The Long Road to Freedom - transport regulations, and why racehorses should be treated differently

THIS season’s province- dominated first semester of French flat racing, along with an ultra-international Royal Ascot, serves as proof that travel is no obstacle to top-level success. French man-of-the-moment Jean-Claude Rouget sent each of his quartet of individual Group 1 winners on a journey of over 750km each way from his Pau base to achieve glory at the Paris tracks of Longchamp and Chantilly, while Royal Ascot Group 1 honours went as far afield as Australia, France and Ireland, not forgetting a pair of trans-Atlantic juvenile triumphs in slightly lesser contests. Travel is not a new phenomenon in the pursuit of winners and horses have been transported the length and breadth of Europe and beyond for well over a century in the hope of being acclaimed as the best in the world. Long gone are the days of walking horses from track to track or loading them on trains to journey to racecourses further afield. Nowadays, efficiency is the maitre-mot. But in addition to state-of-the-art horse transport vehicles for road, sea and air, the modern era has also seen the advent of Europe-wide bureaucracy and animal welfare concerns. When current European Commission animal welfare in transport legislation was first drawn up, the equine measures were aimed primarily at protecting horses and ponies to be transported for slaughter. Derogations were negotiated for registered racehorses and these include no time limits on travel, no statutory rest periods or delays between consecutive journeys, and no satellite navigation systems to record a log of journeys. However, within the agreed timescale of this legislation, the derogations are due for review. In a letter to the European Federation of Thoroughbred Breeders’ Associations dated 27 March 2009, the European Commission reassured the industry that it has “no intention to modify the derogation applicable to registered equidae.” While the Commission officials are supportive at this time, they are nevertheless under pressure to simplify the system and apply uniform rules for all horses. Indeed the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe has published their policy position as being against registered horse derogations, saying that all horses should be treated equally. Tim Morris, director of Equine Science and Welfare at the British Horseracing Board, believes otherwise. “Racehorses and horses produced for slaughter may be members of the same species but their purpose of being is fundamentally different. Taxonomic convenience is not a way to create sensible regulations. It’s like proposing the same regulations for a Formula 1 car and a transit van.”  For trainer Jean-Claude Rouget, travel is part of everyday routine for his stable in South West France, with horses regularly journeying both to the prestigious Paris tracks and also to provincial courses across the country. For him, horses’ wellbeing comes first and foremost, “It’s important that horses arrive at the track in the best physical condition to race. It is a nine-and-a half-hour journey from Pau to Chantilly and my experienced staff makes a minimum of stops en-route, just to fill up with fuel. The horses arrive no later than the morning or lunchtime of the day preceding a race and they never leave the racecourse straight after a race. We always travel home the next morning or later.” Rouget adds that he allows horses a couple of extra days between races if they have had to travel a long distance to run, while his filly Stacelita is the most recent living proof of the absence of adverse affects from transport. The three- year-old has been unperturbed by three return trips to Paris from March to June this year, and on the latter two she proved invincible in the Gr.1 Prix Saint-Alary at Longchamp and the Gr.1 Prix de Diane at Chantilly. Likewise the same trainer’s Classic winners Le Havre and Elusive Wave, as well as Gr.1 scorer Never On Sunday, were presented at 100% for their respective Parisian tasks, and raced better than any locally trained participants. Similar scenarios can be seen daily at racecourses across Europe, and it is an interesting paradox that the greater the value of the horse and the contest he is to participate in, the further connections are prepared to travel. As Tim Morris sums up, “The basic principal to understand is that these are valuable horses and it is in the interests of those who keep them to travel them in the best possible standards. There is a gross self-interest to get it right.” Seasoned traveller Christian von der Recke says, “Two years ago it was calculated that my horses had made over 500 starts, in 16 different nations during one year. I think that the furthest we travelled was to Mijas in Southern Spain, a distance of 2500km away.” Unlike many of his European counterparts, the difficult state of the German racing industry means that von der Recke is regularly forced to look outside his own national boundaries for opportunities for his horses. “Travel is very important for us as we have to send the horses further away in search of prize money or to sell. I like to transport my horses overnight; for example when they go to Italy for a Sunday race they leave the yard on Friday at about 10pm when they’ve eaten up their evening feed, they arrive at the course on Saturday morning and then set off home again on Sunday night.” The handler is a great believer in ‘horses for courses’ and adapts his travel routine to suit individual horses and circumstances. “It all depends upon the horse. If I have a nervous horse or a box walker I like to arrive quite late so he doesn’t go up the walls in the racecourse stables, but sometimes we want to arrive early for instance to school over particular fences or round a bend. Ground-wise it can be helpful not to travel too far in advance as if we arrive three days before a