sales | Horse Racing Free Tips

The TDN has partnered with Amplify Horse Racing to present “The Next Generation,” an ongoing video series featuring young people who were not born into the Thoroughbred business, but are now excelling within the industry.

Growing up next to Laurel Park, 24-year-old Shayna Tiller always felt a strong attraction to horse racing. But it wasn’t until she was in college that she decided to pursue a career in the industry.

On a whim, she applied for an internship with the Saratoga Special. After spending one summer at the Spa, she was hooked for life. Over the past four years, Shayna has been on a whirlwind tour of the industry- doing everything from foaling out mares, chasing down a story on the Saratoga backstretch, working as an exercise rider, and interning for Fasig-Tipton.

Last year, she graduated from the Irish National Stud course. She now works as the Director of Sales for Mill Ridge Farm, and also shares her passion for promoting the stories of the people behind the sport through the ‘Riders Up’ Podcast she created with roommate Autry Graham.

KR: How did you get involved in horse racing?

ST: I’m originally from Laurel, Maryland and I grew up 10 minutes from the racetrack there. My mom and sister are deathly allergic to horses, ironically, so no one in my family was really into it. But my parents are from Bowie, Maryland and my dad always liked to go to the track and he took me with him a couple times. I did one Pony Pal ride there, and I was sold for life.

So I rode horses growing up, and I did a school project in high school on Lasix in horse racing and I interned with some of the state vets there at Laurel and Pimlico. I learned all about it and was kind of hooked from that point.

When I was in college at the University of Maryland, we had to apply for a fake internship as part of the general education requirements. I found an ad for the Saratoga Special, and just decided to apply. So I shipped up to Saratoga, didn’t even know what a blacktype race was, and I was interviewing Todd Pletcher the next day.

They put us up in a barn apartment above the McMahon’s Farm. Ann McMahon drives a car with a license plate that says ‘Funny Cide One’ on it. They raised Funny Cide and he was my favorite horse growing up. So I thought, “Well, I want to come back and learn more.” So I spent my winters with them, and any break I had from college, I was there.

I transferred my last year of college to a smaller agricultural school in Pennsylvania to get more hands-on experience. I galloped in the mornings and interned with the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation when it was in its beginning stages. Then I was with Fasig-Tipton for a while before going to Ireland for the Irish National Stud Program last year.

So I guess as a new person in the industry who knew that I knew nothing, I wanted to get a full perspective on the industry and I was just eating it up. I think that’s what’s so cool, is that people in this industry really allow you to do anything you’re interested in.

KR: What was it that drew you to this industry?

ST: I think that it’s all rooted in a love for the horse. I went to college to be a vet, but when I was going through it, I realized I didn’t really want to do that. When you grow up as a little horse girl you think you’re either going to be a barn manager or maybe manage a tack shop or be a vet. So when I found horse racing, I just saw that you can actually go and make a career for yourself and work in a dynamic industry, and that’s what drew me in.

Being in Saratoga, it’s the most inspiring place you can be, really. I was around the top horses in the country and the top trainers- the people you see on TV. I wanted more and more of it, and it snowballed from there.

KR: What is your favorite part about this business?

ST: I really love the sales. I think what’s so cool about them is you sell horses at different stages of life and you’re trying to find where they’re going to peak. It’s also a bit of a matchmaking project with each horse, so it’s really neat seeing them grow, especially the foals to yearlings and the yearlings to 2-year-olds. You’re trying to find the perfect match of who’s going to purchase them and then you get to see them go on and win races and become big bad race horses that you’ve seen since they were babies. There’s really nothing like it.

KR: Tell us about what you do now.

ST: I’m the Director of Sales at Mill Ridge Farm. Mill Ridge was founded by Alice Chandler in 1962, which is really special for me, being a woman in the industry as well. She was just inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. So it’s kind of cool to be a female working here and carry on her legacy.

In my position, I oversee all of the sales operations, so that consists of recruiting, seeing the horses prep and placing them in sales, and then working in marketing to make sure they reach the right buyers and communicating with clients to help them succeed. I get to do a lot of different things, which is what’s so fun. No day is the same, and obviously going to the sales is a whole other job when I do that.

Another fun thing I do with my roommate Autry Graham is we started a podcast called Riders Up. We’re two young girls in racing and we like to have conversations with different people on the podcast and talk about their lives. It’s not your stereotypical handicapping podcast. You don’t want our picks. We tell the stories behind the business, and it’s really fun. You can find us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and we have an Instagram that we interact with a lot too.

KR: What are your career goals?

ST: I’ve always wanted to have my own consignment, so that’s something that I’m getting a little taste of here at Mill Ridge. I’m hoping in the next 10-plus years, I’ll be able to do that on my own.

KR: If you could change one thing about this industry, what would it be?

ST: I think if I could change one thing, it would be how we interact with the public. I come from a family that knows nothing about horse racing, so every time we have our newest public scandal or whatever the situation may be, I hear it from the public’s standpoint, rather than our standpoint as an industry. I think it’s so important for us to educate the public and tell them what’s really going on and be more transparent, because the more transparent you are, the less you have to lose.

I also think we need to work to appeal to the public. My friends all used to go to the Preakness and they wouldn’t even watch a horse race during the day, but they all got hooked on it from there, and it made them want to go back for more. It was more like a sporting event for them than a serious gambling experience. So I think we need to improve our engagement with the public.

KR: What was it like being a total newcomer in the sport?

