‘Our global standing and reputation is at stake’
Australia’s black type debacle lurched through more twists on Tuesday, with uncertainty that Saturday’s Everest (1200m) will be officially recognised as a Group 1, plans for as many as 87 race upgrades in doubt, and with Magic Millions adding their voice to concerns on preserving the integrity of the pattern system.
Amid warnings the pattern issue would devolve from shambles to crisis with Australia demoted to international book 2 status, threatening billions of dollars damage to its racing and breeding industry, a raft of other new developments emerged, including:
A legal challenge is being organised against advice tabled by NSW at Racing Australia that the black type pattern is anti-competitive, ANZ Bloodstock News understands;
The southern hemisphere’s largest pedigree provider Arion said it would not recognise the mooted Group 1 status for The Everest and the All Star Mile (1600m) until the move received official international ratification;
Despite disappointment at learning her colt Anode (I Am Invincible) had in fact not earned Listed winner status in taking Saturday’s Tapp-Craig (1400m), leading trainer Gai Waterhouse insisted Australia must adhere to international guidelines;
Other states said they had been “blindsided” by the Peter V’landys-led NSW’s decision to announce upgrades to 12 races besides The Everest;
And it emerged last week’s announcements of upgrades had contravened the ground rules of the Asian Pattern Committee.
ANZ Bloodstock News can reveal that following a perceived rapprochement between Victoria and NSW at Racing Australia (RA), and a revision of the black type assessment process maintained by the pattern committee until its collapse in 2018, a stunning total of some 87 races were set down to be upgraded.
It’s understood NSW had 30 races on the table, Victoria 27, Queensland 18, Western Australia 11 and South Australia one.
At the same time as these races had been flagged for upgrades, solely on ratings, a push was mounted at RA, including by NSW, for a moratorium on downgrades for the next two years.
But while all states had understood there would be a combined approach to announcing the upgrades, NSW acted alone in last week revealing their first batch of 13 – including The Everest’s mooted Group 1 status.
“We all got blindsided by that,” one state representative to RA told ANZ Bloodstock News, on condition of anonymity. “The rest of us had no knowledge of that happening, so we were put on the back foot.”
Asked if the states had agreed to a coordinated approach on the upgrades, the representative said: “I don’t think we even got far along enough in the process for that conversation to actually take place. But I think that was probably what everyone would’ve expected, that there was a process where we would apply for upgrades.”
In the wake of the uproar led by the breeding industry following news of the upgrade deluge, all other states have now put their upgrades on pause.
“Our 18 are on pause to see which way it plays out,” said Jason Scott, Racing Queensland CEO and Australia’s representative on the Asian Pattern Committee (APC). “We’re at a bit of an advantage in that none of ours are imminent.”
The same couldn’t be said for Saturday’s Ethereal Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m) and Alinghi Stakes (Listed, 1100m) at Caulfield. They had been slated for upgrades from Group 3 and Listed class respectively, but that’s been put on hold amid the Victorian pause. Melbourne Racing Club’s new chairman John Kanga told one media outlet they had been paused out of the club’s wish to achieve “a solid pattern”.
Time is also an imperative for Saturday’s Everest. Racing NSW last week proudly announced the $20 million race had been elevated to Group 1 status, yet it had not received the international approval required for that to take place.
All black type upgrades must be ratified by the APC, the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers (SITA) and the powerful International Grading and Race Planning Advisory Committee (IRPAC).
Arion managing director Kyla Johnston on Tuesday said her company would not enter The Everest as a Group 1 race, or any of the other 12 NSW had announced last week, until approval had been granted by IRPAC. Having emailed that body, she said it was possible approval might come before Saturday.
“The Everest appears to meet the criteria for Group 1 status,” Johnston told ANZ Bloodstock News. “But we will not be pushed into declaring this a Group 1 race if it has not been internationally ratified.”
She added: “We adhere strictly to the international cataloguing standards for our black type race groupings.
“We are not going to load these races as black type without confirmation they have been ratified by IRPAC and SITA. That’s because the last thing we want to do is upgrade it, have someone run a pedigree on these horses, and then it gets downgraded.
“We have to make sure the credibility of the sales catalogue is maintained, and the credibility and the quality of the racing itself, which will drive more investment into the local industry.
“If there’s an international buyer who comes to an Australian sale, they have to be confident the pedigree is correct, and it achieves uniformity of the cataloguing standards throughout the world. That’s the reason why IRPAC was formed.”
With deadlines in the next few weeks for catalogue publication for 2025’s first Australian yearling sale – the Magic Millions Gold Coast – Johnston said Arion had to uphold its own reputation, as the trusted provider of pedigrees to all auction houses in the southern hemisphere.
