Matings Masterclass Already A Hit

Jack Cantillon was scrolling through Twitter while seeing out the COVID-19 lockdown in Ireland when he experienced a lightbulb moment.

The London-based lawyer-who is heavily involved in the Thoroughbred industry through his family's Tinnakill Stud and as a syndicate manager-realized this time of isolation could be used to connect bloodstock experts with fans and provide education on how the matings of our racetrack stars come to fruition.

“I've been on Twitter a lot as of late and quite frequently, underneath articles talking about breeding and matings, I've seen comments from casual fans saying, 'this is something I'd love to know more about it,'” Cantillon explained. “It's the one part of our industry that is currently still operating. People are still covering mares and those decisions impact the stars of the future that we're going to have on our racetracks,”

And so, The Art of the Mating was born.

“I put out a tweet not really thinking it through, which is sometimes a dangerous thing to do, saying that it would be fun to take a look at matings and explain them to people,” Cantillon said. “Fortunately I know a lot of the people that are making these decisions on mating these really beautiful mares to the world's best stallions, so why not use the power of technology when they're probably not doing much and bring them together?”

Over a four-week period, 'students' who sign up for The Art Of The Mating will try their hand at designing matings and receive expert feedback through a Zoom video conference. Cantillon will select the mares and provide information on and photos of the mares on a website that is currently in the works. The participants will submit their work and questions for the expert panel, which Cantillon will record on Zoom and post online and as a podcast. Cantillon had 388 participants register overnight on Monday within 24 hours of posting the sign-up portal, and he has signed Moyglare Stud's Fiona Craig on as one of his experts for week one. Students will start off with the blue chip broodmare band of Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), Deirdre (Jpn) (Harbinger {GB}) and Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute).

“The participants will all be sent a client brief, and for the first one it is that there is a new investor in town, and he's multi-billionaire that's assembled the best three mares he could find globally, and he wants your opinion in terms of how he should mate them,” Cantillon said. “Weatherbys have very kindly come on board and they're preparing detailed pedigrees so the participants can delve into them. We'll try to dig up conformation photos to give a sense of the physicals of the three fillies. On the weekend I'm going to record a Zoom with three industry experts. I have Fiona Craig of Moyglare Stud already kindly signed up, and I have two more victims in my head that I haven't spoken with yet. The three experts will pick matings for the three horses and we'll pick one of the students' efforts for particular praise for their creative thinking. We'll encourage them to delve into the pedigree and have a think of what would suit it.”

Each week, students will have the opportunity to look at a different sector of the business.

“In the first week it will be globally minded because these are the three best races fillies out there, really,” Cantillon said. “After that we'll look at some commercial mares and get commercial breeders to talk through how they think about them. The following week I think we'll do stallion owners and how they go about supporting their stallions and thinking through what mares would suit them. And the last week we'll do National Hunt.”

Participants from Europe as well as America and Australia have already signed up for The Art of the Mating, and Cantillon said industry experts seem to be behind it too.

“Loads of them have said on Twitter, 'I'm in,'” he said. “Now, I don't know if 'I'm in' meant they wanted to follow it, or if they wanted to provide their guidance. I'll definitely be ringing a few of them up in the coming weeks. As we know there are loads of characters that are great fun so I'd love to get some of those on to get their perspective of how they do things. My own dad and I, when we do matings, it's basically just an argument for however many hours while we're doing it, and that's how we stumble upon the matings we do, so hopefully we can simulate a few arguments in this forum for people to get a bit of fun out of it too.”

From virtual sales in Australia to Facebook and Instragram Live tours of studs in Kentucky and training centres in Europe, the Thoroughbred industry has taken hold of unique opportunities for stakeholder and fan engagement in the midst of a crisis.

“What do fans like? We struggle sometimes in horse racing because we focus on the handle, and how much is bet on our product,” Cantillon said. “But actually, for a lot of people they come into the industry because they love the physical experience of being around horses. If you hear people talk about that and the care they put into their matings and how they think about producing a champion or a beautiful sales horse, that's really exciting. What are we trying to do? We're trying to explain the care and attention and love we have for these animals, and how better to do that than to talk about how much nauseating discussion we have before the horse is even conceived. I think that's the real positive we can take from it.”

Cantillon said there are no deadlines for sign up, participation can be fluid and all materials will be available online.

“This is an effort to educate, and to educate we need to understand what people want to know,” he said. “So please do get in touch if you have any suggestions; I'd love to hear from people. It will be great to continue the conversation and figure out how people can get the most out of it. I just really want this to be a welcome distraction for everyone to have a bit of fun over the next few weeks.”