Chinese interest could be a boon for Irish bloodstock industry as contacts increase
EVENTING coach Sue Shortt says there is huge potential for the sale of Irish horses to China.
Her assessment is based on the mental acuity of the Irish horse and its suitability for riders learning their trade.
“There is definitely a big market for Irish-bred horses, both thoroughbred and Irish sport horses,” says Shortt, who last year became coach to the Yulong Shanxi Province team.
“Irish-bred horses have a great brain. Once they know their job, they don’t need to run very often and they are, on the whole, very forgiving. These riders are still learning their trade and they get very little competition experience; therefore they make lots of mistakes; therefore a forgiving horse is a bonus. Now that the quarantine issue is being resolved, I think the trade in horses between Ireland and China could fly.”
Shortt says there are a number of top-class European horses in the country, plus quality Irish-breds. “The Guandong team is the leading team over here. A lovely, Dutch-bred mare of theirs won the individual gold at the China Games last year. She has the potential to be in the top 10 at four-star level anywhere in the world. Of the top 10 horses at the Games, probably five or six would be capable of competing well at Olympic level.
“Overall, there are about 10 Irish-bred horses eventing here. We have five in our stable that came through the hands of dealer Carol Gee in Kilkenny, all very talented and capable of good results at three-or-four-star level. The rest of the horses are mainly Dutch, French and German-bred.”
Sourcing good bloodstock has its issues for the Chinese, but competitors face another obstacle, in that horses are not allowed leave the country. Shortt says this is about to change.
“Unfortunately, up to now, they couldn’t compete internationally, but I have recently heard they will be allowed to send a team to the Asian Games in South Korea this year. To the best of my knowledge, it will be the first time horses will be allowed to leave the country and re-enter. I think the Koreans are going to make the stable yard a quarantine area, and our horses will fly in, and then straight out, when the competition is over. If everything goes OK, it would be a great step forward in relation to being able to compete internationally in the future.”
Shortt works for Zhang Yuesheng of the Shanxi Yulong Investment Group. “He is a self-made billionaire. As far as I know, he was a manager in a coal mine, then ended up owning the coal mine. He set up the company in 2007, and I think it’s worth about €1.2bn now.
“He’s from Inner Mongolia, where there is a great history of horses, so he would have grown up around horses and is certainly very passionate about them.
“He has racehorses in training all around the world, including Ireland, with Eddie Lynam.
“He’s a very driven man who likes success, but understands the horse industry well, and the need for patience sometimes.
“He will come and watch the horses work at least once a week and can spot improvement — or not — in the horses and riders, so he is very hands on. I find him easy to deal with as long as you don’t try to bullshit him.”
Shortt took up her new coaching post after leading the Irish pony eventing team to major success at European level, including winning individual and team gold, along with a raft of silver and bronze medals.
She believes the Chinese have innate horsemanship, but lack the professionalism that marks out successful nations. “My first trip to China was last April, the contact was made through equine consultant Michael O’Hagan and Carol Gee. My first competition was early May, with four more following in 2013. My impression was that the equestrian industry is where Europe was 50 years ago, it’s in its infancy.
“They have some very talented, natural riders, who are good horsemen, but lacking knowledge of the basic skills involved.”
Considering that the industry is in its infancy, facilities are good. “Recently, it was about minus 25C at night and early morning, with midday around minus 17C, but we’ve been working in a heated indoor school since the end of October.
“We have a large show jumping arena, competition-sized, a very large outdoor practice arena, a two-star cross-country course, measuring about 5,000m, and a racetrack that holds regular meetings.”
“There are about 12 or 13 regional teams, either privately owned or run by the provincial government. Almost all teams have a foreign coach now, such as Irish show jumper Jack Doyle (Inner Mongolia), Belgian Marc Rigouts (Guandong team), and some German coaches. Basically, all the teams compete against each other, culminating in a national championships each year, except for the year after the Olympic Games, where they have the China Games for the top eight teams in the country.”
