeding barn.

If all horses were to follow this life path from the racetrack to the breeding barn, there would very soon be an oversupply of thoroughbreds in the world. The industry limits the production of thoroughbreds in a number of ways, as discussed further in this book. First, breeding has to be “natural”, a concept questioned in later chapters. This requirement immediately limits the number of foals that can be born. The second cultural limitation is that generally only the most successful entires as determined on the racetrack get the opportunity to breed, since it is believed that the quality of the breed is being continually improved over time and thus animals perceived to be inferior do not get the chance to pass on inferior genes and/or characteristics. Even this aspect of the industry is questioned from within, as a number of commentators have noted that the emphasis on speed has been achieved at the expense of durability and resilience, and sometimes with the aid of steroids and other drugs, much to the detriment of the animal and, ultimately, the sport (Cain, 2004; Squires, 2009).

What does this breeding pattern mean for thoroughbreds? For most male thoroughbreds, it means that they are gelded so that they are easier to handle, thereby rendering them unusable for breeding. Their income-earning capacity, which in most cases translates into their survival, is based on results achieved and prize money gained on the racetrack. For the thoroughbred, this can mean racing frequently with little recovery time, or perhaps transitioning to jumps racing (hurdles, steeplechasing) where the risk of injury or death is far greater than flat racing.

The global thoroughbred breeding and racing industry is prone to “overproduction” and, despite the best intentions of people within this industry to limit overproduction, it will always occur because it is a necessary part of the racing mythology. The racing industry expands by bringing in “new money”, either in the form of wealthy individuals (increasingly in developing countries), or through syndication, where a number of potential owners can pool their resources and purchase a horse. The net result of these activities is to increase the demand for thoroughbreds, both in the total number of horses bought and sold but particularly in the value of horses at the top-end of the market, with a resulting trickle-down of price increases through lower levels of the market. In order to attract this new money, the popular racing narrative that anybody can be the owner of a successful racehorse must be perpetuated.

There is some truth in this narrative, although there is more chance of a higher priced yearling earning higher prize money over a racing career than a cheaper purchase. This may be related to the animal itself, but is also likely to include factors such as superior food, veterinary attention, training, accommodation and all the other components that are involved in racing success. The cost of an animal, and its subsequent pampering, do not necessarily translate into success on the racetrack or the breeding barn (if the thoroughbred gets that far). Notable examples of expensive horses that did not perform well at the racetrack include Seattle Dancer (who cost over US $13 million as a yearling and earned just over $100,000 in prize money) and The Green Monkey, who was purchased as a yearling for $16 million, raced three times without winning and now stands at stud in Florida with a service fee of $5,000 (Lowe, 2007; Biles, 2008). One could claim that these animals were “overproduced”. While many people rightly want to limit overproduction, the nub of the matter is that nobody can say in advance which animals will be the ones that are “overproduced”.

This means that many thoroughbreds are born, but not all get to race, and very few get to actually win a race. What happens to these horses? What ethical issues are raised for the industry as a whole? Whose responsibility is it to address these issues? These are the issues that are often not discussed in books about the thoroughbred breeding and racing industry.

In order to answer these questions, we have conducted approximately six years of detailed research undertaken in four leading English-speaking countries – Australia, the USA, Canada and New Zealand (along with site visits to locations in the UK) – to engage with debates on geography, animal studies, ethics, environmental management and sport. The research includes 238 questionnaire responses from thoroughbred breeders in four countries, 52 responses from standardbred breeders in Australia, 31 interviews in three countries, one focus group, site visits to museums, racetracks and breeding establishments, analysis of Hansard Parliamentary Debates and a two-year media analysis of 21 Australian newspapers (counting Sunday editions as separate papers). This research is augmented by research undertaken by Raewyn Graham as part of her PhD studies, which forms the basis for the chapter on horse festivals. Raewyn's research included interviews, questionnaires, archival research and periods of participant observation in Scone (Upper Hunter) and Georgetown (Kentucky).

Our research intersects with work being undertaken in a number of related disciplines, including sports studies, geography and animals studies. The lack of geographical research on thoroughbred breeding and racing is surprising given the economic value of these animals (Keaveney, 2008; McManus, 2008a, 2008b), the way landscapes are constructed to promote the activity of thoroughbred breeding (McManus et al., 2011), the ongoing controversy about thoroughbred racing and the numerous questions that thoroughbred breeding raises for critical geographies of culture-nature (Keaveney, 2008; McManus, 2008b). Though the subdiscipline of sports geography has grown in recent years (see Bale and Dejonghe, 2008), it is peculiarly silent about thoroughbred breeding and racing. Horses, and particularly horses used for racing, are critically under-researched given the substantial controversy that this activity generates and the big questions it poses about human – other than human-animal – relations.

