Prominent Horsemen Pledge Breeders’ Cup Earnings to Support Fight Against Antisemitism

In a movement spearheaded by Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gary Barber, a group of 36 prominent horsemen have joined together in support of the fight against antisemitism. The horsemen have pledged a donation of a portion of their  Breeders' Cup earnings to the organization Stand Up to Jewish Hate.

“Together, we support the fight against Jewish hate and antisemitism and stand with Israel's mission to eliminate all forms of terrorism,” a statement from the group read. “In a united effort, we are committed to donating a portion of earnings from the Breeders' Cup this weekend to benefit Stand Up To Jewish Hate. We welcome everyone from the Thoroughbred Horse Racing community and all its fans to join us. Please visit www.standuptojewishhate.org to learn more or donate.”

The statement is signed by: Rory Babich of St. Elias Stables, Craig Bandoroff of Denali Stud, Gary Barber, Antony Beck of Gainesway Farm, Craig Bernick of Glen Hill Farm, Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds LLC, Alex Bregman of Bregman Family Racing LLC, Gary Broad of Walmac Farm, Mark Casse of Casse Racing, Everything's Cricket Racing, Gary Fenton of Little Red Feather Racing, Al Gold of Gold Square, Stuart Grant of The Elkstone Group, Len and Jon Green of DJ Stables, John Heims, Racing Secretary Monmouth Park, Larry Hirsch of Highlander Training Center, Jay Hovdey, Billy Koch of Little Red Feather Racing, Sol Kumin of Madaket Stables, David Levine, Mike Levy of Muirfield Insurance, Michael McCarthy of Michael McCarthy Racing Stable, Peter Miller of Peter Miller Racing Stable, Graham Motion of Herringswell Stables, Todd Pletcher of Todd A. Pletcher Racing Stables, Inc., Jay Privman, Eddie Rosen, The Roth Family of LNJ Stables, Len Schleifer of Pantofel Stable, Brian Spearman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Vinnie Viola of St. Elias Stables, Adam Wachtel of Wachtel Stable, Bradley Weisbord of Elite Sales, Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Steve Weston of Parkland Thoroughbreds and Aron Yagoda.

Founded by Robert Kraft, Stand Up to Jewish Hate's mission, according to its website is “to win the hearts and minds of non-Jews and Jews through powerful positive messaging and partnerships, motivating and equipping them to be defenders of and upstanders for the Jewish community.”

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Record Good Magic Colt on Top at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale

A colt by Good Magic (hip 251) brought a sales record $230,000 to top a solid–if polarized–renewal of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Mixed Sale in upstate New York Tuesday. During the one-session auction, 156 horses grossed $4,522,200 for an average of $28,988 and a median of $18,000. Both average and median dipped from last year's vibrant market. The sale average–which had jumped 48.5% from 2021 to 2022–declined 13% from a year ago, while the median was down 5%.

From a catalogue of 337 head, 243 went through the ring with 87 failing to meet their reserves for a buy-back rate of 35.8%. That was up from last year's figure of 25.3%.

“It was very similar to the last few yearling sales,” Derek MacKenzie, whose Vinery Sales consigned four of the auction's nine six-figure horses, including the sale-topping weanling, said of the market in Saratoga Tuesday. “It was very polarized. The ones that the buyers covet and that jump through the hoops bring a lot of money. We are lacking a little bit of depth, obviously. The middle and the bottom is trickier than it has been in the last few years.”

Hip 251 is out of Popstar (Medaglia d'Oro) and is a half-brother to stakes-placed Lady d'Oro (Catholic Boy). Vinery consigned the youngster on behalf of his breeder, Richard Nicolai's Fortune Farm.

“He was a very fantastic physical and he had great size,” said Vinery's Derek MacKenzie. “He was a great mover with incredible presence. I thought he would top the sale, honestly.”

Of the sales record price, MacKenzie said, “Once you pass the $200,000 mark at this sale, you just never know. Because that seems to be the ceiling in the past, but [the price] didn't shock me.”

The sale-topping price produced a quick profit for Nicolai, who purchased Popstar with the colt in utero for $29,000 at the Keeneland January sale earlier this year.

“I was not involved with purchasing the mare, but I congratulated [Nicolai] on what was an incredible purchase,” MacKenzie said.

