ITBA Team In Full Swing For Expo

January has the look of a busy month for Shane O'Dwyer and his team at the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association. As well as the annual ITBA national breeding awards night at the end of the month, O'Dwyer is in full organisational mode ahead of the ITBA Expo, which returns, in association with Connollys Red Mills, after a five-year break and takes place in Goffs on Jan. 26-27.

Explaining the hiatus in staging the event O'Dwyer said, “Normally we like to run these events every two years, but we hosted the International Breeders Conference in 2015 and before that an expo had taken place in 2008, 2010 and 2012 so we are back now to Goffs for 2018 having held the previous Expo in Leopardstown.”

The two-day event gives suppliers, service providers and companies associated with the racing and breeding industry an opportunity to showcase their products and services while the organisers have also unveiled an interesting line up of seminars and panel discussions to back up the trade show element of the Expo.

“There will be a university challenge style quiz on the Friday,” he said. “We are trying to restrict it to colleges as much as we can and have called it 'The Intervarsity Challenge.' However to open it up a little bit, for example, previous alumni of the Godolphin Flying Start will field a team, as will previous graduates of the Irish National Stud breeding course.”

Continuing the theme of engaging with racing's future leaders, fans and innovators, O'Dwyer is planning a 'Next Generation Seminar' for the Friday evening of the Expo when he hopes some of racing's brighter young stars can speak candidly about what future opportunities and threats they think lie in store for the industry.

“We will have a panel consisting of Joseph O'Brien, Cathal Beale, Lisa O'Neill, Amy Marnane, Kevin Blake and Patrick Roche,” said O'Dwyer. “These people are young and successful and I think it would be beneficial for the industry to give them the platform to air their concerns for the future, as they are the ones who have committed to carving out their careers within it. We are also billing it as an event for young people, organised by young people in the hope that it will stimulate further interest among the younger generation.”

While the above seminars are likely to prove informative and entertaining, the main focus of the first evening will be a discussion titled 'What If: A Vision for 2028,' through which a panel will provide an insight or wish list for the industry in the context of having a significantly improved funding model.

“The 'What If' is the funding model,” explained O'Dwyer. “So we're saying what if there was a 3% tax on betting that could potentially bring €120m or €140m into the industry, what could we achieve with that? We want to highlight some of the current issues in the industry and project what beneficial impact an improvement in funding could yield; for example what initiatives could we introduce for the breeding industry, we could upgrade the Irish Equine Centre which is badly in need of funding, upgrade racecourse facilities, invest in education and training and of course increase prize money. A full panel will be released early in the New Year but international names such as Winifred Engelbrecht-Bresges, Joe Osborne, Eddie O'Leary, Jessica Harrington and Louis Romanet will add their vast experience to a very interesting topic.”

HRI's director of communications Jonathan Mullin will be the moderator of that panel and extra gravitas to the event will be provided by economist Colm McCarthy, who will deliver his thoughts on the betting tax argument via video link. O'Dwyer is hoping to have a number of government officials in attendance in order to help them understand what the industry means to so many professionals and how the bloodstock industry yields so much in return for the financial support it receives from the Government through major employment in rural areas where there is often a dearth of other thriving industries.

Day two of the Expo is billed as Innovation and Technology day and it will feature companies that operate in the tech sector of the thoroughbred industry giving 30 minute presentations on their product offerings. However the undoubted draw of the Saturday is likely to be the Dragons' Den style competition which was launched before Chritmas by the ITBA by inviting applicants to enter into the competition for the chance of competing in the final on Jan. 27. A bona fide Dragon in businessman and mentor Sean Gallagher has been drafted in by the ITBA to judge the competition which is split into three different categories as follows:

• Award for innovative initiative/business for breeders under 30
• Best start up award serving the thoroughbred industry
• Best established SME serving the thoroughbred industry

“We are inviting applicants to submit their applications for the Dragons' Den competition no later than Jan. 8,” said O'Dwyer. “The panel will then assess the applications and decide which ones qualify for the finals. At least one out of each category will be invited to appear in front of the Dragons and an overall winner will be judged on the day.”

O'Dwyer and his office team of Kerry Ryan and Regina Byrne along with ITBA chairman Stephen Collins deserve credit for such an initiative and unsurprisingly it has caught the attention of the industry and beyond.

“We have had a great response to it, AIB are sponsoring it and Enterprise Ireland are keen to get involved so it has really gained traction in a short space of time,” he added.

With over 65 trade stands and counting booked into the Expo, it has the ingredients of a busy weekend for O'Dwyer and if that wasn't enough the ITBA National Breeding Awards take place the same night on Jan. 27 in the Killenard Hotel in Laois when many of Ireland's most successful breeders are honoured for their achievements. No doubt a short break will be appreciated by the ITBA team in February before getting back on the hamster wheel that is the Irish bloodstock industry.