A top Australian trainer, Mick Kent, has authored an article calling out the fact that in Australia, 14,000 Thoroughbreds are foaled, while only 9,000 make it to the track. In an era where social media outrage is aimed at racehorses going to the knackers yard, a 35% failure rate is going to generate way too many videos.
How do you re-purpose 5,000 Thoroughbreds? Some go to polo, but polo remains a relatively small industry in Australia, with only about a thousand registered players.
As Kent says, “Thoroughbreds are far from ideal equestrian horses.” It says it all, really.
Why do most riding schools in Malaysia use Off-The-Track Thoroughbreds as beginner horses? Simply because they are cheap to obtain.
Is that what we should be doing for our riders? Is that the way we should bring up our equestrian standards in Malaysia?
I am convinced that KL Academy of Polo is headed in the right direction. We train our beginners only on Criollos and Argentine Polo Ponies. No Off-The-Track Thoroughbreds in our riding school.
The National Stud Farm in Tanjong Rambutan, Perak has stopped breeding completely. Pan Malaysian Pools read the writing on the wall some time ago, or should I saw, they saw that sea of red ink. The NSF today is a lovely spelling station, waiting for Ipoh to grow out and envelope it.
