new york thoroughbred breeding and development fund

Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: Anne And Joe McMahon Celebrate 50 Years Of Raising Good Horses, Staying Close To Nature

McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds has grown exponentially since Anne and Joe McMahon established it with a couple of broodmares in 1971, expanding from 90 to 600 acres that nurture approximately 250 horses.

And it all started with Christmas trees.

The initial tract of land the newlyweds purchased near Saratoga Race Course was filled with Christmas trees that yielded much-needed income. They also sold eggs and pigs and raised much of their own food to bolster their fledgling horse operation.

“We didn't have much money because we spent it on the horses,” said Anne, recalling those lean early days. She is 70, three years younger than her husband.

They initially thought in modest terms, eager to start a family and indulge the passion for Thoroughbreds that brought them together.

“I never imagined in my wildest dreams it would be this big,” Joe said. “We thought we could have a small boarding operation here and raise a few horses of our own to sell or to race.”

The establishment of the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund in 1973, when combined with the McMahons' relentless work ethic and their emphasis on staying close to nature, elevated the operation to unimagined heights. It did not hurt, either, that the farm became celebrated as the birthplace of 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide.

The annual sale of Christmas trees eventually created space for pastures and more. Hay and soybeans are grown on site. The McMahons mix their own feed.

“To make this all work,” Joe said, “we had to do it on an economic scale we could afford.”

All five children – John, Mike, Jane, Kate and Tara – assist in some way. Quality is emphasized in every aspect. “If you go beyond the basics of good feed, good grass, good pasture, then you've gone a whole long way toward developing a good horse,” Joe said, adding, “We try to do the basics really well.”

Jane, a farm manager, marvels at how far that philosophy has taken them.

“The older I get, the more I appreciate what they've done,” she said. “They really had no connections in the industry and they really had to put their back into it every single day for 50 years. They didn't just walk in and buy the kind of bloodstock you need to be successful. They didn't have that kind of money.”

Great care was taken in building a 14-person staff. “We're still small enough that our employees are our friends,” Anne said. “If they're not nice people, they're just not here.”

They would prefer a larger crew. Help can be hard to find.

“It certainly is a big issue. People are making money to stay home,” Joe said, referring to substantial ongoing government payments stemming from the pandemic. “We find it very difficult. I don't know anybody in the business who is not complaining about the same thing. We cannot get help.”

McMahon of Saratoga took its cue from famed Claiborne Farm in staying close to nature. “We buy into the fact that they are animals. They need to be happy. They are not going to be happy living in a stall. That is not a natural place for them to be,” Joe said. “They need to be outside as much as they can be.”

He believes the reward for doing that far outweighs the risk.

“You put 10 or 15 yearlings together, they are going to play. They are going to fight. They're going to be tough on each other,” Joe noted. “But that's how they develop. In our opinion, that's what makes them good horses. It works. I can tell you it does.”

John, Anne and Joe McMahon with some of the young horses raised at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds

The farm stands Central Banker, New York's runaway leading sire and a son of crack sprinter Speightstown. Thirty-nine of Central Banker's first 78 runners were winners this year with earnings of more than $2.6 million.

The McMahons' claim to fame will always be that they raised Funny Cide, a son of Distorted Humor. When he was foaled on April 20, 2000, there was nothing then or in his early days to suggest he would become special. Beyond a sturdy frame, he was an unremarkable foal. He brought only $22,000 when he went through Fasig-Tipton's New York Preferred Yearling Sale.

Funny Cide made great strides after he was acquired by Sackatoga Stable, a Saratoga Springs-based partnership that turned him over to well-respected trainer Barclay Tagg.

“When they get as successful as Funny Cide, it's like your kid becoming President,” Joe said. “It's beyond anything you could imagine.”

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Anne and Joe watched in disbelief as the gelded Funny Cide pulled a surprise in the Kentucky Derby and added the Preakness. Those thrilling moments never fade.

