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With 140-Mare Cap Of Its Own, Harness Industry Weighs In On Farms Suing Jockey Club

When the United States Trotting Association (USTA), the breed registry for standardbred racing in the U.S., proposed in 2006 limiting the number of mares a stallion could be bred to, Russell Williams, who then was a member of the USTA Board, prepared for an impending storm. He knew some breeders would be unhappy and there would likely be lawsuits looking to overturn the rule. But Williams, who is also an attorney, never wavered, confident that, in the end, the legal system would side with the USTA.

He was right. The USTA's plan to limit a stallion's book to 140 mares went into effect with sires debuting in 2009 or later. Williams, now the president of the USTA, said that legal efforts to overturn the new rule “went nowhere.”

With that in mind, Williams said he believes The Jockey Club will come out on the winning end of a dispute that now looks like it is headed to court. On Tuesday, it was announced that Spendthrift Farm, Three Chimneys Farm and Ashford Stud have brought suit against The Jockey Club over its attempt to limit the books of any stallion born in 2020 or later. The Jockey Club is also seeking to cap the number of mares a stallion can be bred to at 140. The litigants have said that The Jockey Club's decision is a “blatant abuse of power.”

“My advice to The Jockey Club would be to stay the course and do what is in the best interests of the breed,” Williams said. “I think that when it's all said and done, they will be fine.”

Williams is also the president of Hanover Shoe Farms, by far the leading breeder in the sport of harness racing. Hanover had more to lose under the new rule than any other entity for the support, but Williams was among those leading the call for change. At the time, a handful of stallions were dominating the breeding industry and Williams was among those who felt the lack of diversity in the gene pool was affecting the overall health of the breed.

“We had to put the best interests of the breed ahead of the temporary financial interests of Hanover,” he said. “We've been here for 95 years and I'd like for us to be here for another 95 years.”

Not everyone saw it that way. Williams said antitrust lawsuits were filed alleging restraint of trade by the USTA and that he was among those deposed. He said that once the depositions began, it became clear that the plaintiffs had no case against the USTA, and the lawsuits were dropped. This came after the USTA consulted with lawyers who told Williams and others that the new regulations did not violate any antitrust laws.

Williams says that the USTA's position then was that the stallion cap was not done for commercial reasons but rather for scientific reasons that would benefit the industry. Under that premise, Williams said, the courts had no basis for striking down limits on breeding.

The 140-mare cap in harness racing came after the USTA commissioned a study by Dr. Gus Cothran of the University of Kentucky. Cothran concluded that the standardbred gene pool was becoming less diverse, and that the breed would suffer in the future because of that lack of diversity.

Alan Leavitt, the president of Walnut Hall Ltd., a standardbred breeding operation in Lexington, said that Cothran's study went a long way toward proving the USTA's point, that the science made it clear that the breed would continue to be negatively impacted if some limits to the book sizes were not implemented. The Jockey Club has never circulated a similar study, which, Leavitt said, could be a major factor in how the case proceeds.

“The Jockey Club is totally vulnerable and the USTA wasn't,” Leavitt said. “The USTA relied on an analysis that was made of the American trotter. The study demonstrated that the American trotter had lost 17% of its heterozygosity, which is the variability factor. A loss to that extent first manifests in the infertility or lower infertility in stallions. You could see it at that time. Our trotting sires were less fertile than they had been and it was on that basis that the USTA imposed the 140 limit.”

Leavitt said that the absence of such a study in Thoroughbreds will have a bearing on how the suit lodged by the Thoroughbred farms proceeds. The plaintiffs in the Thoroughbred case contend that the stallion cap “serves no legitimate purpose and has no scientific basis.”

“I would think that Spendthrift and those other two farms are going to tear The Jockey Club to pieces if they come after them with the right arguments,” he said.

Since the new rules went into effect in standardbred racing, the controversy has died down and the 140 number has gained widespread acceptance.

“I think The Jockey Club is doing the right thing,” said Myron Bell, a standardbred owner and bloodstock advisor. “This will give more stallions a chance. Too much of a good thing is no good. I think the Thoroughbreds were overdue in doing this. I know that the three farms who have sued have many stallions, but I think less is better. It will be interesting to see what happens with this lawsuit.”

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Laminitis Claims Young Sire Fast Anna At Age 10

Fast Anna, a Grade 1-placed runner and young sire, was euthanized Monday due to complications from laminitis.

