Equate '26 is on ice.... but the conversation will continue to bubble away.

The 2026 seminar will not go ahead as planned.

Equate has spent four years building Australia's only dedicated forum for innovation, education and awareness in the thoroughbred industry. We have provided world-class speakers, run field trips, hosted exclusive behind-the-scenes tours of big tech, facilitated free AI Bootcamps, and built a 1,200-strong community around a conversation the industry has consistently said it wants to have.

We are proud to have created a platform for the curious mind, and a supportive environment for thought-provoking, forward-facing conversation.

What we have not been able to secure - despite genuine engagement with both the racing and breeding regulatory bodies - is the structural support needed to host an industry-scale event without putting the financial risk back on private operators who have already carried it for four straight years.

Without that support, Equate '26 is on ice. Not cancelled - paused, until the conditions exist to deliver it at the standard the industry deserves.

Sorry to the international guests who recognised Equate as a leader in its field, and travelled to be part of it.

Sorry to the service providers who showed up year after year, championing a platform the industry's structural support has not yet matched.

Sorry to the product developers who built around what Equate was creating, and who deserved a venue worthy of what they were bringing.

Sorry to the young men and women who walked through the Equate doors with no prior thoroughbred experience, just curiosity, weighing up whether this industry was a suitable place to bring their skills. We told you we were building somewhere worth those skills. Right now, we cannot guarantee the on-ramp at the scale you deserve.

Sorry to the industry stakeholders we leant on for sponsorship in the first four years, on the promise that Equate would grow into something the industry regulators couldn't ignore, and that they would take over from your generous contributions. Out of respect, we don't feel comfortable coming back to you cap in hand again. You have done the heavy lifting.

Innovation does not stop because a forum doesn't run.

The startups, technologists, investors and service providers building the next decade of the industry will keep building. They will simply build for adjacent agricultural sectors that have actively backed digital transformation - sectors with structured innovation funding, RDC-supported capability programs, and incentives for early adoption. We have already seen capital and talent quietly redirect toward those industries. Each year that gap widens.

The thoroughbred industry can either lead this conversation or get left behind by it. There is no third option.

We are obligated to pursue alternative funding avenues so that the great people and the genuinely valuable products currently sitting in the wheel-ruts of a tradition-bound industry have a platform that surfaces them, validates them, and connects them to the operators who need them.

In the meantime, Equate continues to deliver:

• AI Bootcamps alongside Magic Millions and Inglis sales - consistently oversubscribed, and currently the strongest evidence in market that demand for practical innovation education exists.
• Thought leadership through the Equate blog and newsletter - surfacing the hard conversations the industry's formal bodies have not yet led.
• Direct engagement with stallion farms, sales companies, veterinary practices, technology providers and forward-thinking administrators who want to be part of designing what comes next.

If you back the principle that the thoroughbred industry needs a neutral platform for innovation, education and awareness - and you are in a position to support that work with funding, partnership, or a public stand for those leading the conversation - we want to hear from you.

The bold decision-makers already inside the industry deserve to be applauded. The brilliant operators outside it deserve a way in. Equate's job is to host both. We intend to keep doing it. Watch this space for Equate '27!!

Get in touch: equate.horse