The ethical debates raised in this book are situated within the multidisciplinary research area of animal studies, which explores the crucial relationship between humans and non-human animals (Birke and Brandt, 2009). In particular, animal geography has flourished following the publication of major edited collections by Wolch and Emel (1998) and Philo and Wilbert (2000). Earlier research on animal cultural geography (Anderson, 1995, 1997; Whatmore and Thorne, 1998; Whatmore, 2002) has provided a foundation for various overlapping issues that Anderson (1997, 481) termed “more complex and animal-inclusive models of social relations”. These issues include boundary transgression (Power, 2009a), selective breeding (Yarwood and Evans, 2003, 2006; Tonts et al., 2010), animal subjectivity and technology (Holloway, 2007), the use of genetic technologies (Morris and Holloway, 2009), the inclusion of animals in political geography (Hobson, 2007) and the existence of companion animals (Fox, 2006; Power, 2009b). There has been more critical culture-nature research on horses in related disciplines, particularly anthropology and sociology. Two notable clusters of literature are Birke and Brandt (2009) and Latimer and Birke's (2009) recent work on gender, power and education techniques used with horses, and the extensive work of Rebecca Cassidy (2002a, 2002b, 2005, 2007) on thoroughbred breeding and racing in Newmarket and later Kentucky, which includes considerations of class, race, tradition and the construction of animals and landscapes. These studies have both inspired and informed this book.

Structure of the book

The Global Horseracing Industry differs from most other books on this industry in its global reach (rather than concentrating on one country or region), in its coverage of both breeding and racing from social, economic and environmental perspectives and in the way it integrates geographical, cultural, animal studies, ethics and environmental issues. In addition to introductory and concluding chapters, the book is divided into five sections: “Sentient animals”, “The industry”, “Making places”, “Ethical challenges” and “The future” that comprise, in total, 15 chapters.

“Sentient animals” comprises two chapters. It is appropriate that we begin a discussion about thoroughbred breeding and racing with a detailed consideration of the animal. This chapter summarizes the history of the thoroughbred breed, outlines the main strengths and weaknesses of the breed, compares the breed to other breeds of horses, and looks in more detail at different types of thoroughbreds, including sprinters and stayers, colts and fillies, stallions, mares and geldings. This chapter also introduces some of the life trajectories of different types of thoroughbreds and relates closely to the chapter on ethical issues where types of racing, over-racing and the future of animals no longer considered useful for racing or breeding is discussed. These animals are contrasted with the “elite” thoroughbreds which are treated in life and in death differently than other thoroughbred horses. This links to the idea of thoroughbred horses as status symbols, both in life and death, as seen through horse burials.

Chapter 3, called “The people: Owners, breeders, trainers, jockeys, punters”, addresses the range of human animals involved in this industry. It is not exhaustive, as stablehands, trackriders, auctioneers, feedstock providers and many other people are involved in the industry. The aim of this chapter is to present the complexity of the industry through the people within the industry, and to focus on their relationships with the horse.

The next four chapters explore the different components of the industry, the locations, government support for the industry, employment, the different racing set-ups and the importance of establishing a brand for products within this highly competitive industry.

Chapter 4, “Thoroughbred breeding and racing around the world” is an overview of thoroughbred breeding and racing – covering its history, major locations, expansion into Asia and changes in the character of races, including shorter distances, more valuable races for younger horses and the creation of rich racing carnivals such as the Breeders Cup in the USA and the Dubai World Cup. These events are an example of eque-culture: the co-evolution of horses and humans which creates an emergent space that both horses (equines) and humans co-habit. The chapter identifies the main races, the extent of racing and the different arrangements for breeding and racing in places as diverse as Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

The fifth chapter, “The business of thoroughbred breeding and racing”, explores the structure of breeding and racing, including the complex and varying relationships between gambling, racing and breeding. It also looks at the structure of the industry, particularly in its varied relationships to gambling, and the changing forms of gambling that may represent either an opportunity for the expansion of the thoroughbred industry or a threat to its financial base, and includes material on the development of racing in new venues and the ways in which new participants are enticed into the industry. It also looks at the benefits of participation by people, and why they may engage in an industry in which most of them can expect to lose money. The businesses of thoroughbred breeding and racing are examined in terms of their structure, their profitability and what this means for the different types of thoroughbreds (colts, fillies, geldings, stallions, old mares, etc.). The chapter covers the emergence of the large breeding studs – the “mega-studs” – and the introduction of stallion stations. “Mega-studs” have bought out a number of the family-owned operations, changing the dynamics of the breeding industry in relation to the region. This chapter provides the nexus between the horse as a commodity within ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introducing the global horseracing industry
• Part I Sentient animals
• Part II The industry
• Part III Making places
• Part IV Ethical challenges
• Part V The future
• References
• Index