The ongoing Brexit talks have focussed on the border between the UK and Ireland. The Irish also have another concern: What will happen to their horses?
Galileo for 1.1 million euros
Uncertainty over the future arrangements for exporting Ireland’s horses to Britain, its main market, has sparked frustration and anger in a sector worth more than $2.1 billion to the economy, and which supports almost 30,000 jobs
Talk of Brexit dominated last week’s foal and breeding stock sales at Goffs, Ireland’s premier public auction house, where buyers from across the world spent 41 million euros. The tone was set by an Irish-based stallion Galileo, which sparked a bidding war before the auctioneer’s gavel finally fell at the princely sum of 1.1 million euros to an agent acting for an unnamed US buyer
Sport of Kings
Ireland is proud of its status in horse racing, the Sport of Kings, and thousands of Irish enthusiasts make the pilgrimage every March to the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival in England, where Ireland’s best jump horses take on the best of the English. Figures compiled by auditors Deloitte showed Ireland sold horses worth 169 million euros to England in 2016—50 per cent of the total sales at public auction of Irish bloodstock
Passport for stallions
“It is a huge employer in the countryside, so anything that damages it is something to be really worried about,” Harry McCalmont, whose Norelands Stud is a prominent breeder, was quoted as saying by AFP
Brexit would nullify the tripartite agreement that exists between Ireland, England and France over the free movement of horses, McCalmont added. Once Britain leaves the EU’s single market and customs union, horses could be subject to passport controls and delays at the border unless some new agreement is reached