“When you have a horse run in a big race like that and he wins it, there is nothing like it,” Joe said. “I wish for every breeder that they would have a good horse because there is nothing like it.”

And it all started with Christmas trees.

Tom Pedulla wrote for USA Today from 1995-2012 and has been a contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Blood-Horse, America's Best Racing and other publications.

If you wish to suggest someone as a potential subject for In Their Care, please send an email to info@paulickreport.com that includes the person's name and contact information in addition to a brief description of the individual's background.

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NYTB Awards To Honor Generazios, Ellen Bongard, Jeffrey Cannizzo

The New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. (NYTB) is pleased to announce Thoroughbred breeders and owners Patricia Generazio and her late husband Frank Generazio, in addition to the recently deceased Ellen Bongard, will each receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in the New York-bred program.

Former NYTB executive director Jeffrey Cannizzo will also receive a special award for his exemplary service.

The honorees will be recognized at the NYTB's Annual Awards event, held in a special virtual format on Monday, April 5 at NYTBAwards.com. The 2020 New York-bred divisional champions and New York-bred Horse of the Year will also be unveiled during the event sponsored by the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund.

“On behalf of our board of directors we are proud to honor each of these noteworthy individuals for their contributions and service to the New York racing and breeding industry,” said NYTB president Tom Gallo. “Each one of them has made significant efforts as owners, breeders and administratively helping to make New York the best and most lucrative state-bred program in the country.”

Patricia Generazio and her husband Frank Generazio, Jr., who passed last November at the age of 91, campaigned a number of homebred multiple graded stakes winners. Mr. Generazio, who owned New England Sand and Gravel company, first got his start in the Thoroughbred industry in his native New England and was a trainer at Rockingham Park and Suffolk Downs before he and his wife built a successful breeding operation that notably made an impact in New York, New Jersey and Florida.

Outstanding New York homebreds campaigned by the Generazios include multiple graded stakes winners Discreet Marq and Disco Partner. Subsequent homebred standouts include multiple graded stakes winner Pure Sensation, Precious Passion, Dowse's Beach and Saratoga Treasure.

“We've always been big supporters of the New York-bred program and will continue to breed in New York year-round,” said Patricia Generazio. “Frank always selected our breedings, and he loved the New York-bred program. I'm very thankful and appreciative to receive this award on behalf of both of us. His loss still hurts and our stable will be reduced substantially, but we already have many Disco Partner babies and we will continue to have a presence in New York.”

Ellen Bongard, who passed away at the age of 77 last December, was a pioneer in the New York Thoroughbred industry and her family owned one of the oldest active breeding farms in the state.

The daughter of the late attorney Bertram F. Bongard, who played a key role in the formation of the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund and New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc., Ellen and her sister Barbara Bongard owned Rojan Farm in Pine Plains, a flagship New York farm and a staple to the New York breeding industry for many years before moving to the Town of Northumberland near Saratoga Springs.

The Bongards stood many successful stallions at their Rojan Farm including Santa Anita Derby winner An Act, Northern Dancer's son Kick, Rare Earth, Back Bay Barrister and many others. Ellen was also credited with the creation of The Bongard Room at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. The room is used for conferences and honors pioneers and legends of the state's breeding industry.

“She would definitely appreciate this,” said Barbara Bongard. “She's certainly done a lot for the New York-bred program. I like to say our father started our family's influential success in the industry and Ellen took the reins and continued on. We're thankful she's receiving this recognition.”

Jeffrey Cannizzo served as executive director of New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. for nearly 13 years before leaving to join the New York Racing Association, Inc. as senior director of government affairs in January. During his tenure, the New York-bred program gained significant exposure, stability and continued development and success. He elevated the position of executive director to one of leadership and national recognition for the New York Thoroughbred breeding program.

