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Mick Kent

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote rusty nails Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jul 2021 at 8:43pm
Depends who the trainer is.

Kent is not renowned to have early 2yos as a rule.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kavg Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jul 2021 at 9:18pm
Sure carioca. But I do stand by my post. If anyone is complaining that horses are mistreated in any way whilst eating another animal then they are justifying to themselves that horses are more intelligent or sentient than pigs, salmon etc


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Gay3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jul 2021 at 10:31pm

MORONEY, MCEVOY AGREE OUR HORSES ARE BRED “SOFT”

Statistics say more horses are getting to the track than ever before but they’re not absorbing the rigours of racing, according to trainers.

In response to an rsn.net.au article written by trainer Mick Kent, where Kent claimed Australia was breeding “softer” horses that were prone to injury, Thoroughbred Breeders Australia says 85 per cent of yearlings sold in Australia either make it to the races or are exported to race overseas.

TBA chief executive Tom Reilly said that veterinary care and training tracks were among a raft of improvements in recent years, adding:

“A greater percentage are getting to the track than ever before.”

It’s once they get there that injury, and potential wastage, occurs according to Kent, Tony McEvoy and Mike Moroney.

Kent said young horses were over-fed carbohydrates to make them “big and shiny” for yearling sales, which made them “couch potatoes” with weak limbs and prone to break down.

“In the last 20 years there has been a big shift into making a horse solely viable to sell. Nothing to do with longevity, just the price on sale day. For breeders, their Melbourne Cup is sale day,” Kent wrote.

Kent said this presented a ripple effect challenge for re-homing and re-training of horses he says are mostly unsuited to equestrian pursuits.

“This breed-to-sell syndrome is unnatural, so detrimental to longevity. Before sale a large number of these yearlings have had surgery to remove bone cysts, OCD’s and address limb deviation. And we are expected to pay $300,000 for them.”

McEvoy said Kent’s article “hit the nail on the head.”

“Our horses are getting softer and softer and we blame firm tracks. In previous eras they’d race on firm tracks and cope with it,” he said.

“There’s a couple reasons. One is we’re breeding yearling sale horses and not racehorses and the other is they’re not allowed the hormones they used to get.”

The use of steroids as supplements was banned in the late 1980s.

“We spend a fortune on buying them and they either go in the wind or they get pods disease. I’d never heard of it back in the day and now it’s very common,” McEvoy said.

Moroney also endorsed Kent’s sentiments.

“I think he’s right. He had some very relevant points and I think it’s got to the stage where we’ve got to talk about it,” he said.

Moroney used the analogy of horses gaining strength and condition in the wild compared to the way yearlings are prepared.

“We’ve got to the stage now where we are breeding a lot of horses with a lot of ailments,” he said.

Reilly said Kent was “three-quarters right” when he wrote that German racing had created rules to weed out horses with genetic faults, such as bleeders and roarers.

“They haven’t weeded them out but they have created the equivalent of Super VOBIS where unless you meet certain criteria, things like a (stud) horse that has bled twice is ineligible, you are cannot compete for that bonus,” he said.

Reilly said that when conversation turns to wastage and overall thoroughbred numbers, a large number of horses who were never intended for the racetrack are included but should not be.

“This is about 10 per cent of the thoroughbred population. People breed them because they basically like the thoroughbred,” he said.

“Our submission is that they have to be removed from the Stud Book.”

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote djebel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Nov 2021 at 1:55pm

Kent proposes breeding season shift

James Tzaferis
James Tzaferis@Jtzaf
1:01pm

The breeding and racing seasons in Australia should be pushed back several weeks, according to Group 1-winning trainer Mick Kent.

The veteran horseman has questioned why Australia, as well as other Southern Hemisphere racing nations like New Zealand, has a breeding season that is conducive to foals being born in winter.

Currently, the Australasian racing season begins on August 1 and stallions can start covering mares a month later, on the first day of September.

With an average gestation period of just over 11 months, it means many mares that are covered in September give birth the following August.

Kent said that in his experience as both a breeder and a trainer, foals born later in the season are generally bigger than their August counterparts, with the climate and its impact on a mare's hormones a key factor.

"I don't like buying August foals," Kent said. "I'm not an expert on foals but I can tell you this - October-born foals are, on average, about 40kg heavier than August-born foals.

"Horses are meant to be born in the height of spring and that's when mares come into season naturally.

"A mare's metabolism improves into spring and they can finish off a foal better - they're able to put more into the foal.

"Why would we go against nature? I just look at the welfare of having mares in boxes, under lights and needling them up to come in season.

"A later foal is a much stronger, healthier foal and racing needs stronger, healthier horses."

Kent, who breeds his own horses as well as sourcing bloodstock from weanling and yearling sales, said that it would take only a minor change in dates to make a marked, beneficial difference.

