A hundred years of seeing the bigger picture

It is all about the long view; about adapting the impatient perspectives of men to the timeless cycles of Nature. How fitting, then, that the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association should have counted among its guests, at a reception earlier this week, its patron for no fewer than 63 of its 100 years. And how apt, equally, that the same painful gestation that "foaled" the TBA, a century ago this summer, had simultaneously produced the most influential sire of the century.

Throughout the Great War, the lobby to persevere with at least a skeletal racing programme had caused much public and political distaste. But men such as the Earls of Durham, Derby and Rosebery did not need anyone to explain the inherent triviality of one of their horses beating another on the deserted heath at Newmarket. Each, after all, had an anguished family stake on the Western Front. At the same time, they knew that the breed was only passing through their hands; and that even exigencies as abominable as all British society then endured would some day pass.

Abiding

For even if its radiance were obliterated by artillery smoke, the sun still rose every morning; still set every day. It was almost as though breeders, having so long absorbed the abiding rhythms of the seasons, knew how to separate themselves from the follies of other men in their fleeting, frantic transit through the world.

Lord D'Abernon, founding father of the TBA in 1917

By the same token, the ultimate vindication of those who made this unpopular stand would only become evident to future generations. Phalaris – trained, as it happened, for Derby by Durham’s brother George Lambton – was only able to showcase his speed because the sporadic suspension of wartime racing had been reversed. He has since emerged as the foundation stone of the modern thoroughbred, the principal node uniting all the great sire-lines of today.

When Phalaris won at the First Spring Meeting of 1917, the government had just announced an indefinite suspension of the sport. This prompted concerned breeders to convene a few days later at the Tattersalls subscription room in Knightsbridge, under the chairmanship of Lord D'Abernon. They unanimously resolved to establish the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association, which together with the Jockey Club – represented by the likes of Rosebery and Durham – persuaded Lloyd George to relent by July. Critics of this dispensation were told that it had been secured expressly "in view of the national importance of horse-breeding."

Co-operative

The rules adopted by the TBA, that same year, defined a lasting objective: "to encourage and ensure co-operative efforts in all matters pertaining to the production and improvement of the Thoroughbred Horse, and the interests of Thoroughbred Horse Breeders."

Queen Elizabeth II and TBA chairman Julian Richmond-Watson, here pictured on Derby Day in 2008, this week celebrated the centenary of the association that represents all British breedersCredit: Edward Whitaker

Over the years, these aspirations have proved broad enough to permit the inevitable contention over the wisest course, whenever the breed has found itself at a crossroads. Just as the importance of the opportunities afforded Phalaris could only be confirmed by posterity, so each generation has had to grope forwards according to its best instincts. Hence, however, the value both of the lore inherited from breeders past – and of a forum to weigh that legacy with all due respect in a changing world.

One of the very first controversies to animate the TBA, for instance, concerned the number of mares that should be tolerated in a stallion’s book. This had long been limited to 40. In 1922, however, Somerville Tattersall deplored the fact that Sunstar, the Derby winner standing at Jack Joel's Childwickbury Stud, had entertained 75 mares in 1920; and no fewer than 82 in 1921. He complained that breeders were entitled to know of such excesses, given the potential devaluation of their foals entering the marketplace.

Consensus

The matter was raised again at the 1930 AGM, after Cottage had covered 73 mares at Grange Stud in County Cork. This time a resolution was passed that a limit of 45 mares be stipulated in the covering contract – and while the association had no power of enforcement, the consensus carried moral weight for decades.

Nowadays, of course, a commercial stallion would be on the stickiest of wickets with a book of 45; a jumps sire at Grange Stud, in fact, is liable to entertain as many as 300 partners. On the one hand, it would be unrealistic to deny that veterinary advances have altered the environment. After all, TBA funding has itself contributed significantly to improved fertility. At the same time, the modern explosion in book sizes plainly presents grave challenges – both in terms of diversity, and of our ability (or willingness) to heed the long-term interests of the thoroughbred while chasing down a fast buck.

A timeless scene at the royal stud: Derby winner Motivator during his stint at SandringhamCredit: Edward Whitaker

Issues of this kind preserve the TBA as a priceless conduit for enlightened debate. Julian Richmond-Watson, the current chairman, is constantly stressing how breeders should think of themselves only as custodians, charged with handing the breed over to their heirs in as robust a condition as possible.

Sure enough, on Tuesday afternoon he hosted a brainstorming session of interested industry figures, seeking to convert words to deeds in the cause of staying blood. Many TBA members acknowledge the need for diversity, and the dangers arising from a commercial obsession with fast, precocious sires. But few can afford indifference to the bottom line. As such, they need help in devising incentives to take the market’s teeth out of the stayer.

Pride

It is this kind of work – tailoring far-sighted principle to practical solutions for the here-and-now – that has made the TBA such an asset to the breed over the past century. Richmond-Watson had just cause for pride, therefore, in proceeding directly from that meeting to St James’s Palace for a celebratory reception, during which he presented the monarch with a specially bound edition of the TBA’s centenary book.

In his own contribution, Richmond-Watson writes of the way breeders – whatever trends history may record on the racetrack – remain vested with an unchanging responsibility. "[They] represent the one sector involved at both ends of the production line, bringing foals into the world and welcoming them back after racing to continue the cycle," he notes. "Whatever else changes, this natural process remains the same."

He also borrows a line from TS Eliot. And on Tuesday – in a historic setting, and in the company of a patron herself so seasoned in the mysteries and responsibilities of breeding – he needed only look around to be reminded of its aptness:
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future.