“New York's breeding industry has flourished in recent times and I feel very fortunate to have played a small role in that success story,” said Cannizzo. “I'd like to thank the NYTB board of directors for their commitment to those working every single day on the 250 farms throughout New York. The success of the state-bred program comes with the tireless efforts of so many stakeholders. Being able to represent so many wonderful people and speak on their behalf for over a decade is something I will always cherish. The many relationships formed during my time with NYTB will always be important to me. The New York-bred program will always hold a special place.”

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New York Breeding Fund Adopts Mare Residency Rule Changes

In a public meeting subject to the Open Meetings Law, the Board of Directors of the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund on Oct. 29, 2020 adopted new rules concerning the residency requirements for dams of New York-bred foals, including certain mares that were purchased at public auction on or after Nov. 1, 2019.

It is anticipated that these new rules will become final upon publication in the State Register of New York on or about Nov. 18, 2020, and shall have retroactive effect with regard to eligible mares purchased at public auction sales occurring on or after November 1, 2019.

The new rules establish definitions for resident mares and non-resident mares and set forth program eligibility requirements for their foals. Under the new rules, a resident mare would be a mare that is continuously in residence in New York State from date of conception in New York State or within 120 days after her last cover in the year of conception occurring outside of New York State and that remains in the state until foaling the following year, with no breed-back required. Mares that maintain their New York State resident status can be covered each season by a stallion located anywhere in the world.

A non-resident mare would be a mare that does not qualify as a resident mare. However, under the new rules, a non-resident mare that is purchased in foal through public auction will be deemed to be a resident mare for all purposes if all of the following conditions are satisfied: (1) the mare is purchased for at least $50,000 in the public auction, (2) the mare is present in New York State within 15 days after the sale is concluded, (3) the foal from public auction mare is foaled in New York State and (4) the mare thereafter is continuously in residence in New York State from within 120 days after her last cover in the year of conception of another foal and remains in residency until foaling.

Breeding Fund chairman John Poklemba noted, “These changes will bring the New York Thoroughbred Breeding Program more in line with other states by removing perceived barriers to mares locating here. Also, by allowing high-priced mares to establish residency by moving to New York after they are purchased at auction, we expect to see even more quality New York-breds following in the hoofprints of Grade 1 winners such as Tiz the Law and Simply Ravishing.”

Breeding Fund executive director Tracy Egan said, “The Board can review the threshold price annually at its summer meeting and adjust it up or down as needed to recruit quality mares.”

There is an incentive to purchase New York-sired New York-breds pegged to these rule changes. One year after adoption, the Fund and NYRA will begin providing up to $650,000 per year in purse bonuses to owners. The bonus will be $5,000 every time a New York-sired New York-bred wins at the maiden special weight or allowance level at NYRA's tracks.

While the measure adopted by the Breeding Fund's board states that it starts in November of 2019, in practice the new rules would become effective starting with the mixed sales in November 2020 and the foal and breeding seasons of 2021.

For a complete description of these newly adopted rules, click here.

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Q&A: Jeffrey Cannizzo Of New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. On Proposed Changes To State’s Breeding Program

The landscape of breeding in New York is going to look very different by 2030, and a set of proposed modifications to the state's breeding program spearheaded by New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. aim to make sure it's a positive shift.

In late August, the rule changes hit the public comment period with the goal of expanding the number and quality of broodmares entering the state, while also rewarding owners and breeders who support New York sires. Breeding farms producing nearly 20 percent of the state's foal crop are being run by people approaching retirement, so the need to refresh the broodmare population and maintain a foal crop large enough for NYRA tracks to continue carding 600 state-bred races per year was imperative.

The proposal would create an exemption to the rule requiring incoming pregnant mares to breed back to a New York stallion in order to earn “resident” status so long as they were purchased for $50,000 or more at auction, or a threshold determined by the New York Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund. Mares purchased under the threshold will still be subject to the “breed back” rule to attain residency, as they had before.

