Insemination court challenge may open floodgates on horse offspring

THE former chairman of the Sydney Turf Club is challenging a requirement that thoroughbred horses physically mate to produce offspring in a lawsuit that may change horse racing worldwide.

Bruce McHugh’s claim that a ban on artificial insemination of thoroughbred horses is an illegal restraint of trade is being heard in Sydney federal court. The trial opened yesterday and is scheduled to take at least six weeks.

International rules banning the registration of thoroughbreds produced by artificial insemination, and adopted by racing officials in Australia, in part, they say, to maintain the integrity of the sport, are outdated and designed to protect large-scale commercial stud farms who now have a “licence to print money”, Ian Tonking, McHugh’s lawyer, said in his opening statement.

“The ban has no bearing on the conduct of the sport,” Tonking told Justice Alan Robertson, who is hearing the case and will determine the verdict.

“It has nothing to do with a level playing field on the track, but much to do with the playing field that’s far from level, off the track.”

The lawsuit has rattled a multibillion-dollar global industry, where a thriving breeding trade has developed. Each year, owners of the world’s most-prized horses, including Dubai’s ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, owner of two stud farms in Australia, send so-called shuttle stallions around the globe to breed with mares, collecting fees which have exceeded $330,000 (€232,308) per mating episode.

Those are “powerful economic interests” who want to maintain the status quo, Tonking said.

The vast majority of breeders in Australia, the second- biggest thoroughbred racing jurisdiction in the world, are small operators, who have an average of three mares and whose voice is being ignored, Tonking said. They would benefit from not having to ship their mares to stud farms and gaining access to the sperm of top-rated horses from around the globe, he said.

A court victory for McHugh could make Australia a trend- setter, tempting stud book operators around the world to follow its lead in allowing the registration of offspring from artificially inseminated mares and saving money in the process, breeders have said.

McHugh, who sued because he wants to breed horses and is limited by the current rules, is scheduled to testify today, Tonking said.

The trial is also scheduled to include testimony from racing experts in Australia and Europe, with at least four European witnesses scheduled to testify by video, according to Robertson. McHugh has scheduled to call 20 to 25 witnesses, court documents show.