Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 1990 > Committee on Commercial State-Sponsored Bodies (6th Committee) > Report No. 01 - Irish National Stud Company, Limited

APPENDIX A

THE ENGLISH NATIONAL STUD

1.The farm now occupied by the Irish National Stud Company Limited was originally developed in the 1900s as a stud farm by Colonel Hall Walker (later Lord Wavertree). He also arranged the creation of the Japanese Gardens which are a unique feature of the property. In 1916 he donated the Stud to the nation in order to augment the resources available to the Government for breeding horses for military purposes. This donation was contingent on the State purchasing the land (and also some property in Britain). The purchase of the land was arranged for £47,000 and the National Stud came into being.

2.After the Saorstat was set up, the new authorities presented a demand for the transfer of what was then known as the National Stud Farm to the Saorstat. However, the British authorities contended that as the stud was a gift, they had no power to dispose of it. Negotiations about the status of the stud continued up to and into the war years. In the meantime, however, the stud continued to be managed by the U.K. Ministry of Agriculture as the English National Stud. In 1943 the dispute between the two Governments was finally resolved under an agreement whereby, inter alia, the land passed to the Saorstat but the bloodstock was retained by the British Ministry for Agriculture. Some monetary payments were also made to the Irish Government for rent of the land from 1922. The Act setting up the Irish National Stud was passed in 1945 and the Company itself was formed in 1946.

3.Meanwhile, the English National Stud was re-established in Gillingham, Kent. Still under the management of the Ministry for Agriculture, the Stud functioned as a mare-owning commercial stud with the object of breeding top-class thoroughbreds. After the war, however, it was decided to stand stallions at the Stud in order to ensure the continuity of the best bloodlines at a time when the privately owned studs were being run down by their owners. In 1963, the Stud passed from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Horserace Betting Levy Board. In that year also it was decided to dispose of the mares and concentrate exclusively on stallions. In 1964 the Stud moved to its present site at Newmarket.

4.The inflation in blookstock prices during the 1970s put the purchase of top stallions beyond the reach of the Stud. However, the Stud was fortunate in its investments and entered the 1980s in a relatively prosperous financial state. In 1985 however, there was a major review of the policy of the Stud by a Committee of Enquiry under Sir John Sparrow. The Sparrow Committee visited the Irish National Stud and was impressed with the range of activities there, particularly the educational ones. The Sparrow Committee made a series of recommendations which follow closely the example of the Irish National Stud.

5.In its report, the Committee recommended, inter alia:

(i)The National Stud should not be privatised, but should widen the scope of its services to include educational, research and other facilities for the breeding industry;

(ii)The Stud should widen its customer base by standing at least four (out of a maximum possible of six) “commercial” (i.e. moderately priced) stallions:

(iii)The Stud should intervene with finance from the Levy Board, if necessary, to prevent the export of established, top class stallions;

(iv)The Stud should purchase from two to five National Hunt stallions for standing in different parts of the country for the benefit of National Hunt breeders.

(v)The Stud should provide residential, educational and training facilities for qualified young people;

(vi)The Stud should sponsor research;

(vii)The Stud should encourage the public to visit its premises with the object of stimulating interest in itself.