The revisions would also extend the time a mare can be out of the state to be bred from 90 days to 120 days. Another significant change would create a $5,000 purse bonus for New York-sired runners who break their maiden in-state. If all runs on-schedule, the new rules could be in place in time for the November mixed sales.

Paulick Report bloodstock editor Joe Nevills spoke with NYTB executive director Jeffrey Cannizzo about the proposed rule changes, the reasoning behind them, and how they'll help the New York-bred program.

Question: What were some of the motivating factors behind the proposed rule changes?

Jeffrey Cannizzo: The demographics of the people that are breeding and owning farms is dramatically changing, such that people are of the age that they're leaving our industry – not because of their desire or interest, just purely based on where they are in life, and whether they're going to be here long-term from now.

It's quite scary, when five of the leading perennial breeders are of the age where they're not going to be in this industry five to seven years from now, nor is anyone in their families picking up their farms or businesses. It's going to leave a major void. This is exactly the same void that's happening in every state. I'm attempting to be in front of a problem.

Over a year ago, we asked what type of tweak or rule change could we look at that doesn't jeopardize the program, that doesn't dramatically hurt one interest or entity. Realistically, some of the things that other states

are doing might be a good idea, and this is what we came up with. The one hole that we had was that mares from public auction, the influx that would come in to New York, was a marginal number.

In 2019, for example, there were only 98 mares that were bought from auction that actually came into the state of New York. If you went back six years from 2019 to 2014, the average number is right around 100.

So, we're basically bringing in 100 mares a year from bloodstock sales, which is a tiny number. The average price of those mares was $30,000, and there was only 20 of them that were bought for over $50,000. We saw this as an opportunity that if we tweak a rule that everyone would buy into and agree with, perhaps there would be more interest in bringing more mares into the state of New York and dropping foals here, and participating in the program.

Q: The proposal opens “resident mare” status to mares purchased at public auction for $50,000 or more, or a price determined by the New York-Bred Fund, without breeding back. Why is it important to have a minimum purchase price on incoming auction mares for this rule?

Cannizzo: The $50,000 threshold is being put in place if the rule is adopted so we can attract quality mares. New York is not necessarily similar to a lot of the other regional programs. It's become ultra-competitive. It's based on a commercial marketplace, and you have people from all over the country having foals in New York and participating in our commercial market. The point is, we're trying to attract quality. We're not looking to bring $500 mares into the state of New York. We're looking for people to upgrade their stock and for people from outside to participate with quality mares.

At the same time, this was one of the requests from our stallion population, because technically, it protects them to a certain extent. Like many other regional states, the stallion population obviously is a fraction of what Kentucky is, and the sire power isn't necessarily the same, nor will it ever be. So, what we're trying to do here is not devalue any of those stallions, because these mares under the current rules would be forced to be bred to the New York sires.

This is where it goes hand in hand with the commercial mar- ket and this is no different than any state, or the laws of economics for our industry – if you buy a mare of 'X'-value, you're not going to devalue her by breeding to 'Y'-value stallions.

The threshold was created as such so if people are going to participate and use New York sires, they're not going to be devalued in any sense, and if you are going to bring in a mare of significant value, realistically, you're not going to breed her down from what her value or price point was, and you're not going to get hurt under this circumstance.

It's protecting the commercial market and protecting the stallions in the state of New York, and it's the reality of our landscape.

We're looking to take that '20' number [of incoming mares to New York purchased at $50,000 or more] and realistically multiply it by five times or 10 times, based on how successful it goes. The good thing about the rule is if it for some reason doesn't work, the rule allows the Breeding Fund board to modify that initial price every year if they'd like. If the commercial landscape or the stallion industry changes, that level can go down and up.

Q: What was the scope of people who were consulted when forming the proposed rules, and how did the rules evolve throughout the feedback, if at all?