Under his proposal, the racing season would begin on September 1 and stallions would be able to start covering mares a fortnight later, which would result in the bulk of foals being born from September onwards.

This spring alone, October and November-born horses made up more than 60 per cent of the Australasian-bred Stakes winners, including Melbourne Cup winner Verry Elleegant (foaled October 12), star sprinter Nature Strip (foaled November 16) and Godolphin's breakout three-year-olds Anamoe (foaled November 16) and Willowy (foaled November 25).

"At the moment you're not allowed to serve a mare until the first of September - I think we should push that back two weeks," he said.

"Two weeks is all it would take.

"Our racing season can move back a month to the first of September.

"I don't think you have to shift back any races - October and November foals already run as two-year-olds and win a lot of the best three-year-old races.

"It's a real myth to think that a foal born two months earlier is a bigger, healthier foal.

"I think it's a no-brainer."

Ryan Arnell, who runs Eddington-based broodmare farm Stonehouse Thoroughbreds, holds a similar view.

Although pushing the breeding season back is likely to have negative ramifications on his farm's bottom line, he said it would only be a positive for the welfare of the mares and foals he cares for.

Currently, breeders are often required to use artificial intervention to bring a mare into season for them to be successfully covered as early as September.

The motivations for having mares covered so early in the season can be many and varied, although common reasons include a desire to produce an 'earlier' foal for the yearling sales or to be able to maximise the number of foals a mare can have in consecutive seasons before she requires a year off.

"It's absolute insanity what we are doing," Arnell said.

"From a breeding perspective, October through to the summer months, even January and February, is the natural cycle for any horse breed, not just thoroughbreds.

"The increased cost of production to get these early foals is absolutely insane.

"We wouldn't have to put horses under lights, there'd be no need for these equilumes which everyone uses now, reproductive fees from vets would be reduced and there would be minimal issues because horses would be cycling of their own accord and not being forced to cycle with drugs.

"If we did change it, I'd probably lose money in my own business, but I'd be more than happy to do it for a sake of the horse."

Arnell believes a later breeding season would not have a major impact on the timing of yearling sales or how buyers view horses in a catalogue.

He said that many of the young horses with problems that he encounters are August-born foals.

"By March next year when a lot of the yearling sales are, some of our biggest horses will be November foals," he said.

"To be honest, it comes down to basic nutrition.

"When a foal is born, you want them on a rising plane of nutrition and that correlates with springtime and that's why the natural cycle of any anoestrus animal is that time of year.

"We're foaling them in the midst of winter in Victoria and they're not getting any nutrition out of any pastures until late September and into October, that's when the nutrition hits our pastures the best.

"Just on our farm, we've found that leg issues and deformities have been superior in August (foals) compared to any other month."

It's not the first time the issue has been raised and both Kent and Arnell admit that most of the resistance to change has traditionally come from Australia's larger, commercial stud farms.

A later start to the season has obvious potential to impact how many mares a stallion, particularly those that shuttle from the Northern Hemisphere, can serve.

Arrowfield Stud's Paul Messara is open to evolution, although he can understand both sides of the argument.

He said the biggest hurdle to pushing back the season was not necessarily getting the big players of the Australian breeding industry on board but instead their Northern Hemisphere counterparts, who operate an identical season during their spring.

Since the early 19th century, Northern Hemisphere-bred thoroughbreds have celebrated their 'birthday' on January 1, with most stallions in Ireland, England, Germany, Japan and the USA starting service from early February.

"I think the Southern Hemisphere probably came after the Northern Hemisphere so one of the things you'd have to do from a practical standpoint is for the Northern Hemisphere to change their season as well," Messara said.

"I don't know when the dates were set in stone but they (Northern Hemisphere) started breeding horses long before we did in Australia.

"They put the dates in the calendar and then we ended up going six months later, I think historically that's how things played out.

"In saying that, they have the same thing in the Northern Hemisphere when, in January, it's very cold, so it would make some sense for them to look at it as well.

"But it would have to be a worldwide thing, I don't think we could go out of sequence because it would mess up all the stallions shuttling here.

"Australia couldn't go one-out and say that we're going to make our breeding season start on October 1."

Despite the complexities that would need to be worked through on a global scale, Messara admitted that there is merit in the arguments of Kent and Arnell.

"Naturally, I think the horses are definitely better being born later," he said.

"I don't think anyone can argue that it makes sense from a natural standpoint.

"We have to artificially bring them into season to be ready to be covered on the first of September.

"I don't think it makes any difference commercially, it might just slightly adjust the sale dates.

"I don't think it would fundamentally change anything, it's just about getting everyone to agree on it."

Angus McKinnon is a specialist equine reproductive vet with decades of experience working with some of Victoria's largest thoroughbred breeding operations.

