{"id":247881,"date":"2025-07-08T11:35:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T11:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/247881\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T11:35:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T11:35:23","slug":"horses-welfare-at-risk-tba-fires-back-at-regulator-over-foal-declarations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/247881\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Horses\u2019 welfare at risk’ – TBA fires back at regulator over foal declarations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thoroughbred Breeders Australia has again urged Racing Australia to reconsider its hardline stance over the policing of the mandatory lodgement of foal ownership declarations (FOD).<\/p>\n

\"Foal\"Foal declaration processes have been tightened. (Photo: Bronwen Healy – The Image Is Everything) <\/p>\n

In the latest back-and-forth between the peak breeders organisation and Racing Australia, TBA president Basil Nolan called for a \u201ccollaborative approach\u201d when it came to enforcing the rules of racing concerning the lodgment of foal declarations and mare returns.<\/p>\n

From August 1, to comply with the rules, breeders must lodge FODs within 30 days of the foal being born (at a cost of $140).\u00a0<\/p>\n

A late fee of $265 will be imposed on breeders if the lodgement is made between 30 and 60 days and unregistered foals overdue by more than 60 days will be flagged as not eligible to race, Racing Australia confirmed in a media release, sparking TBA\u2019s latest response.<\/p>\n

\"CTA<\/a><\/p>\n

A fee of $500 will need to be paid by breeders to appeal to an independent third party to attempt to have the foal\u2019s non-eligibility to race overturned, RA said in its statement published on Friday.<\/p>\n

The growing tensions between RA and TBA regarding FODs was first reported by The Straight in May where it was found that, if the harsher focus on compliance was taken last year, one in six foals could have been ruled ineligible to race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are united in our desire to see improved traceability amidst our industry\u2019s substantive efforts to advance equine welfare outcomes, however this aggressive approach taken by Racing Australia is an unfair and punitive attack on those people who are at the coalface of protecting our horses\u2019 wellbeing: the breeders,\u201d Nolan said in a TBA statement released on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreeders have expressed frustration with the current system for lodging mare returns and foal ownership details, describing it as outdated and cumbersome, which not only slows the process but also impacts the time required to complete these returns.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018Serious consequence for owners\u2019 – Racing Australia persists with foal compliance crackdown<\/p>\n

Racing Australia has confirmed its hardline stance on foal ownership declaration forms ahead of the breeding season, with those who fail to register within 60 days forced to appeal in order to have their horse eligible to race.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nolan called on Racing Australia to improve its systems to lodge foal declarations and mare returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than introducing harsh penalties that could cripple participants\u2019 livelihoods and put their horses\u2019 welfare at risk, we implore Racing Australia to direct their energies to improving their systems and making the registration of mares and foals a much easier and more efficient online process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike our fellow industry stakeholders, TBA wants to see all horses traceable from birth through to leaving the thoroughbred system, and we believe the way to achieve this is to make the process as simple as possible for our breeders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CTA<\/a><\/p>\n

RA has merged the Australian Stud Book mare return and FOD steps to a single process to make it easier for breeders to meet the deadline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put something out last year on this and we said we would enforce this over a couple of years,\u201d RA chief executive Paul Eriksson told The Straight in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, last year we commenced educating (breeders) and getting feedback and this year we’re actually going to be enforcing the rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the rules say that you need to lodge a mare return and foal ownership declaration within 30 days or you are at Racing Australia’s discretion \u2026 that you won’t be able to race (that horse).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn’t have anything to do with the Stud Book, breeding, the export (of horses) or anything like that. This is all around traceability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thoroughbred Breeders Australia has again urged Racing Australia to reconsider its hardline stance over the policing of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-247881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114817409392054433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}