Hall of Fame trainer Gai Waterhouse has described the surge of upgrades to black-type races in Australia as “pernicious inflation at its worst” and expressed her disappointment at the prospect that Anode’s victory in the Tapp-Craig won’t be properly recognised as a stakes victory.
Waterhouse and Adrian Bott’s colt Anode notched what appeared to be a valuable stakes victory in the Tapp-Craig at Rosehill on Saturday, with the races afforded Listed status days before the race was run.
The black-type addition would significantly boost his prospective value as a stallion.
But the victory has not been acknowledged as black type on Anode’s pedigree record, with suggestions that the process followed by Racing Australia in upgrading it and 11 other races in Sydney over the spring, has not been internationally approved and has not been recognised by pedigree companies.
It prompted Waterhouse to issue a statement on behalf of Anode’s ownership group, which includes Evergreen Rich, managed by Tony Bott, Adrian’s father, on behalf of Hong Kong-based PK Siu.
“Of course, I’m (and my owners are) disappointed Anode loses his black-type winner status, notwithstanding he won a $500,000 race last Saturday,” Waterhouse said.
“But, as I always say ‘you must go through the front door’. We didn’t.”
Waterhouse said that while it was pleasing there had been co-operation between the New South Wales and Victorian racing authorities, the Pattern process needed international oversight.
“Pattern Races have to be created by the international pattern committees. Australia didn’t submit their proposal to the Asian Pattern Committee,” she said.
Bren O’Brien
She also took aim at a process which has seen 13 upgrades in New South Wales with more to come, and the prospect of as many as 18 in Queensland and 27 in Victoria. The Straight has seen documentation which suggests the number of stakes races nationally will increase from 606 to 641.
“It should also be said, it is not helpful to racing to have this inexecrable increase in the number of black-type races, in spite of foal numbers dropping,” she said.
“Hong Kong and Japan have more top-class horses than Australia; they have 12 and 26 Group 1s respectively. We used to have 40 ‘principal races’, which became Group 1s. They now propose going from 74 to 80.”
“It is pernicious inflation at its worst! It devalues the status of black type.”