race and the state of the going changes , then what do I say to the owner? The same is true for injuries; if a horse hurts himself while training at home, that can happen, but if I send a healthy horse to the races early and he injures himself there, the owners will ask why I did that.” Trainers are already faced with mountains of administration and any changes to the current regulations would only add to these. Christian von der Recke comments, “Life would certainly be more difficult and we would maybe not be able to race so far away, or have to organise our racing differently, for instance with a satellite yard. When we went to Mijas we worked out the logistics and stayed over one night on a racecourse and another in a riding school.” While the solutions are out there to be found if changes were to enter the current regulations for racehorse transport, this seems a classic case of the European Commission trying to fix something which is not broken. Kevin Needham, managing director of BBA Shipping and a council member of the Racehorse Transporters Association, is of this opinion and emphasises the need for racing to maintain its independence and the existing derogations. “Once we start letting committees decide upon rules for us, we are creating a rod for our own back. As soon as the European Commission commits a number to paper we could be subject to rules designed for a lowest common denominator while racehorse transport is right up there at the top of welfare standards.” Indeed there is a world of difference between the five-star horseboxes designed for racehorse transport, with padded panels and partitions matched by the protection worn by the horses themselves, and the basic vehicles used for moving slaughter horses at a minimum cost. “The EU doesn’t want to see horses transported from Kazakhstan by road to the EU border and of course the racing industry agrees that this is unacceptable, but these are meat horses and racehorses would never be transported in the same conditions. However, the journey time would be the same as a horse taking a 26 hour flight t  New Zealand with a couple of hours either side to travel from stable to stable”, says Needham. “We have done this type of journey regularly and the horses have arrived in the best of health. Like is not being compared with like. Putting the example into human terms, it’s like comparing a person travelling to the Far East on a business class flight, where he can relax in comfort, sleep, and arrive as fresh as paint, with a journey of the same length standing up on a double decker bus where the traveller would arrive in a state of exhaustion.” While regulations for air travel are not part of the current review, Needham feels that they could be next in line, “if the industry accepts that horses can’t travel beyond a certain time, at some point the EU will run out of things to legislate and apply the same rules to air transport. If that happened, equine travel to Hong Kong, Japan and Australia would be finished.” Needham reiterates the idea that trainers have a vested interest in their horses travelling as smoothly and efficiently as possible, with an argument which could help to convince the EU of the excellent welfare of racehorses in transit. “The European Commission love statistics and if we look at the number of horses travelling to Italy to race against their successes, and same for horses travelling from Newmarket to race in Warwick, the figures would prove that going to Italy is beneficial for horses. But we all know that in reality if a trainer is ready to send a horse to Italy, it is because he thinks he has a good chance of winning and wants the horse to arrive at 100%.” Expense is another considerable factor to take into account as the more time racehorses are away from their home stable, accompanied by at least one member of staff, the higher the bill will be for owners who can ill afford to pay in these times of economic crisis. Additional paperwork would also add to the workload of trainers’ offices or increase prices of professional transporters. BHA veterinarian Tim Morris feels that there are two areas for the European Commission to address before considering imposing further restrictions. “Firstly,  enforcement is a live issue upon which racing and welfare organisations are in agreement. If the effort which was put into revision was put into the enforcement of current regulations, horses would certainly benefit. Secondly, the definition of registered equidae needs to be understood across the board.” Registered racehorses are identified in Directive 90/427/EEC “by means of an identification document issued by the breeding authority or any other competent authority of the country where the animal originated which manages the studbook or register for that breed of animal or any international association or organization which manages horses for competition or racing.” Contrary to common misunderstanding, this does not include any horses with an ID document, especially as from July 2009 all equidae moved within the EU must have a passport. Morris goes on to suggest that this issue should fall under the EU’s Best Regulation agenda, by which the Commission decides upon the appropriate need for legislation to achieve an objective or whether self- regulation is the best means of achieving the desired result. The signs are positive that common sense will prevail and that the European Commission will recognise that racing professionals are the best placed to judge the way to transport their horses. It would seem contrary to the raison d’être of the European Union and its Commission if superfluous legislation were to prove detrimental to exchanges and competition between member countries and beyond.

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(European Trainer - issue 27 - Summer 2009)

Webmaster26 June 2009Transport, Regulations, European Regulations, British Racing