STALLIONS IN INDIA A fresh perspective

Racing is fun only when there is a high degree of competition. Unfortunately, there are not enough good runners being bred in India to ensure this. Barely a handful of the nearly 4,000 individual horses in training can claim to possess a local rating in excess of 100, and while the talented ones are very, very good – Mystical and Saddle Up come to mind – the run-of-the-mill performer is pretty moderate. Which makes for dull racing in the country and prevents the sport from operating at an optimum level.
Part of the credit, if “credit” is the word one wants, for this disappointing state of affairs goes to the bizarre stallion practices that still prevail in India (and almost nowhere else in the world). Probably a legacy of history, this so-called policy has consisted hitherto of two components:
1) Every stud farm must stand at least one stallion
2) Home stallions at a stud farm are supposed to cover only home mares
Simple arithmetic will show that a small stud farm that insists on standing its own stallion/s has almost no chance whatsoever of producing decent racehorses. When even stallions with superior credentials fail at a high rate, despite serving books of 40 and upwards, what likelihood is there of a modest racehorse, bought for say $ 25,000 (Rs.10.5 lakhs) producing something of Gr.1 calibre from a harem of 20 average mares? Pretty slim! It’s not unknown, but so rare that it is hardly worth betting on.
Note that if this modest horse happens to be crooked in his limbs or a spreader of genetic unsoundness such as roaring, he disseminates his detrimental influence to dozens of offspring over the period of 3 to 5 years before economic forces mandate his disposal. Sometimes this malevolent sway persists for a couple of generations, when daughters of the dud are retired as broodmares!
Of course, just as for every rule, there are exceptions and a good example of one is Gaswar, an inexpensive unraced British-bred who is averaging close to Rs.7 lakhs in earnings/runner (which places him in the top ten stallions in the country) from his base at Lingwood Stud.
However for each Gaswar, there is the Locked Away (half-brother to Razeen) and the A In Sociology (multiple Graded Stakes winner) and numerous others which surely engender high expectations when they arrive in India and yet end up gracing the bottom of the table and producing no stakes winners. Most of the progeny of such flops are mere field-fillers in the lowest classes. And with all eggs in one basket, the stud farms suffer financially.
At the other end of the scale, proven successes like breed-shapers Placerville and Razeen produce double digit percentages of stakes winners, which is not only commendable – it is a world-class achievement. And yet this pair has never had more than 58 named foals apiece in any crop (the former in 2003 and the latter in 1994).
What’s more, it’s not as if their books have ever consisted of the best-credentialled 60 or 70 mares apiece in the country. Rather, the lists of mares nominated each year to these stallions comprise chiefly of mares which just happen to belong to their owners or owners’ associates. No doubt these include plenty of good ones, but that is because the stud farms which stand these stallions happen to own superior mares or have the resources to acquire them, rather than as a consequence of any concerted attempt at canvassing a full book of top ranked mares.
What are some of the consequences of this scenario? Small breeders, who might perchance own a fine mare, cannot hope to get into these proven stallions. A genuinely good mare like Baroque Pearl would never have gotten to Malvado or Riyahi or Placerville had she remained in the ownership of her original importer, the Talegaon Stud & Agricultural Farm. It’s only because the latter agreed to sell her that it became possible for the Indian Turf to see the likes of Super Brave, Priceless Asset, Queen To Conquer and Shinjuku.
In contrast, virtually any Kelly, Doyle or Murphy in Ireland can get into Galileo (189 mares covered in 2006) or Danehill Dancer (191 mares covered in 2006) at Coolmore. Is it any surprise that 9 of the past 11 Epsom Derby winners (over 80%), including the 2008 hero New Approach, are by Coolmore sires? Of these eleven wearers of the “Blue Riband”, only Galileo is out of a mare part-owned by Coolmore associates, while Authorized is from a mare part-owned by well-known international jockey Michael Kinane, who rode at one time for Coolmore.
The remaining Derby heroes are out of mares owned by other breeders, which range from the Aga Khan, numerically one of the biggest breeders in the world, to Mrs. Max Morris of Iverk House Stud (breeder of Oath, now at stud in India).
Big breeders, who understandably need to prove new stallions in India, also end up contributing inadvertently to the situation by reducing the numbers allotted to their own proven performers. For example, with the advent of China Visit at Usha Stud in 2003, patronage of his stud companions plummeted – Razeen’s book for that year fell to 39 (down from 68 in the previous year), while his highly successful compatriot Steinbeck saw his numbers dwindle from 38 to 4 (interestingly, one – Splendid Surprise – of the two foals that resulted, now four-year-olds, became a Grade 1 winner; his current earnings of Rs.88 lakhs are higher than those for any of his 2004-foaled batch-mates from his birthplace).
In 2008, Ace is reported to have drawn over 100 mares at the Poonawalla Stud in his first season, which is a wonderful introduction, but this is a development that has involved a drop in numbers for his fellow inmates (and proven customers) Alnasr Alwasheek, Diffident and Placerville (admittedly some of this decrease for the old guard has been dictated by health reasons).