On behalf of Juddmonte, Sequel New York offered three mares in foal to Honest Mischief and the trio were the only broodmares to bring six figures during the auction. Glen Hill Farm purchased the highest-priced of the lot, going to $170,000 to acquire the unraced 4-year-old Bahama Banks (Arrogate) (hip 25).

“We had a busy morning because we sold a horse in the Arqana October sale and he made a nice price,” said Glen Hill's Craig Bernick. “So I was kind of excited and I went a little more on that mare than I was planning to. But we wanted to have her.”

The mare is a half-sister to multiple graded placed Millefeuille (Curlin). Her second dam is Grade I winner Honest Lady (Seattle Slew), who produced Grade I winner First Defence (Unbridled's Song), as well as graded placed Honest Mischief.

“It's a world-class pedigree,” Bernick said. “We've never been able to get something that we thought was good from that Toussaud, Honest Lady family. When they've sold out of that family, those horses usually make a huge price. So we were really excited to buy her. She is in foal to a horse that's in New York, but it's a horse that goes back to the same family. So you'd have to hope for a filly to be inbred to that family. We will bring her to Kentucky and figure out what stallion to go to. She will go to a good stallion.”

Honest Mischief, who stands at Sequel New York for $6,500, was well-represented by his first crop at the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale in August with five six-figure yearlings. But the New York stallion's presence as a covering sire might have saved Bernick some money, he said.

“If she was in foal to a $50,000 Kentucky stallion, I think she would have made $400,000 or $500,000,” Bernick said. “So the stallion maybe did us a favor. We like to race horses, so Honest Mischief, I wouldn't go looking for one, but from that family, especially if it's a filly, I would be excited to race her.”

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Another Year, Another Declining Foal Crop; Experts Chime In

When The Jockey Club announced last week that the estimated North American foal crop for 2024 was 18,000, a 2.7% decline from the projected 2023 foal crop, the news was hardly a surprise. By the time the final numbers are in for 2024,the foal crop will have declined in 18 of the last 19 years and this will be the smallest foal crop since 1964. Since 2005, when there were 38,365 foals, the crop has declined by more than half.

How big of a problem is this. Why is it happening? What can be done to reverse the trend? The TDN posed those questions to some of the foremost experts in the breeding industry.

Ned Toffey (Spendthrift Farm): It is certainly concerning and it's certainly more than a minor blip. When it got to 20,000, that was essentially half of what it was when I first went to work on a Thoroughbred farm. We have to do a better job as an industry of marketing both the sport and the breeding industry. We have to do a better job of attracting new people. We are up against it.

As a society, we've become more removed from agriculture and horses in particular. It's a venture that requires a lot of wealth and a lot of patience. As an industry, we have not done a good job putting this out there. Spendthrift is among the many farms that has embraced the tourism aspect and even that is a long play that you hope down the road yields fruit. By opening up farms, people can get more familiar with what we do here and it won't be such a strange thing for them. Then again, that's not going to change the foal crop any time soon. It was nice to see a handful of new people coming in and buying yearlings during this last sales season. We sure needed that because so many others have gotten out.

I don't know how it is that purses keep getting bigger but the foal crop keeps declining. You are seeing fewer and fewer of these breed-to-race operations. It's become almost strictly commercial. That doesn't necessarily mean that there should be fewer foals. In Australia, a year or two ago they passed us with their foal crop and a much higher percentage of their foals go through the sales ring than ours. They are more commercial than we are and are in a position where they are thriving.

As Australia has shown, where they are primarily commercial, we can still have larger foal crops. The horse is still a bigger part of their culture than it is in ours. It's more of a cultural shift than anything else and that's not an easy thing to reverse. We have to find the right people to figure out the best way to market this industry to people.

We need to get our house in order, clean up, change the perception our industry has. We need to do a better job policing ourselves. There are some things going in the right direction and we need to get out there and change the perception of the industry the public has.

Carrie Brogden, | Keeneland

Carrie Brogden (Machmer Hall): Everything is so expensive now. If you look at the stud fees, the costs of the labor, the board, the hay, the feed. All it takes is for a horse to have a couple problems and you've gone from having a horse worth $300,000 to $3,000. We sold two with two weak scopes in the September sale. One brought $4,000 and the other $3,000. Both would have been $75,000 horses if they had what the market deemed were normal scopes. There are so many factors. What it comes down to is it's a lot easier to buy a great horse than to breed one.

