Black-type saga rumbles on as Racing Australia’s new system suggestion rejected
Australia’s black type shambles looks certain to rumble on deep into the new season – and perhaps beyond – after attempts by Racing Australia (RA) to implement a new system for determining upgrades and downgrades were rejected by at least two states, ANZ News understands.
The development comes as a deadline looms this Saturday for upgrades and downgrades for this season to be submitted to the Asian Pattern Committee (APC) – a deadline which, with no consensus on a new system having been reached across the states so far, Australia looks certain to miss.
RA briefed stakeholders last week on its proposed new system – in place of a traditional black type committee which has not existed in Australia since 2018. No downgrades have been made in this country for some 13 years.
While the national body continues to operate behind closed doors, it’s understood the proposed system for determining upgrades and downgrades was based solely on race ratings, derived from the seasonal peak figures of the first four placegetters.
Under the traditional system of assessment, races qualifying for Group 1 status, for example, must have achieved a rating of 115 in their past three runnings.
However, ANZ News understands Victoria and Queensland vehemently flagged their rejection of the proposed new system. Victoria, like NSW, has the power of veto in all RA decisions.
The two states’ rejections may yet have forced RA back to the drawing board. At least some hope of a remodelling of the proposal emerged on Monday, with one source telling ANZ there may be movement within RA to factor in a discretionary component for a committee that determined black type status.
Calls by ANZ News on Monday to RA chief executive Paul Eriksson and board member Rob Rorrison – Australia’s delegate to the APC – seeking clarity on these issues were met with no response.
But given Saturday’s deadline ahead of the APC’s annual meeting to, in part, approve upgrades and downgrades early next month, it appears the current stasis in the system is set to continue.
One consequence of this would appear to be that the 17 races NSW unofficially “upgraded” last season – despite rejection of those designations by the APC – look likely to be held again under their unapproved new gradings.
As the black type debacle unravelled late last year, all mainland states had been set to announce suites of upgrades at the same time. But when NSW went it alone early, with their upgrades denoted on RA databanks, in view of the backlash that created, all other states hit pause on their upgrades.
NSW’s rogue 17, headed by Randwick’s The Invitation (1400m) and Newcastle’s The Hunter (1300m) – both supposedly entering the black type pattern as Group 2s – were run last season.
Owners and breeders of placegetters remain in the dark as to whether their horses truly earned black type or not.
While Racing NSW, RA and the raceclubs involved insisted the events be regarded under their new unofficial status, their lack of approval from the APC means the upgrades have not been recognised by the International Cataloguing Standards publication “The Blue Book”.
Therefore, they have not been recognised by Arion – the southern hemisphere’s largest supplier of pedigree information – and are thus not reflected in any sales catalogues.
As of yesterday, the NSW 17 were still listed under their faux status on the RA website.
ANZ sought comment on this matter on Monday from RNSW.
RA will hold a board meeting next Tuesday. Delegates from the states may then have a chance to vote on a new black type system. If approved, it could then be put to the APC for its necessary ratification.
But from the range of reactions from several key stakeholders contacted by ANZ on Monday, it would take some hasty and substantial remodelling of RA’s proposal for a new system to gain approval.
And unless a post-deadline submission to the APC is submitted and accepted, it appears unlikely there will be any change to Australia’s current program of black type races for season 2025-26 – with doubt over the NSW 17 lingering.
Last year RA, clearly prematurely, announced agreement following “unanimous approval by the Racing Australia board” of a new set of black type guidelines, based on ratings, and which recognised the peculiarities of the country’s state-based system and recognised “any potential implications from an Australian competition law perspective”.
RNSW chief executive Peter V’landys had previously alleged the black type pattern conflicted with Australia’s anti-competition laws. Legal advice to that effect is understood to have been put to RA by RNSW, without having been publicly reported.
However, stern opposition exists among various stakeholders – including breeders and smaller states’ Principal Racing Authorities (PRAs) – to a purely ratings-based process.
At the heart of opposition is the contention that Australia, with its state system, needs discretionary powers to help dictate black type status, with a mind to races’ cultural and historical significance.
Those powers would also take into account the need for smaller states to host high-end black type events, and would put a limit on NSW in particular gaining a huge increase in its number of stakes races, which, due to its prize–money, would likely happen under a solely ratings-based system.
“If it went by pure ratings, Victoria and NSW would be fine, but the other states would get smashed,” said one breeding industry figure, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“That system would be very biased towards NSW. All these races that are lead-ups to The Everest, like The Shorts (Gr 2, 1100m) would get upgraded to Group 1, and they shouldn’t be.
“And it would make it very hard for other places to hold their ratings – South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania. On genuine ratings, they wouldn’t have any black type races, whereas they deserve them at their carnivals. It’s what makes the world go round.”
Breeders wrote back to RA following last week’s briefings, illustrating their concerns with a purely ratings-based system.