Shortt’s team is relatively new, but she has set ambitious goals and is looking at long-term involvement. “Our team finished fifth at the Games last year, and I am aiming for a top-two finish at the championships this year. Mr Zhang set up the team in 2011, so we are not as established as most of the other teams. I’m working on increasing the strength and depth of the team and we hope to buy another three or four sport horses in Ireland this spring.
“Long-term, I want my team to win gold at the China Games and, when horses can leave China, have some of our riders compete on the national team at the Asian Games and eventually the Olympics.
“I am on a four-year contract with the team until the next China Games in 2017. I enjoy working here and hope that my involvement in China would extend beyond that.”
“I am on a four-year contract with the team until the next China Games
Three groups from China will visit Ireland this year to purchase horses, according to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.
He said Irish Thoroughbred Marketing had informed him that Chinese buyers bought 12 horses in January for export to China, the first to leave these shores under the terms of a veterinary protocol agreed
between the two countries in July last year.
“In 2013, a leading figure in Chinese racing invested in 10 yearlings at the Goffs Orby sale, for 300,000 in total,” Mr Coveney said.
“These yearlings remained in Ireland for pre-training and were then dispersed among four Irish trainers.
“This owner already had two horses in training in Ireland”.
He said Irish bloodstock is held in high regard internationally, and highlighted other recent inward investments:
A North American investor had purchased an historic estate in Co Meath, in 2013, with the intention of transforming it from an agricultural farm into a thoroughbred stud farm.
A Qatar businessman purchased a stud in Co Limerick in 2013.
At last year’s Goffs Orby Sale for yearlings, a member of the Qatari ruling family,
who owns a stud farm in Co Limerick, invested 2m in the purchase of 15 yearlings.
At the same sale, another Qatar national invested 2m in six yearlings.
Investment in Irish breeding stock by South American investors topped 1m in 2013.
The first direct horse exports from Ireland to China under the terms of a ground-breaking agreement signed last year will take place in the coming weeks. Equine consultant Michael O’Hagan said he expects to be the first to export Irish sport horses under the new arrangement, while bloodstock agents BBA Ireland say they are preparing to ship two consignments of thoroughbreds.
“Six sport horses which we have ready to ship to China will be going into the quarantine process within the next week or so. Hence, we will be the first Irish entity to ship horses to China under the new protocol. This is wonderful news for us,” said Mr O’Hagan, who was confident of final approval this week on use of a facility in Monasterevin, Co Kildare, for quarantine.
Last July, Chinese authorities agreed to veterinary certification terms, a major step in opening up a market considered to have big potential.
Crucially, it allows pre-export preparation and quarantining of horses to take place in Ireland, whereas previously, Irish sellers had to quarantine horses in the Netherlands, both costly and burdensome. Ann Munnelly, director of transport at BBA Ireland in the Curragh, Co Kildare, said they were close to finalising plans for the first direct delivery of thoroughbreds to China under the new arrangement. “There has been no direct export to China from Ireland since the health certificate was issued by China last year.
“However, we are hoping to change that within the next month to six weeks.
“BBA Ireland is preparing two consignments of thoroughbreds for direct shipment to China and all must be Irish-born and raised,” said Ms Munnelly, who was not at liberty to divulge the value of the
consignments, one of three equines and the other of 12.
“Previously, horses would have been exported via Amsterdam and undergone a minimum 30 days quarantine there.
“However, the Chinese
authorities now stipulate that horses going from Amsterdam must have spent the previous six months there, meaning that the export of Irish horses via Amsterdam is no longer viable.
“In terms of quarantine here, each premises will be inspected on a case-by-case basis, firstly by the Department of Agriculture and, once it is approved, then by the Chinese equivalent, AQSIQ,” said Ms Munnelly.
“Having quarantine facilities here gives direct employment, and indirect employment through feed companies,
farriers, vets, laboratories etc, but most importantly, it gives us greater control of how the horse is handled and how he will look when leaving Ireland.”