Cannizzo: This started over a year ago. There were several stakeholder meetings with all the stallion interests, key commercial breeders, our board of directors, and people that were elected into their roles by our constituents. NYRA, the horsemen, literally all participants played a part in the discussion dialogue, along with the Breeding Development Fund. It's their rule and their proposal change as well.

What happens now, there's a 60-day public comment period, which started on Aug. 26, and it'll go through the end of October. That period is for anyone in the public to write a written comment to Tracy Egan, the executive director of the Breeding Fund, and those comments will be reviewed after 60 days by the Breeding Development Fund board. The board will either choose to move forward with the rule as-is, or they'll choose to adopt some of the comments if they feel they're necessary and modify the rule if need be.

Q: Realistically, how much could the plan change during the public comment period?

Cannizzo: Given it's taken over a year to get to this point, there was a lot of due diligence involved with this, even the threshold number. There were a lot of analytics involved with it; it wasn't just throwing at a dart board. You had all the participants involved in the state, and a lot of attorneys and a lot of due diligence. Realistically, people could bring up a lot of good points that we're not aware of, but at the end of the day, there was a lot of homework done behind this, so that remains to be seen.

The problem is, if there is a justified comment to change this, it starts the process over again. Don't get me wrong, it'll be a dramatically shorter process, but we'll have to rewrite the rule, it'll have to go back to the governor's legal review team, and then they've got to give us the go-ahead to re-publish it, and then there's another public comment period based on that. We've got a long-term approach to this, so we want to get it right, which is why you have a process like this where anybody from the public can comment.

Q: What are the benefits of extending the time a mare can leave New York to be bred from 90 days to 120 days?

Cannizzo: The thought is that because there are so many people partaking in breeding and conceiving the foals in Kentucky for example, those foals are being forced to ship from a younger age. The thought process in having the extra month is it's going to be better for the mares and better for the foals.

It's just the reality of our landscape, versus when the first rule was done 40 years ago, and in the '90s when it was modified.

The landscape has dramatically changed, and you have people that are participating in our program who want their foals at their farm, so they have to come back to New York. It's basically allowing people to utilize the program a little more from a flexibility standpoint, and realistically, from what we've been told from a veterinary component, it could be better for the horses themselves.

Q: How would funds be distributed under the proposed bonus for state-sired maiden winners?

Cannizzo: This was an idea for another carrot for the stallion industry and people that are supportive of New York- sired horses. This rule was important to NYRA. They're looking to increase our foal crops as much as we are, so they were willing to offer up $5,000 to winners in maiden special weight races if you're New York-sired. So, New York-sired horses in open or state-bred competition, the winner's share will be $5,000 more.

The trickle-down effect reaches the breeders, too, because if you're the breeder of a New York-sired horse and you're getting a 30-percent bonus for a win, now you're getting 30 percent of $5,000 more in purse money, too. It's the same deal for stallion awards. The 10-percent bonus for stallion awards will based on $5,000 more money.

The point is, because it's being paid through the purse structure, it's actually touching all the participants in that horse – the breeder, stallion, owner, and so on.

Q: Are you concerned that lifting the “breed-back” rule for non-resident mares purchased for over $50,000 might take some control away from the state's stallion owners, since they'll have a less captive pool to draw from than before?

Cannizzo: This is based on data and analytics. There were 20 mares that would fall under this category today, and of those mares, they were bought by stallion owners, anyway. So, the truth of the matter is that those mares weren't going to New York stallions right now, from the bigger picture of this. What's happening is the mares that are go- ing to be over this threshold that come in, it's all new-found mares and participants in the program. They're not necessarily being hurt because it's not happening today.

At the same time, the view is if we're increasing the mare population in New York state, those stallions have a better chance of actually acquiring or breeding to some of them down the road, too. If we're not increasing the mare population, they won't have a shot to begin with, so that's another factor to this.

At the end of the day, the stallion owners; the majority of them have farms, and those handful of farms control a large percentage of the mare population themselves, so they're participating in this as well.

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