Racing: Artificial insemination not a runner

As a bookmaker Bruce McHugh had no peers.

As a racing administrator it's doubtful he has the same stature.

McHugh became a legend through the late 1990s taking on the biggest bettor of all, the late Kerry Packer.

In one memorable autumn carnival McHugh stood firm taking a series of bets off Packer, almost every one of them about to send him broke if they landed.

Although Packer, nor McHugh for that matter, would confirm it, McHugh came out millions in front in what was only a matter of weeks and retired on the spot.

His latest venture in challenging the right to deny thoroughbred racing artificial insemination won't create quite so much drama, but is equally bizarre.

It will have much greater consequences if successful.

McHugh has challenged through the Federal Courts that the AI ban is a restraint on trade.

There was a court hearing in Sydney this week and a ruling is said to be handed down next year.

Surely it's AI $10,000 for yes and AI $1.01 for no.

It's just crazy.

AI does not work in horse racing.

Harness racing in New Zealand allows it and there is a definite downside.

Nothing, but nothing, will narrow a gene pool quicker than AI.

The reason is obvious. A very fertile stallion in premium health can serve perhaps 150 mares in a season as nature intended.

AI can produce 400 foals a year to the one stallion.

Everyone wants the best so any broodmare owner can have the one stallion, within reason.

Take the country's top harness sire, Christian Cullen, as an example.

There are hundreds of them out there and despite the fact that some of them can't run out of sight on a dark night, a big percentage of the best horses are by Christian Cullen.

In 10 years time the Stud Book will be flooded with Christian Cullen mares.

Some of his sons will be at stud. The Christian Cullen gene will be so predominant where do you go for a genetic outcross?

History tells us you can't breed to the same genetic line inside of three generations so where would New Zealand thoroughbred racing be now and in the next decade if Sir Tristram and Zabeel had been bred to with AI?

AI has thrown that problem up everywhere it's been tried.

In terms of stallions owners and studs, the rich get richer and the rest get poor.

It's difficult to know what Bruce McHugh's angle is. He might be better rolling out the odds on Saturdays at Randwick and Rosehill again.

There's no Kerry Packer to worry about any more.

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Civil rights groups are trying to put pressure on the Victoria Racing Club not to pay Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov the A$420,000 third prize in the Melbourne Cup. Kadyrov is the owner of Mourilyan, who finished third in the Cup for South African trainer Herman Brown.

Kadyrov has been described as the new Stalin and compared to Saddam Hussein and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.

He owns a stable of horses based in Dubai as well as a million-dollar watch and a gold-plated gun.

In his country's last election, he won 99.9 per cent of the vote.

The tree-huggers have got to be kidding.

Kadyrov might not be the bloke you'd like to live next door to - he's accused of all manner of things including political assassination and ripping off of Chechen oil - but the Victoria Racing Club has no grounds to withhold prizemoney.

The club accepted the horse into the race after which everything became academic. It's honour bound to pay and it says it will, possibly on Monday.

Where were the civil rights people before the race when pressure on the Victoria Racing Club might have made them look even harder at whether they should have allowed Mourilyan to start.