He also breeds his own horses and he said his personal preference was for his mares to be covered in October and November.

McKinnon said only a fraction of 'empty' mares cycle naturally in September, with many requiring artificial intervention, usually via the use of controlled lightning designed to replicate increased hours of daylight.

While this process doesn't harm the mare in any way, it allows them to fall pregnant earlier and often deliver a foal at a time of year that they would otherwise not be able to under natural conditions.

"I know the perception within the industry is that early foals can sometimes struggle in the weather and I believe that so I don't typically start breeding until later in the season as a result of that," McKinnon said.

"I'm not worried about sales, I'm only worried about having foals born at a time when I don't think they get that weather stress.

"That's my perspective as a breeder and an owner.

"From a veterinary perspective, my comment would be that, physiologically, a mare's breeding season is not aligned at all with the breeding pattern that we provide.

"It's that perception that early foals make more money that make people try to cheat the system and I'm not saying that perception is accurate but it's just what some people believe.

"Mares cycle according to long day and we trick them into cycling early, primarily by using lights - we provide them with 16 hours of light a day for about 60 days.

"Typically, we'll put a light mask on them or put them in boxes and leave the lights on from 4pm in the afternoon and leave them on until 11pm at night.

"Most of those mares will be ready to breed come September so you'll get the August foal."

While McKinnon can see benefits to shifting the breeding season back by several weeks in Victoria, he said that shifting the dates by a month or more could create unintended consequences if the change was mirrored in other, warmer parts of the country.

"We have to realise that whatever we do here (Victoria), is going to affect people further north," he said.

"I think it would be fine to put the season back in Victoria, I wouldn't question that because Victoria can be quite cold and we're a lot further south in latitude than northern New South Wales or Queensland so we don't enjoy warm weather early in the season.

"If you shift the whole season back then foals that are born in December or January would become the norm and in many places, that's not a good environment for a foal to be born.

"If you put (breeding season in) Queensland back by a month or two, you'll have foals being born that are then challenged by heat.

"Heat can be very challenging there, especially if the foals develop diarrhoea.

"In addition, if the seasonal rains don't come up north and things are dry then the dust can create really significant problems for respiratory disease in foals (commonly referred to as rattles).

"These typically wouldn't be as much of a problem earlier in the season." 

reductio ad absurdum
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Gay3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Nov 2021 at 2:42pm
Perfectly commonsense opinions by successful professionals at the the coalface Smile Thanks djebel Thumbs Up
Wisdom has been chasing me but I've always outrun it!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Nov 2021 at 3:33pm
Just went through a few MC winners out of curiosity Big smile
Fiorente , feb foal
Green Moon , same 
Dunaden , same 
Cross Counter , April
Americain. April
State of Rest , April  ( Cox Plate ) 
Almandin  late March 
Twilight Payment , May.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Gay3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Dec 2022 at 8:05pm

Belle chimes as Deny Knowledge lands a big betting plunge

DENY Knowledge landed a massive betting plunge with a brilliant all-the-way win in the Group 2 $240,000 Belle of the Turf Stakes (1600m) at Gosford on Wednesday.

The Michael Kent-trained Deny Knowledge opened at $11 but was heavily backed on track into $6 and gave an exciting display of sustained speed to run her rivals ragged around the tight Gosford track.

Kent, who trains at Cranbourne, wasn't on track but stable representative Nikki Burke acknowledged young jockey Josh Richards' tactical nous and understanding of the Victorian mare.

"Josh just clicks with her," Burke said.

"She doesn't slow down this horse, she has a really high cruising speed and keeps it up. She travelled well and was never going to lose."

Richards scored the biggest win of his emerging riding career as Deny Knowledge ($6) gave nothing else a chance romping home two and a half-lengths clear of her chasing rivals to win the final stakes race in NSW this year.

The Chris Waller-trained duo Thalassophile ($9) and She's The Gift ($20) had little between them on the line with former getting second by the narrowest of margins.

Deny Knowledge was bred in Ireland and began her race career in England where she won two minor races from 10 starts before joining the Kent stable.

She was able to win a minor race at Caulfield in May but as often happens with imported horses, she has improved significantly in her second Australian preparation and is now a valuable potential broodmare with her Group 3 winner.

"Since she came over and acclimatised, she has just get better and better," Burke said.

Lekvarte was sent out the $5.50 favourite but after drawing wide, her rider Chad Shofield elected to ride her conservatively early and she was back at the rear of the field most of the race.

Schofield rode for luck from the 600m and Lekvarte did have enough room to sneak along the rail in the straight but she never threatened and ran sixth, beaten nearly five lengths.

Wisdom has been chasing me but I've always outrun it!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote VOYAGER Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Dec 2022 at 10:20pm
Yep never in doubt Thumbs Up
Remember, it might take intelligence to be smart , but it takes experience to be wise
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