IRT Joins Forces With BBA Shipping, Mersant, Manestream

The increasingly global nature of the Thoroughbred industry has prompted further consolidation in the international horse transport sector, with Australian-founded International Racehorse Transport joining forces with BBA Shipping & Transport, Mersant International, and Manestream to form a new global equine transport group. For an industry in which horses are now routinely bought, sold, raced, and bred across multiple continents during their careers, moving Thoroughbreds between jurisdictions has become an increasingly important part of the bloodstock business. Against that backdrop, IRT's expanded network brings together four established transport businesses operating across many of the world's most important Thoroughbred and equestrian regions. "We are excited to announce that IRT, Mersant International, BBA Shipping & Transport, and Manestream have joined forces to form a global group," IRT managing director Chris Burke said. "Our clients across the racing and sport horse sectors increasingly require global transport solutions. By expanding our international network, we can better support their evolving needs and facilitate horse movements to destinations worldwide. "Importantly, there will be no change to our customers' day-to-day experience. Each business will continue to operate under its own brand, led by the same active owners and teams you know and work with today." Established in Melbourne in 1972, IRT has grown into an international operation with offices in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and the United States. Logistically, it is a service which covers the full journey, from airfreight and charter arrangements through to health and quarantine requirements, passports, customs, permits, and insurance, with horses and grooms supervised through to their release from quarantine and onward delivery. The timing of the announcement comes as the annual movement of international horses toward Australia's major spring races gathers momentum. Seven international contenders entered preexport quarantine in the U.K. and Ireland over the weekend ahead of the Melbourne Spring Carnival. All seven hold nominations for the Caulfield Cup (G1) and Melbourne Cup (G1), and have already passed Racing Victoria's required distal limb scans and two physical veterinary examinations. They will undergo a final examination during quarantine before the first international shipment is scheduled to arrive at the end of September in Melbourne. It is the type of movement that highlights the complexity behind an international racing campaign. Quarantine, veterinary testing, regulatory requirements, customs clearance, flights, and road transport all have to align before a horse can arrive at its destination, let alone compete. Racing Sept. 13 in Hong Kong saw some Australasian-breds break track records alongside winners bred in South America, Europe, and North America. The addition of BBA Shipping & Transport significantly strengthens the new group's European presence. The Newmarket-based company grew out of the British Bloodstock Agency, founded in 1911, and combines international airfreight with its own fleet of horseboxes. Its services extend across government export paperwork, veterinary testing, preexport stabling and quarantine, road transport, professional flying grooms, and customs clearance. BBA also owns Black Horse Farm near Newmarket, a 23-acre livery and quarantine facility with 16 stables. Mersant International adds further depth in North America. Founded in 1977, the U.S. business is a licensed customs broker and freight forwarder with a specialist department dedicated to international horse transportation, operating from offices including New York and Lexington. Manestream, meanwhile, has developed its service around a door-to-door model, providing clients with a single point of contact throughout the transport process. With operations in Europe and the U.S., its model coordinates the various stages of a horse's journey while, like IRT, keeping the animal within its own transport network from collection through to delivery. Together, the businesses give the group a broader footprint across Australia, New Zealand, Europe, North America, and Asia at a time when the boundaries between domestic and international racing continue to narrow. For IRT, the combination is designed to expand the network available to clients without changing the individual identity of the businesses involved. "We are excited about the opportunities ahead and look forward to continuing to support our valued customers with the service they know and trust, now strengthened by a broader global network," Burke said. More than five decades after IRT began in Melbourne, the expansion reflects an industry vastly more international than the one in which the company started, but one where getting a horse safely from one side of the world to the other has remained an integral part of racing, breeding, and bloodstock markets.