10 RACING AUSTRALIA ANNUAL REPORT 2023 The principal activity of Owners and Breeders Services is to operate the Australian Stud Book ensuring the integrity of Thoroughbred breeding in Australia in accordance with the Rules of the Australian Stud Book. Together with a Registrar’s role, it also records the initial registration, ownership and naming of all Thoroughbreds in accordance with the Australian Rules of Racing. In addition, each Principal Racing Authority (PRA) employs a Deputy Registrar. The Deputy Registrar is responsible for • subsequent changes in racehorse ownership (Transfer or Lease) of horses based in their respective states • registration of racing colours (silks) • registration of Syndicates of owners • the regulation of licensed promoters (Syndicators) STUDY IDENTIFIES A CONTINUED ACCEPTABLE INBREEDING LEVEL IN AUSTRALIAN THOROUGHBREDS Inbreeding can be defined as breeding related animals. It is an essential part of selective breeding that has been carried out for hundreds of years and is a consequence of breeding closed stud book populations. Inbreeding has both positive and negative effects. It increases the accumulation of favourable genes, and when performed slowly, purges naturally occurring harmful variants from a population. However, inbreeding can lead to the accumulation of harmful gene variants. This results in the emergence of genetic disorders, which whilst rare, are frequently fatal. Fast inbreeding can also reduce performance traits and reproductive success. For these reasons, many Stud Books now monitor inbreeding levels in their populations. Racing Australia has been working on upgrading the Portal over the past twelve months and plan to launch V2 in the coming year which will streamline processes and applications currently available. OWNER AND BREEDER SERVICES REPORT A recent Australian Stud Book commissioned pedigree analysis found that the average level of inbreeding for Australian Thoroughbreds born in 2019 is 14.95%. This has increased 0.8% when compared to the last inbreeding study, which was in 2007 on the 2005 foal crop. It is advisable to restrict the rate of inbreeding to <1% per generation. In Thoroughbreds, this equates to an increase in inbreeding of approximately 1% every 10 years, so the current increase is within the range of what is considered acceptable among domestic species. RACING AUSTRALIA RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FUND Racing Australia continues to support research and development directly associated with the Thoroughbred with $20 from each Registration application allocated to the Racing Australia Research and Development Fund. The Research and Development Grant Assessment panel review submissions and recommendations on funding to the Racing Australia Board. Assessment criteria requires research to be innovative with clear hypothesis and methodology to produce tangible outcomes for the health, welfare and performance of the Thoroughbred in Australia.
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