About Voskhod horse breeding plant - first person account

05.09.2013 16:22

Evgeny Anatoliyevich Belozerov, the chief zootechnician in horse breeding at the Voskhod HBP, told us about the history and activities of one of the largest facilities for the thoroughbred riding breed in Kuban, as well as about the future of the horse industry.

- What is the history of Voskhod HBP?

- OJSC Voskhod Horse Breeding Plant was founded in 1920. It is one of the best equestrian plants specializing on breeding and raising horses of the thoroughbred riding breed; it has all the necessary conditions for that, it is located on fertile lands. The breed livestock has a unique composition of mares and stallions of the best domestic and foreign lines. For more than 90 years, it has produced raised such famous horses as Granit 2, Grog 2, Garnir, Marsel, Gerold, Anilin, Aden, Avat, Floridon, Fazon, Struna, Art, Shavat, Bor, Rigodon, Akbash, Satellit, Mentik, and others. Their names are forever in the history of the Soviet and Russian horse breeding. In 1961, "the horse of the century" appeared on the world stage, the country's national heritage, a unique stallion which glorified Voskhod HBP and its creator, Valery Shimshirt - Anilin. The distinguished Anilin which galloped victoriously across the country’s hippodromes, was the winner of all of the major traditional prizes, was the second at the Washington International Prize and won the European Prize for three times in Germany (Cologne).

The plant’s horses compete at the main hippodromes of Russia, they have won the main prize of the traditional Derby for 43 times along with over 200 international awards.

In the modern composition of the thoroughbred riding breed in Russia and the CIS, 40% of mares and 50% of stallions have been grown at Voskhod.

The plant’s horses are successful in the equestrian sports and are very well established in the steeplechases: Epigraph and Sargar won in the Pardubitsky steeplechase three times, Grifel and Grot, two times. The best trainers and jockeys of Russia have worked with horses of our plant: D. Kambegov, N. Laks, I. Fomin, N. Nasibov, A. Belozerov, A. Chuguyevets and others.

In February of 1998, V. I. Krasnobryzhny became the head of the plant. In 2000, the anniversary year, the horses of Voskhod won 26 awards.

The plant got new outstanding racers Akbash and Satellit.

The red stallion Akbash was the winner of the Derby 2003; Nasibov Cup (2003 and 2004); the Prize of the President of the Russian Federation in 2004 and many others. Akbash beat all its rivals in the primary race for the Prize of the President of the Russian Federation by ten bodies! It was a magnificent victory not only of Voskhod but also, and above all, of the domestic selection; out of the 12 participants of the race only five were born in our country and the others were bought or leased abroad. Overall, during its career Akbash participated in 18 races, won 13 of them earning more than 4.5 million rubles. In 2005, it became the most "earning" horse in Russia.

In turn, the stallion Satellit won the Prize of the President of the Russian Federation in 2006; and in 2007 it was voted as the best representative of the English thoroughbred riding breed in Russia.

The famous horse of Voskhod brought us significant victories in the racing season-2013 as well.

The stallion Kirill won the first place in the race for the Krasnodar Region Governor’s Cup, the main event of the Kuban racing season. The stallion Kirill (Rigodon/Carry Off) came first, ahead of 15 horses, with a score of 2.32, 1. The second and the fourth places were also taken by the horses from Voskhod - Rhett Butler and Avetin.

The mare Poloneza won the first place in the race for the Prize of the Russian horse breeders that became the final in the X series of the races for the Prize of the President of the Russian Federation which took place on July 1 at the Central Moscow Hippodrome. Poloneza has a good pedigree - her father was Akbash, the winner of the Derby 2003; Nasibov Cup (2003 and 2004); the Prize of the President of the Russian Federation in 2004 and many others.

The stallion Verabor and the mare Zarbia won the first place in the two races for the prize of the city of Moscow (Small Derby) and for the prize in honor of horsemen of Karachaevo-Cherkessia which took place at the Central Moscow Hippodrome on August 25. The horses Verabor and Zarbia were born from the same father - the red Bor, winner of the Derby, Grand Prize for horses at the age of two years and many other races. Zarbia also came first in the race for the prize in the name of Budyonny at the Central Moscow Hippodrome.

The mare Kharieta (Entrepreneur/Khrabrina) and the stallion Svarog (Akbash/Salta) won the first and the second places in the race for the prize of the city of Krasnodar (Small Derby) in the Krasnodar Derby held on August 31. On the same day, the mare Balladushka (Dancer/Barbila) got ahead of 12 horses and won the race for the prize in the name of A.I. Fomin. One more victory was won by the stallion Avetin (Entrepreneur/Antonia) in the long race (3,200 m) for the Prize of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation.

- What activities are there at Voskhod HBP?

- Diversified economy. Our land Bank is 6,500 hectares of arable land. The main activities are livestock, crop production. We grow wheat, barley, sunflower, corn, coleseed. Part of the plant is the dairy farm No 3 for 1,100 forage cows.

- What is the percentage of diversified activities? In figures - how much is left for breeding, how much - for racing?

- Breeding and racing cannot be split, as racing is the main criterion for selection.

- How many horses are there at the plant?

- To date, there are 281 animals including 253 breeders.

- What conditions have been created for horses, what is the area of pastures, horse boxes?

- All horses are kept at individual horse boxes except for foals born this year, up to 4.5-5 months. We have about 400 hectares of pasture.

- Many market participants report that the equestrian industry is not a profitable business, and many types of farming may not reach profitability: do you agree with them? Why?

- Unfortunately, horse breeding in Russia may not bring financial profit but the profit for the sake of "image" delivering glory to the owners is no less important. The only support (sometimes multimillion) to horsemen in all countries is in the form of deductions from the totalizer profits which are under the control of the state, however, the totalizer is considered gambling and is taxed heavily.

- What new directions are you are planning to implement at Voskhod and what is the timeframe?

- The main strategy is to preserve the legacy of past generations. If possible, to build irrigated pasture business.

- How would you estimate the prospects of the horse industry in Kuban for the next five years?

- The Krasnodar region is the only entity of the Federation which pays great attention to the development of horse breeding. The Government of the region and the Legislative Assembly of Kuban issue decent funding to support horsemen and every year the amount has been increasing. To date, our Krasnodar hippodrome holds the largest and most interesting races with a lot of participants. In general, however, the number of breeding horses is reduced in both the region and the country. Not all owners and businesses are able to carry out horse breeding because the costs are not covered by any subsidies and benefits, hardly any changes will take place in the coming years. Today the horse breeding exists at the expense of other activities.

Prepared by the press service of the Voskhod Horse Breeding Plant for Delovaya Gazeta. Yug

Author: Edition