the bloodstock world.

​Unlike people who are unfortunate to live in non-democratic countries, we live in a society when anyone can express their opinions on any subject. This right should never be denied, even when the opinions expressed are not compatible with your own views. Which is why I do not condemn Lee Mottershead for his support of the 21 traitorous individuals quite rightly thrown out of the Conservative Party. He may think them fearless. He is entitled to his opinion. But he should tread carefully when he gives his unequivocal support to politicians who choose to side with a political party who sit around a table, and take advice from, the enemies of our sport. Lee Mottershead should remember that if, God forbid, Labour ever came to power one of their stated aims would be to tinker with the sport’s independence with the result that the whole of the racing industry would be in jeopardy. The nasty organisation that is Animal Aid are best buddies with Jeremy Corbyn’s wing of the Labour Party and anyone who sides with their views on any issue are not deserving of any encouragement or praise from any member of the racing family. Brexit, of which I am a 100% paid-up supporter, may be of far greater significance to the country than horse racing, and I am aware that short term not being a subject of the E.U. regime will cause racing and the breeding industry quite a few difficulties, but we must believe that one day the whole debacle that is parliament’s shameful dereliction of their duty to pass the necessary legislation to enforce a free and democratic vote will finally come to an end and life will go on. Though for racing, I fear, not as we know it if the Labour Party rise to power.
Having criticised the usually excellent Lee Mottershead, I must in all fairness praise his contribution to exposing the scandal that is presently maligning the Bloodstock Industry. As anyone who has troubled themselves to read these pieces of mine over the months and years will know, I am concerned that the Bloodstock Industry wields too much influence over the race programme, especially with the ever-increasing number of fillies listed and Group 3 races that exist solely to give breeders the advantage of ‘black type’ in sales catalogues.
A filly or mare that wins one of these races, through the use of black type in catalogues when either they of their offspring are sold at auction, is considered a better prospect to buy or breed from simply because it has won a ‘black type’ race, no matter how poor a race it actually was. These listed races are often of far greater value than any other race on the card and as often as not are the least competitive. This is pandering to breeders. The flat, it seems to me, to its detriment is dedicated far too much to the requirements of the Bloodstock Industry and because of it we lose a huge degree of competitiveness.
And how does the Bloodstock Industry repay the sport that feeds it, it covers-up fraudulent and criminal practice under the guise of ‘its how things are traditionally done and its best not to rock the boat’. One way or another, and one feels there is probably a ‘Panorama Special’ in production at this very moment, this scandal will come into the sporting and public arena and once again racing will be hauled over the coals and made to look a rich man’s paradise. Backhanders and false bidding will become the next fifteen minutes worth of black type across the front of many a ‘shocked’ daily newspaper. Instead of the fraudulent and criminal behaviour being confined to the one or two the media will build the story to proportions that will suggest the whole industry is a racket designed to increase the wealth of the already fabulously wealthy. Instead of turning away and ignoring the tsunami of bad publicity coming its way, the great and the good of the industry, led, I would hope, by Tattersalls and the other leading bloodstock sellers, should get together and determine a policy to outlaw the criminal bad practise it has chosen for so long to turn a blind eye to.
This is not racing’s problem. We cannot lay blame, for once, at the feet of the B.H.A., even if it is hard to believe that trainers have not benefitted in one way or another from what has been going on. They certainly must know the guilty parties, so perhaps they should volunteer information.
Racehorse owners are the bedrock of our sport. The horses, jockeys and trainers may receive most of the adulation and headlines but without people, especially owner/breeders and members of syndicates, willing to fork out large sums of money to buy horses and to keep them in training, every other tier of racing’s pyramid will fall. There would be no Derby, no Grand National, no selling handicap at Brighton, Southwell or Hamilton. If potential owners do not have faith in bloodstock agents, the people who train their horses and the sales companies, we are all dead in the water. The Bloodstock Industry should be ashamed of themselves. Not only the perpetrators involved in the scandal but also all those who work in the industry who have failed to expose the guilty parties.