What can be done to fix it? The sport would need to come back to being in demand. People ask how come the sales are so strong even through the sport is obviously under tremendous pressure. The answer is that the supply is not keeping up with the demand. It's going to continue to contract. I went to the sale with an Indiana-bred filly by Upstart that I really, really liked. People told me they're not interested in Indiana-breds. They're only interested in Kentucky and New York-breds because of the purses. The state-breds are getting hammered way more than they used to be because the purses are so good in so many other states. Going forward, I'll be very wary of buying state-breds to pinhook because of the feedback I have gotten.

I can only see it continuing to contract because the target is so small. Everyone wants an above-average horse. Everyone is always going to have a bell curve when it comes to their foals. You hope the top foals pay for the rest of them. It's not easy when you have 10 foals and you are hoping the two best ones will pay for the rest of them.

Until we get our sport straightened out and unless HISA can turn out to be the positive thing so many of us hope it will be, I don't think the trends are going to turn around. At least until we turn around the popularity of our sport.

Craig Bandoroff (Denali Stud): The reason this is happening is because, as breeders, its very hard to make money. Like everything in this business, the percentages of being economically successful are low. The reason it is happening is because there are fewer people who are in it for the love of the game and the pursuit of the challenge. You have more and more people who are doing this because they are looking for an economic return. That's my opinion and has been my experience. In the past, the breeders developed families and did it as a pursuit. We have very few of those sorts of breeders anymore.

Racing is the engine that pulls the train. Everything is interconnected. More and more there will be fewer horses for racing and that means racetracks will have to run fewer days, have fewer races and have smaller fields. How do we reverse the trend? I'd like to think we're going to hit a number where it levels out and the economics get better. Don't ask me where I came up with this number, but in my mind I've always felt that 14,000, 15,000 is where you might level out. That's what my gut tells me. But when I see it declining every year, that doesn't surprise me at all.

We have to make the economics better. Why is this happening when purses are going up? That's a good question. What percentages of the horses win a race or even make it to the races? Those numbers aren't good. That's how I explain our business. We drill oil wells and we get a lot of dry wells and hope we get a couple of other ones that will pay for the failures. That's the economics in every part of this game, whether you're breeding, racing, standing stallions. Purses are going up but not because people are betting on horses. I hope we don't lull ourselves into a false sense of security because we all know what the government giveth the government can take away.

Craig Bernick | Keeneland

Craig Bernick (Glen Hill Farm): It's a commercial market now. The foal crop has been going down for a long time but the amount of horses being sold as yearlings hasn't gone down by nearly the same percentage. The syndicates are fantastic because it gives people a chance to compete at a top level. A lot of these owners were putting up $500,000 or so a year buying three or four horses they would send to their local trainer. Now they're using the same amount of money to take 10% of 15 horses. That's got everyone focusing on the top of the market, the best horses.

Racetracks are closing and the foal crop is going down and there are more $500,000 and up horses sold every year. Everybody is focusing on the top and ignoring all the other horses.

We should have had a mare cap but we don't. That would have helped diversify the stallions that people breed to and everything else that goes along with it. The big stallion farms want more, more, more all the time. We have a foal crop going down yet we have stallions being bred to more mares than ever before. That can't be good for business long term.

I don't know what can be done to reverse the trend. We have the Breeders' Cup, the Triple Crown and four or five big Saturdays spread across the rest of the year and those are the only races anyone wants to run in anymore. We've made Grade II and Grade III races not run on those days insignificant from an owners' perspective. The only thing that really matters any more is if you win on Whitney Day, Travers Day, Breeders' Cup, Triple Crown, Pegasus. Those are the days that matter. We've lost a lot when people don't care anymore about winning a Grade III race somewhere on a Saturday. Everybody's aiming for the same top of the pyramid and as a result, there will be fewer and fewer horses born. Until there is a demand from people who want to have nice horses, are happy to win nice races and enjoy being an owner, we're going to be in trouble. All everybody wants anymore is to have Derby and Breeders' Cup horses.

