Rowe On Monday – US racing broadcast fears, Hong Kong sale boom and Starspangledbanner’s stellar season continues

Broadcast concerns overshadow US racing

For all the prognosticating from punters, participants, and past and present media presenters about the state of Australia’s racing broadcast, North American industry figure Case Clay says we have it pretty good.

The bloodstock agent, who trades a lot of mares all around the world, believes America lacks the consistency of Australia’s Sky Racing, Racing.com and Seven Network broadcasts.

And American punters will, when FanDuel abandons its coverage of racing at the end of next year, have fewer options to consume racing.

“With FanDuel and Fox Sports, we were extremely well covered, but we need to fill that void (without FanDuel),” Clay said. 

“It’s very sad that FanDuel is going away. And for two reasons. One, all the people that work for that organisation are very good people and, two, how do people watch racing? And that’s the main thing.

“We need more access to it so everyone can watch racing. When I’m down there in Australia for racing and for sales, it’s everywhere. 

“We need to emulate that. There is an opportunity to fill that void and hopefully it gets filled soon.”

Rusted-on American racing participants such as Clay subscribe to streaming services such as RTN.TV to tune in to the racing, but he says that misses another market.

“I subscribe to RTN.TV, but that doesn’t capture a new fan that turns on the TV and sees horse racing and falls in love with it,” he said.

“So, yes, there are ways to watch every race, but that’s just for the industry professional. But we’re now not going to reach as many people as we once were because FanDuel is going away.

“I work with someone who fell in love at age 14 and they turned on the TV. That was NBC, but it was when Smarty Jones won the Kentucky Derby (in 2004). But we do not have what you have in Australia, which covers every race, and we desperately need it.”

FanDuel TV, which began as the Television Games Network (TVG) in 1999, recently axed a significant number of its on-air talent and in-studio production as it looks to cut costs and focus its business elsewhere.

Asked about the health of US racing more generally, Clay says it can be judged state-by-state in a not dissimilar way to when assessing Australian racing.

“Kentucky’s very strong. We are very active in Frankfort (local government), which is our state capital and state government, with horse racing having a seat at the table, and New York is strong.

“Arkansas is strong. Florida’s in a battle with their state legislature and racetrack ownership and California is also struggling at the moment. So, it depends on which state you look at.”

Rolston’s HK International Sale forecast comes to fruition

The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Danny Rolston predicted in The Straight that last week’s  International Sale would be much stronger than last year’s event.

And so it proved.

All 16 horses offered were sold with a Black Soil Bloodstock-bred and Magic Millions-sold son of the pensioned Deep Field who topped the sale at HK$9.2 million (A$1.688 million).

The other Deep Field three-year-old was the second-highest-priced lot at HK$6.6 million, while the two Savabeels on offer made HK$5.2 million and HK$5.4 million, respectively.

Turnover was up HK$31 million year-on-year with the average up HK$1.76 million and the median up HK$2 million.

“I think we’ve got a few factors right this year. But the message which comes out of (the sale) is the owner’s appetite for horse ownership in Hong Kong is really responding well to the bonus structure, increases in prize money and the initiatives the Club is putting into place,” says Rolston, the Jockey Club’s executive manager of International sale and owners advisory services.

“The first key indicator we saw towards having a good sale was the large increase in ballot applications this year. 

“So, with a higher application rate for the ballot, more permits in the market and having the sale after the ballot this year – I think we had all of the ingredients right for a good sale.

“This is only part of the journey; it’s taken us two years with these horses to get here and we’ve only sold around 50 per cent of the horses we bought in that year. 

“We’re holding the bar really, really high. We only want to bring the absolute best horses, the soundest horses, and the horses with the most ability and the best temperaments to the market. 

“I think we did that with a really reinvigorated appetite for ownership.” 

Banner on the board with another Star

When Gstaad won the Irish Two Thousand Guineas in May, Tom Magnier and Anthony Mithen were among the first to sing the praises of the Ballydoyle colt’s Australian-bred sire Starspangledbanner.

Rising 20, Starspangledbanner is now permanently domiciled at Coolmore Stud in Ireland and has become a revelation in the northern hemisphere on the back of increased support from Irish and UK breeders.

At the weekend, Starspangledbanner’s daughter Kensington Lane won the Belmont Oaks at Saratoga. She is the son of Choisir’s third Group 1/Grade 1 winner this calendar year, with the filly joining Gstaad and another three-year-old Precise as elite level scorers in 2026.

At the midway point of the northern hemisphere year, Starspangledbanner is equal with Frankel on three Group 1 winners this season.

He trails only Night Of Thunder (5), and is ahead of Dubawi (2), Lope De Vega (2), Too Darn Hot (2) and No Nay Never (2).

Kensington Lane is trained by  Donnacha O’Brien, who prepared the filly to run fifth in the Irish One Thousand Guineas before sending her to the US for a shot at a Grade 1 victory.