“I’m definitely making sure the integrity of my company is on par, and I’m not going to be rushed or bullied into making a decision that could be detrimental to that,” she said.
Last week’s upgrade announcements have already contravened the ground rules of the APC, which state: “Until agreement has been reached by the committee [APC], there must be no official statement to the media of any proposed changes to Group 1 races.”
RA is understood to have allowed Australia’s pattern committee to dissolve backed by legal advice, tabled by NSW, that its operation was anti-competitive. It’s believed this was based on its tenets that upgrades to any stakes races should not interfere with existing stakes races, in such a way that NSW’s Everest impacted on another WFA sprint in Victoria, the Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
However, ANZ Bloodstock News has learnt breeders are mobilising against that legal advice.
“I believe at some stage the legal advice Racing Australia has been given about the pattern being anti-competitive will be tested,” a well-placed source said.
Australia’s auction houses – whose sales would be impacted by a loss of international faith in the country’s pattern – have been criticised by breeders for their public inactivity on the issue to date.
However, Magic Millions added their voice to the debate on Tuesday night.
“Protecting the interests of all vendors and buyers is the number one objective for every major auction house around the world,” managing director Barry Bowditch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“As a member of SITA, we are bound to, and committed to, adhering to these cataloguing standards. It’s our rule book to ensure consistency in the presentation of black type across jurisdictions and across sales companies.
“Investors can understand and trust the formalised process of SITA in reviewing and ratifying the decisions of IRPAC. It has transparency and integrity.
“This is industry best practice and our global standing and reputation is at stake.”
ANZ Bloodstock News understands Inglis – whose general manager of bloodstock operations Jonathan D’Arcy sits on both SITA and IRPAC – has sought clarity from RA on the black type issue.
While Anode’s Tapp-Craig victory is now marked as a Listed success on Racing Australia’s data banks, it does not have such status on Arion – something that prompted his co-trainer Waterhouse to say Australia must abide by international classification rules.
“Of course, I’m [and my owners are] disappointed Anode loses his black type winner status, notwithstanding he won a $500,000 race last Saturday,” she said in a statement.
“But, as I always say ‘you must go through the front door’. We [Australia] didn’t.
“I am pleased NSW and Victoria are talking and concurring. But pattern races have to be created by the international pattern committees. Australia didn’t submit their proposal to the APC.”
Noting plans for Sydney to have a total of five new Group 1s, including The Everest, bringing the national total to 80, Waterhouse said this was “pernicious inflation at its worst! It devalues the status of black type and is not in racing’s interest”.
Some industry figures fear a doomsday scenario in which if RA sanctions black type upgrades without IRPAC approval, Australia will be demoted to book 2 status by the international stud book. Its black type races would all be recognised internationally only as Listed events, as was the situation in Singapore and is now the case with races in Malaysia.
“I imagine there’ll be one threat and it’ll come within 12 months from IRPAC,” said one well-placed source with intimate knowledge of international guidelines. “And they’ll say, ‘You need to fix this very fast or we’re going to put you in book 2’.
“And you don’t mess with this committee. They are God to the racing and breeding authorities of the world, and you upset them at your peril.
“This is already a mess but it could get way worse. If IRPAC warns Racing Australia and they do nothing, and then in two years we’re downgraded to book 2, our industry would be decimated.
“There’ll be billions of dollars lost on investment as people will pull out and turn their backs. Northern hemisphere farms won’t want to shuttle stallions to Australia. Overseas stars won’t come here for the Cox Plate or Melbourne Cup.
“It’s cataclysmic what could happen, and so many people would be affected.”
Thoroughbred Breeders NSW president Hamish Esplin said he did not believe such a scenario would happen, but castigated RA while claiming the black type debacle had shown the need for it to operate with more transparency.
“The problem at the moment is that every person in the industry is flying blind, and that’s the problem with not having an active, public-facing committee which is not only meant to meet to discuss ideas about the pattern but is meant to report about what’s happening about the pattern,” Esplin told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Racing Australia is completely moribund, it’s a first class disaster, because it does not inform its participants what is going on and how it is coming to decisions.
“In what world is it justifiable to have policy decisions made behind closed doors, announced behind closed doors, only for them to change?
“Why is it being left to the participants like Gai Waterhouse to come out a matter of days after winning a race, not knowing herself what that race’s status was?
“This is a fight by different organisations within the biggest organisation – Racing Australia – as to what is the future of the sport. At the moment, no one’s winning. It’s chaos and it’s been chaos for years.
“Any attempted step to try to move along to create harmony where there once was none has only led to bigger problems.”
V’landys was contacted for comment on Tuesday night but responded by text to say he was unavailable.