Industry heavyweights form new alliance to help solve race grading impasse
A powerful “supergroup” of thoroughbred industry heavyweights including John Messara, Jonathan Munz, breeding and training bodies and both major auction houses has come together in a new body seeking to institute an independent panel to run Australia’s black type pattern.
The Australian Racing Industry Alliance (ARIA) has been founded to “help find a solution to the impasse” over the country’s race gradings, which on Wednesday led the Asian Racing Federation (ARF) to seize control of the pattern via its Asian Pattern Committee (APC).
Ostensibly highly organised and with detailed governance structures planned, ARIA is seeking to be ordained by the ARF to form an independent Australian Pattern Panel (APP) to decide the country’s stakes race gradings.
“ARIA is now the effective representative of all the major investors, participants and stakeholders in Australian racing,” a media statement from the group said.
“It includes all the major breeder bodies, including Thoroughbred Breeders Australia (TBA), Thoroughbred Breeders NSW and Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria, both major Australian auction houses in William Inglis and Magic Millions, the Australian Trainers Association, the Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association and the respected ex chair of Racing Australia and Racing NSW, John Messara.”
Stating it had the support of Racing Victoria, ARIA said it had proposed that Australia has “an independent pattern committee and a set of conventional pattern guidelines that are in line with those used in all other racing jurisdictions”.
It rejected Racing Australia’s (RA) so-called “black type guidelines”, announced late last year, which failed to gain approval from the ARF. Raised after a push from NSW, that system would have been mostly based on ratings to determine black type status, whereas traditional pattern committees used ratings plus discretionary powers to consider races’ historical and cultural significance.
“ARIA has proposed that Australia has an independent pattern committee and a set of conventional pattern guidelines that are in line with those used in all other racing jurisdictions and not the ‘ratings based only’ guidelines proposed by Racing NSW, which are not used elsewhere in the world,” the group’s statement said.
“Under the ARIA proposal, which is also supported by Racing Victoria, an independent pattern committee will be selected annually by an independent pattern committee selection panel (the Australian Pattern Panel), operating independently and separately from Racing Australia,” ARIA said.
“The APP would be separately constituted as a not-for-profit entity with 18 permanent voting members and a constitution with proper governance and succession planning for those voting members. It would include nominees of breeders and sales companies, as well as three PRA (Principal Racing Authority) nominees.”
ARIA said its intention was for the APP to be run “under the auspices of Racing Australia, but this has been rejected by Racing NSW” which, along with Victoria, has the power of veto at RA.
“Therefore,” it continued, “ARIA recently approached the ARF to have that proposed independent pattern panel take over the management of the Australian pattern as the counter party to the APC, until Racing Australia agrees to join the new protocols.”
ARIA had been lobbying the ARF for approval in recent weeks, before the regional authority’s bombshell announcement on Wednesday that its APC would take control of the Australian pattern, until such time as the country had a pattern committee in line with APC ground rules.
“The ARF has now effectively proposed to take over the Australian pattern on a temporary basis, based on ‘exceptional circumstances’,” the statement read.
“This will only be acceptable to the Australian industry, as led by ARIA, if the dysfunction at Racing Australia is bypassed, with a conventional set of pattern guidelines that are not ‘ratings based only’ and with proper input from Australian experts on breeding and the pattern.”
ARIA addressed fears expressed in the announcement of RA’s former “black type guidelines” that the pattern system could be in breach of competition laws under Australia’s state system.
It said that argument was “considered to be completely without merit if the pattern is managed by a pattern committee that is independent or separate from Racing Australia”.
Munz, the chairman of ARIA and of the Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association, said it was imperative a body independent of RA was installed to govern the pattern.
“Racing Australia has been heavily criticised and the current situation is an embarrassment,” he said in the statement.
“It cannot be in charge of putting together a set of experts on breeding and the pattern to advise the APC. You don’t empower the organisation that has been accused of botching a process to fix that process or to execute a remediation plan.
“The members of ARIA have the credibility and expertise to form or select the advisory group to help the APC, whereas it is considered that simply is not the case at Racing Australia.”
Arrowfield Stud owner and Australian breeding legend Messara echoed the call for a fully independent black type panel.
“I sincerely hope that Racing Australia will eventually agree that the Australian racing industry requires internationally compliant black type rules and an independent Australian pattern committee,” he said in the statement.
“We cannot have the current situation, where races are listed by Racing Australia as having been upgraded or as ‘new’ stakes races, when they do not qualify to appear as such in our sales catalogues.
“Ultimately, the industry needs appropriate pattern guidelines complying with
international norms and taking into account that Australia is a federated system with multiple state jurisdictions.
“In that regard, it is also important to note that a ‘ratings based only’ set of pattern guidelines would be inconsistent with the (APC) Ground Rules.”
Messara noted the ground rules “require a pattern committee to take into account ‘all factors that include more than race ratings or statistical analysis, such as the effect on the shape of the Pattern in the country concerned and the effect on the shape of the entire Asian Racing Federation Pattern, as well as circumstances that may impact the race rating of a specific race’, and that each committee member needs to ‘exercise good judgement to every grading decision’.”
He added: “For the sake of the Australian racing industry and its international reputation, I am hoping that the current circumstances present a catalyst for a peaceful settlement of this whole issue between all parties.”
The formation of ARIA – and Wednesday’s intervention by the ARF – follow the breakdown of black type governance in Australia, which has not had a functioning pattern committee, the ARF says, since 2017-18.
Australia’s last downgrade came in 2012, since which time it has had 79 races upgraded.
The ARF took its action after a meeting in Hong Kong last Friday, having aired its dissatisfaction to RA over Australia’s lack of a functional pattern committee compliant with APC ground rules.
Included in its concerns was a suite of 17 NSW races given “upgrades” since the start of last season. Those upgrades were rejected by the APC, and so are not reflected in sales catalogues. The list grew to 18 in the spring just gone.
The ARF on Wednesday said its decision for the APC to take control of the Australian pattern was intended as a temporary step until Australia established a functioning black type system in accordance with APC ground rules.
With the ARF expressing a wish for such a system to be put in place “in the near future”, the threat remains that if it is not, Australian could be demoted to Part II of the International Cataloguing Standards Blue Book.
RA, in a statement from chairman Rob Rorrison, accepted the ARF’s decision and vowed to “collaborate with the APC during this time”, and acknowledged that failure to adopt a system that satisfied APC ground rules “could lead to other actions being taken”.
Rorrison on Thursday night said he would prefer not to comment on ARIA until he’d read their statement.
RNSW was contacted for comment on this article.