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Officials say declining number of foals threatens N.Y. racing

Posted: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 1:15 PM

by Paul Post
 
The declining number of mares, foals, and stallions in New York threaten to undermine an important part of the state’s racing program, breeding officials say.

About one-third of all New York Racing Association races are for New York-breds, including 45 stakes with purses of more than $4-million. Purses for all New York-bred races average $39,000 per race.

However, foals born last year in New York fell to 1,798 compared with 2,209 born in 2004. The number of mares bred dropped from 3,302 five years ago to 2,169 and the roster of stallions in the state register reached its lowest figure in ten years at 70.

“The numbers are what they are,” New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. Executive Director Jeff Cannizzo said Monday. “The average New York-bred racing is four years old. There will be 400 fewer horses in 2013. When the field size goes down there’s less handle. As handle drops, money available for this [breeding] program goes down.”

The New York Breeding and Development Fund is responsible for administering breeders’ awards. Normally, the first-, second- and third-place finishers get either a 20% or 10% matching award from the fund based on purse earnings (20% for New York-sired horses, 10% of non-New York sired). Last year, however, because the fund did not have enough money, second- and third-place breeders awards were slashed in half.

NYRA President Charles Hayward said, "The projected decline in the foal crop will have an impact on the number of state-bred races NYRA will run in the future, which means less purse money coming back to [New York]-bred owners."

The economy is a major reason for declining revenues. Cannizzo, however, blames the state lawmakers, who took nine years to name a gaming operator, for Aqueduct for the decline in foals. Ten days ago, Aqueduct Entertainment Group was chosen, but charges of political cronyism threaten the deal.

“People are skeptical,” said Joseph McMahon, a breeding fund director and owner of McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds LLC, one of the state’s largest breeding farms. “Two years ago we had 125 foals. This year we’ll have 84 or 85. Once the numbers are down it’s hard to come back.”

He said horses are not only going to Pennsylvania, which has video lottery terminals at its racetracks, but to other states that have gaming, such as Louisiana.

“The horse population is going out to these lesser areas because they have better deals,” McMahon said.

Paul Post is a New York-based correspondent for Thoroughbred Times