ST: I was definitely very intimidated when I first started in racing. It just seems completely isolated and you don’t really know how you’re going to break that barrier. I got into it pretty late. I was in college when I first started, and I was around people who have grown up in it their whole lives and knew all these things that I didn’t even know were possible.

I’ve found though, in racing, how much people do embrace you once you actually get into it and show you want to learn. I have had so many great people who have helped me along the way. It’s kind of incredible. I don’t know why they’ve done so much for me. So I think that was the initial struggle, but now I just feel really lucky to be a part of it, and it’s amazing how much people help you.

The post The Next Generation with Shayna Tiller appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Jill Stowe, PhD, associate professor in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment's Department of Agricultural Economics, presented at the UK Ag Equine Programs' monthly Equine Forum virtual meeting June 24 about the impact COVID-19 is having on equine markets.

She began by giving attendees a definition of a recession, which is a period in the business cycle where economic activity declines (often measured by declines in growth in Gross Domestic Product, or GDP). In the U.S., a recession is often defined by two consecutive quarters of declines in GDP.

According to Stowe, a recession results in an increase in unemployment, decrease in income, decrease in consumer spending, rising business failures and a falling stock market. Recessions have many different sources, including bursting of financial bubbles, credit crunches and, as we are experiencing, pandemics. These contractions are a normal part of the business cycle (there have been five recessions in the past 40 years as a reference), but they are normally short-lived; since the Great Depression, the longest recession lasted 18 months, from December 2007 through June 2009.

Stowe said that an “official” U.S. recession (characterized to two consecutive quarters of GDP declines) is likely if the coronavirus pandemic lasts longer than expected, but acknowledged that significant economic hardships are already being realized. For instance, in Kentucky (as of June 4), nearly 886,000 people had filed for unemployment, which is approximately 43 percent of Kentucky's eligible workforce.

Governments attempt to counteract economic contractions by getting people spending (consumer spending constitutes 70 percent of GDP) through lower interest rates and fiscal stimulus packages. Since interest rates are already near historic lows, for the current crisis, the government is relying on stimulus checks to encourage consumer spending.

She also noted that there are two types of “normal” economic goods, necessity and luxury. A normal good is one which experiences increasing demand when income rises. The rate of demand increase determines whether the normal good is a necessity or luxury good. When income increases, demand for luxury goods increases at an increasing rate; however, when income decreases (like during a recession), demand declines at an increasing rate. Consequently, industries involving luxury goods are more volatile than necessity goods. Relevant to the discussion at hand, she noted that from an economic perspective, horses are considered luxury goods.

Moreover, the equine industry is one of Kentucky's signature industries and constitutes one of the most important sectors in Kentucky's agricultural economy. In fact, the equine industry has been characterized as an economic cluster in Central Kentucky, which describes a network of geographically connected organizations and institutions.

Taken together, it is likely that Kentucky's equine industry will be hit harder than most by contractions in the economy. First, in an economic sense, equine markets act like markets for luxury goods and hence are more volatile. Second, due to the equine industry's organization as an economic cluster and its prominence in Kentucky's agricultural industry, the overall impact on Kentucky's economy is magnified and far-reaching.

Stowe considered it instructive to summarize lessons learned from the last recession in 2008-2009 in order to predict how equine markets might react to the current economic climate. Stowe said that nationwide, effects on equine markets included a decline in the number of mares bred and foals produced, a decline in organization memberships, a drop in sales prices and sales revenue, a small decline in competitions and increased animal welfare issues.

The immediate effects of the COVID-19 shutdown have been felt primarily by competitions and sales, and perhaps to a lesser extent boarding and training operations. The shutdown resulted in the cancellation or postponement of local, regional, national and international equine events, including the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games and cancelation of more than 2,900 FEI competitions in the three-month span following implementation of COVID-19 restrictions. Losing these competitions has a number of negative consequences, including loss of regional economic development, lost income for individuals and lost revenue for organizations.

The shutdown has also resulted in “clogged” pipelines in the equine market as sales were canceled, postponed, or significantly decreased, she said. Getting the pipeline moving will be a key to recovery and noted that watching the first sales resuming in late June might provide an indication of what is to come for sales later this fall.

Boarding and training operations across the world have been faced with a variety of restrictions. In some areas, riding was prohibited and barns were closed to all but essential employees. Many equine professionals were, for a time, were unable to give lessons, clinics and coach at competitions.

At the onset of the COVID-19 restrictions, equine veterinary clinics delayed elective procedures for a time. As restrictions were gradually lifted and with human protections still in place, they are now able to operating close to normal. Hay and feed markets, which are actually more sensitive to weather variations, seem to be unaffected, but should labor shortages arise, availability issues and/or price increases may ensue.

According to Stowe, the long run outlook will depend on a number of factors. The longer the economic restrictions last, the larger the impact will be. In addition, whether the recovery follows a V-shape (quick recovery), a U-shape (a prolonged recovery), an L-shape (no recovery), or something in between. Going forward, unemployment, GDP and disposable income will all be important metrics for recovery in the equine industry.

Stowe and colleague Bob Coleman, PhD, PAS, Dip. ACAN, associate professor and equine extension specialist in UK's Department of Animal and Food Sciences, are launching a research project estimating the impacts from COVID-19 in Kentucky, specifically focusing on breeding, sales, competitions and boarding and training facilities. They will be distributing a series of surveys beginning this fall and expect to be able to share results in 2021.

Tag: sales

The Next Generation with Shayna Tiller

A Look At Equine Markets Amidst COVID-19