Fred Hertrich (Watercress Farm): The market is not accepting less-expensive horses. The day of the $1,000 stallion breeding to the $1,000 mare is a thing of the past. The cost of raising that horse, the cost of breaking that horses, the cost of training that horse is the same whether it is the highest-priced yearling in the world or the least expensive. Like with everything else in the economy, the costs are great so the price of the asset has to be greater. We used to have thoroughbred buyers who would buy 10 yearlings at $5,000 apiece. They'd hope to hit the lottery with one of them and they might give away the rest. But that was when expenses were manageable. Now with the price of feed, help, blacksmiths, on and on, the game has changed. People can't afford to do that any more. You have to believe that when you start with that product you're going to have something that will have value and has an opportunity to be a top racehorse.

I'm not sure anything can be done about this because I don't see the costs of raising an animal going down. Look at labor. What we used to have to pay for labor on a farm or in a training barn has gone up 30 to 40% in the last 24 months. It won't be reversed, in my opinion.

If the foal crop were to get down to 13,000 or 14,000, the caliber of everything would be better. Racing will be better, the product will be better. No one will be breeding an ill-conformed stallion to an ill-conformed mare. The dynamic will change but it will be an improved product for the public to wager on. There are going to be tracks where if the purses are too low they won't continue to race because people will not be able to afford to race for those purses. Some of the jurisdictions that have no way to generate serious purse money may not be able to stay competitive. I hate to say it, but like with anything, the bottom of the food chain is not going to do well. Horse racing and horse breeding is no different than any other entity in the country.

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Constitution Maiden Wins Juvenile Mile at Kentucky Downs

KENTUCKY DOWNS JUVENILE MILE S., $499,286, Kentucky Downs, 9-10, 2yo, 1mT, 1:38.17, fm.
1–ASPENITE, 118, c, 2, by Constitution
1st Dam: Aspening, by Candy Ride (Arg)
2nd Dam: Motokiks, by Storm Cat
3rd Dam: Matoki, by Hail to Reason
($375,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). 1ST BLACK TYPE WIN.
O-Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC; B-Glen Hill Farm (KY);
T-Steven M. Asmussen; J-Cristian A. Torres. $294,150.
Lifetime Record: 3-1-1-0, $350,450.
2–Tough Little Nut, 118, c, 2, Palace Malice–Celestial Kitten,
by Kitten's Joy. ($20,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). 1ST BLACK TYPE.
O-Town and Country Racing, LLC; B-Austin Paul & Brenda
Paul (KY); T-Chris M. Block. $96,500.
3–Mozlzil, 120, c, 2, Uncle Mo–Southern Strike, by Smart
Strike. ($160,000 Wlg '21 KEENOV; $160,000 2yo '23
EASMAY). 1ST BLACK TYPE. O-FMQ Stables, Inc.; B-John D.
Gunther & Eurowest Bloodstock Services (KY); T-Brad H.
Cox. $48,250.
Margins: 3 1/4, 2, 1HF. Odds: 6.53, 10.76, 2.59.
Also Ran: Rose Collector, Legal Titan, Good Bali, Sambalover, Gamblin George, Value Engineer, Blue Eyed George, Baytown Parfait, Billy the Greek.

Aspenite went into the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile S. a maiden and came out a stakes winner. The colt, a $375,000 Keeneland September purchase for Winchell Thoroughbreds, broke with running on his mind and went straight to the front, but had company through the :22.59 first quarter. He got a little breather from the crowd prior to setting the :45.25 half, all the while holding firm to his rail spot. Kicking clear in the lane, Aspenite swapped to his wrong lead for much of the stretch but wasn't for catching and finished 3 1/4 lengths clear of Tough Little Nut, who had closed from several lengths back.

Second just 10 days ago by a half-length when caught late going six furlongs over this course, Aspenite's only other previous start resulted in a fourth in an off-the-turf maiden Aug. 5 at Saratoga.

“He was nominated [to the stakes] because of the possibility [of running back after the earlier Kentucky Downs start],” explained winning trainer Steve Asmussen. “He's a horse with a nice level of ability. Not exactly surprised he got a little lost [when he had a clear lead] the first time here. He sees everything. It's just kind of how he is. But he benefitted from the experience and cashed in on a very good day.”

Bred by Glen Hill Farm in Kentucky, Aspenite is out of a half-sister to MGSW & MGISP Keertana (Johar), MGSW & GISP Snow Top Mountain (Najran), and GSW Diversy Harbor (Curlin). Aspening has a yearling colt by Medaglia d'Oro, who is entered Wednesday as hip 437 in the Keeneland September sale, and an Apr. 3 colt by War of Will. She was bred back to War Front. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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