Yet another negative consequence of the closed-door scheme is the inability to match bloodlines between the mare and her prospective mates. Billions of dollars are spent annually elsewhere in the world on pedigree research, nick ratings and consultations, so that the strengths of mares are buttressed while their weaknesses are minimized by careful mating. Alas, this does not happen to any significant degree in India (except within the limited choice of the farm’s roster), and the Indian Turf is the big loser.
One of the most successful breeders on the international canvas, the Aga Khan, sends one-third of his mares to “outside” stallions, which have been carefully matched on pedigree and performance considerations. He does this despite having idle capacity with his “home” stallions at Gilltown, all Gr.1 winners – in 2006, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes winner Azamour bred 121 mares, Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe victor Dalakhani served 68, Coral Eclipse Stakes conqueror Daylami handled 24 while Champion Stakes hero Kalanisi was sought out by the owners of 43 mares, making a total of 256. In theory, the quantum of mares covered at Gilltown in 2006 could have been doubled without adverse effects on the stallions.
Yet the Aga Khan mares regularly went out – and he has certainly reaped the reward of this open policy, having bred four Epsom Derby winners: Sinndar, Kahyasi, Shahrastani and Shergar! All are by “outside” stallions as is his latest star, the hitherto-unbeaten Zarkava (by Juddmonte’s Zamindar), successful in 2008 in both the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas and the Prix de Diane-French Oaks.
One more peculiar feature is the inability of the Indian breeding industry to “make” its own stallions. After all, if good international horses are expensive, costing from say $ 100,000 to $ 50,000,000 (Rs.42.5 lakhs to Rs.212.5 crores) for horses rated 120 and above (depending on age, accomplishments and provenance), one can hypothetically switch to top local horses as Australia (with Encosta De Lago and Redoubte’s Choice) and Japan (Deep Impact and Heart’s Cry are recent examples) have done.
In fact, five of the top six stallions in Japan ranked by number of mares covered in 2006 are locally-bred, with only Kurofune (by French Deputy) an American-bred. These are (with number of mares bred in brackets): King Kamehameha (256), Fuji Kiseki (252), Neo Universe (247), Kurofune (246), Special Week (216) and Zenno Rob Roy (also 216).
For whatever reason – probably because there is no market for Indian-bred stallions – all the top Indian-bred racehorses in recent years have been geldings. In theory, the adoption of this practice of castrating even well-bred colts has resulted in an immense loss to the Indian Turf – an “entire” horse’s capital value can be hugely disproportionate to the same horse’s value as a gelding.
A very recent example presents itself: late in 2007, Coolmore purchased a half-share in the Australian-bred Haradasun (a horse rated 126 by Timeform in “Racehorses of 2007”), for A$22.5 million, valuing the whole horse at A$45 million. There is no way this horse would have been worth even A$2.5 million had he been a gelding. Coolmore was rewarded for its enterprise with a recent Royal Ascot victory for the son of Fusaichi Pegasus.
It is interesting to note that Saddle Up and Mystical received Annual Timeform Ratings of 117 – higher than Razeen (113) and Placerville (116) – and would certainly have been good enough to use had they been “entires”. Yet probably no major stud would have stood them in India, as some sad examples of “entire” Indian Derby winners can attest. And all this despite a relatively small breeder, Divyug Farm, having demonstrated with its home-bred Sir Bruce the potential of the Indian-bred champion.
Another player with a negative effect on Indian horse breeding is the Indian Government, whose restrictive import licensing policy (which does not permit syndication), absurdly high incidence of customs duty and onerous quarantine requirements have collectively acted as hindrances to permanent imports and impenetrable barriers to the shuttling of stallions between hemispheres. It would be a brave breeder who attempted to bring, say, Commands (a good-looking and well-performed son of Danehill) from Australia to India for a season, were he to be available. In contrast, 2008 sees Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus shuttling to Haras Don Alberto in Chile and the Ashford/Coolmore quartet of “Iron Horse” Giant’s Causeway, his classic-winning son Footstepsinthesand, champion three-year-old Thunder Gulch, and champion two-year-old Johannesburg offering their wares at Haras La Mission in Argentina!
Small signs of change are visible. In the Pune area there is some interchange of mares between stud farms on pedigree considerations, while the Equus and Nanoli Studs stand several stallions between them, which shuttle between the two farms, so that “nicking” is more practical. These developments, along with Manjri Stud’s regular patronage of Placer-ville and Yeravada Stud’s similar use of Diffident, are pointers to the trend of the future.
A glance at the Indian Stud Book suggests that perhaps 300 mares could benefit annually by visiting superior/better-matched stallions (as compared to their “home” stallions), which equates to perhaps 200 better racehorses on Indian racetracks each year. Certainly there are logistical difficulties, veterinary and nutritional issues, and other impediments – but little that cannot be overcome if there is the will….

– by Anil Mukhi

AUGUST – SEPTEMBER 2008