“That system doesn’t factor in that some of Australia’s best races are handicaps – the Doncaster, the Stradbroke, the Melbourne Cup,” said another heavyweight breeder. “If something down the weights wins it, the race isn’t going to rate highly.
“Plus it would be done using horses’ peak ratings for the season, ending on July 31. It should be on a rolling basis – six months prior to the race in question, and six months post. A horse could win a black type race in June, then say it wins the Cox Plate in October, that’s not going to be reflected in that June race’s rating.
“There also needs to be an independent black type committee who can make their judgment – yes, based on ratings, but still with the discretion to weight the races, recommend upgrades or downgrades, with some allowance for considerations other than just ratings.”
Aside from wanting discretionary powers on any black type committee, ANZ also understands states opposing the plan RA showcased last week were concerned with the proposed process of governing a new panel, and with a lack of consultation with states in arriving at the proposal.
While RA continued to presumably work on the issue behind closed doors, one well-placed source told ANZ on Monday that word had emerged RA may be working on proposing “an independent pattern committee which considers discrepancies in a ratings-based system”, adding, “that would be a great resolution if we could find some common ground on that”.
As breeders once again lamented that the black type system – designed by the breeding industry principally for the breeding industry – had been “hijacked” by PRAs, Thoroughbred Breeders NSW president Hamish Esplin slammed RA for pushing a ratings-only system, and for what he said was its lack of consultation with stakeholders on the subject.
“A ratings-based system for the determination of black type races would be a massive change to the way black type races have been assessed in Australia and internationally since the day they were invented in the 1970s,” Esplin told ANZ.
“When such dramatic changes are attempted to be made, they should be done inclusive of everyone that it impacts – breeders, owners, trainers, punters – anyone that touches on any element of the industry.
“From the breeders’ perspective, we’ve had very little discussion about it. It’s only ever been, certainly from Racing NSW, a case of, ‘This is the only system we will accept under sufferance of legal action’.
“Where is the evidence of that opinion? I just don’t operate on the basis of someone third-hand telling me there’s a legal opinion that this is the only system.
“And I’m yet to be convinced as to why 50 years of the sport’s history has to be shelved.”
Esplin was “bewildered” why Australia’s PRAs had decided “the only way they could resolve issues was in a boardroom involving a bunch of other sporting administrators, without having properly discussed the said topic”.
“It’s not so much a blindsiding as a full frontal assault saying – ‘this is how the sport will now be’,” he said.
“No one has explained to me, as president of TBNSW, why that’s the case. It’s only assumed that in a world in which every race conducted in Australia is now to be assessed solely on the basis of ratings, the sport is benefited.
“It’s all assumed – that turnover will increase, that competition between states would be better going forward. Where is the evidence of that? And if there is evidence why isn’t it being put to us?
“Where is the argument being made by the PRAs here that this is for the betterment of the industry?”
Esplin also questioned why breeders and other stakeholders “have to be on the defensive all the time” in the face of ideas such as a challenge to a black type system which had operated smoothly for almost 50 years.
“It’s our sport,” he said. “Racing Australia will come and go with people who supposedly represent the PRAs on its board. But the rest of us are in this fight for a long time. We’ve been here for generations and will continue to be here.
“People can come along and say, ‘We want to go set up a LIV Golf tour and do it a different way’. But that’s not what they [RA and RNSW] are doing. It’s like they’re saying to the PGA, ‘No – the way you conduct that sport is just wrong, it should be done differently.’
“I’m not aware of too many sports where that’s ever existed before, and you certainly don’t convince people by ignoring them, which is what’s happened.”
Another prominent breeding industry figure said a purely ratings-based system would be a “nonsensical” attempt to enforce rationality on a non-rational pastime.
“We’re not talking about rationality here, we’re talking about a sport, a pattern of races, and an animal, and the whole thing has to fit into a story. The pattern is about far more than ratings,” said the figure, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“It was developed to ensure there was continuity and balance in the system, not only in NSW but in Australia, and that we didn’t have races competing on the same day for the same horses, and the same jockeys and trainers. It’s nonsensical that we have that now.”
The issue has again shone a light on RA’s lack of meaningful power, particularly highlighted by NSW and Victoria’s powers of veto through recent years when the two states have been at loggerheads.
“We all believe RA is a complete and utter waste of time but no one can do anything about it,” said another breeder. “It just keeps plodding along with no use really. It’s got no bite.”
Another prominent industry figure said: “Because the two biggest states retain the power of veto, RA doesn’t have any authority to exert any influence over them. Until we actually have a national body that says, ‘In the national interest this is what we’re going to do’, we’re stuck. Victoria and NSW aren’t going to agree on too many things, particularly under the current administrations.”
The source pointed out the USA also had a rigid, competitive state system but that the black type pattern across the country was administered centrally by The Jockey Club.
“The US has a functioning pattern committee, and while they have a lot of Grade 1s, they’re brutal with downgrading them,” the source said.