International Cataloguing Standards Committee

The International Cataloguing Standards Committee was formed in 1981 to achieve uniformity of cataloguing standards throughout the world in a time of increasing internationalization of Thoroughbred breeding, racing and marketing. The committee was made up of representatives of the racing authorities, breeders’ organizations, and international auction houses of four major breeding and racing countries (England, France, Ireland, and North America). One representative was added for The Organizacion Sudamericana de Fomento del Pura Sangre de Carrera (OSAF) in 1995 and one was added for the Asian Racing Federation in 1996. The committee made recommendations to the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers (SITA).

The committee sought to achieve uniformity by making International Cataloguing Standards the single most authoritative, comprehensive, practical and accepted publication dealing with “black type” throughout the Thoroughbred world. In 1985 the committee set forth conditions under which a country could make the transition from Part II to Part I, and invited applications from those countries seeking to make this transition.

In October of 1985, after careful evaluation of the various applications, the committee welcomed Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, South Africa and Uruguay into Part I. The committee found: 1) that racing in these countries was of sufficient stature in terms of number of horses competing, number of races contested, and purse monies distributed to justify their classification as being among the world’s major racing countries; 2) that the number and percentage of races given group, graded or “black type” status in these countries was consistent with the pattern of racing in them without being disproportionate to the ratio of such races in the countries already in Part I; and 3) that the group or graded and listed races in these countries were, in fact, the highest class races contested within them.

Following a complete review of all countries in Part I for the 1992 publication, the number of graded and listed races was reduced for several countries and Uruguay was demoted to Part II.

In June of 2007 ICSC decided to transfer the responsibilities of making recommendations for the Group or Graded status of races to the International Grading and Race Planning Advisory Committee (IRPAC). The IRPAC recommendations are ratified by SITA. Responsibilities for making recommendations regarding catalogue page format issues are coordinated by regional ICSC sub-committees.

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