Tom Hamm, director of nominations and sales at Three Chimneys, said the 10-year-old son of Medaglia d'Oro had been struggling with the disease for a month.

Fast Anna has sired three crops of racing age, with 45 winners and combined progeny earnings of more than $2.6 million. He has sired six stakes winners, led by Been Studying Her, a two-time stakes winner in California who has earned $305,602.

During his own on-track career, Fast Anna won three of nine starts and earned $296,731. He won the Sawgrass Handicap on turf, while on dirt, he finished second in the Grade 1 King's Bishop Stakes and G3 Gallant Bob Stakes.

Bred in Kentucky by Frank Calabrese, Fast Anna is out of the champion Rahy mare Dreaming of Anna. He hailed from the family of champion and leading sire Kitten's Joy, and graded stakes winners Precious Kitten, Lewis Michael, and Justenuffhumor.

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Selected Virginia Stallion Season Auction Offerings To Benefit Kentucky HHR Lobbying Efforts

The developing situation regarding the status of historical horse racing (HHR) in Kentucky has created an “all hands on deck” scenario within the state's racing industry to ensure the crucial revenue source remains in place.

That call has been heard outside the state as well. The Virginia Thoroughbred Association will feature a group of offerings during its upcoming stallion season auction where the full proceeds will benefit the Kentucky Equine Education Project's lobbying efforts toward restoring HHR in the state and putting it on firmer legal ground.

The auction, set to take place Wednesday, Feb. 10, features four seasons donated thus far by Kentucky stallion operations where the money will go toward the KEEP Alliance, a branch of KEEP specifically dedicated to lobbying, grassroots campaigns, and otherwise raising awareness among key people and groups about the importance of HHR in Kentucky.

As of Friday morning, the seasons benefitting the KEEP Alliance come from Airdrie Stud's Complexity, Spendthrift Farm's Goldencents, Gun Runner of Three Chimneys, and Not This Time of Taylor Made Stallions. Farms are welcome to donate further seasons to benefit the KEEP Alliance prior to the auction.

VTA executive director Debbie Easter said the seasons were added to the auction in recent weeks, helping push the total number of different stallions on offer near 220 from 11 different states.

“Obviously, it's a good cause,” Easter said. “Everybody gets too regionalized sometimes, and it's important for us to work together to help each other. This is an important thing for Kentucky, and helping keeping things going along is important. Horse people working together always do better than working apart, so we're trying to move the needle a little bit.”

Virginia's Thoroughbred economy is familiar with the benefits HHR can have on a program.

Gov. Ralph Northam signed an HHR bill into law in 2018, which set into motion the re-opening of Colonial Downs and significant funding sources to fuel purses and incentive programs on and off the racetrack. The Virginia-Certified program paid out a record $1.77 million in awards in 2020, and Easter said HHR revenues have just started to kick into that pool, leaving even more room for growth in the future.

“We certainly know how important HHR is going to be to us,” Easter said, “and we've certainly seen what it's done for Kentucky, and they can't afford to lose that.”

While Virginia has been able to show positive growth with the help of HHR, it's widely accepted that Kentucky's Thoroughbred market is the tide that lifts and sinks the other regional-market boats in North America.

Even the largest foal-producing jurisdictions outside of the Bluegrass State are supported heavily by Kentucky stallions, and its starting gates are filled by Kentucky-breds. A weakened Kentucky racing industry would have ripple effects on the state's breeding program, and the rest of North America would feel the aftershock whether they race or breed in the state or not.

“Debbie was very enthusiastic about helping us,” said Elizabeth Jensen, KEEP's executive vice president. “I think everybody realizes as goes Kentucky, so goes the rest of the country's racing industry, so we need to keep it strong and vibrant here. We're happy that our counterparts in Virginia are willing to help us out and support us.”

Beyond the season donations, Jensen said Kentucky's major stallion operations have supportive of the advocacy measures to preserve HHR in the state. She noted that farms including Ashford Stud and WinStar Farm have made cash donations, and many stallion stations have sent out emails to their client lists urging them to take action.

“Preserving historical horse racing has to be the entire industry in Kentucky's priority right now,” Jensen said. “If we lose that, we lose 1,400 jobs overnight, and losing those purses and the horses that we're getting at Ellis Park and Kentucky Downs during summer racing, and just the whole racing circuit in Kentucky will be severely impacted if we don't get this done.”

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Constitution, Palace Malice See Biggest Year-To-Year Gains In Mares Bred In 2020

A sizable chunk of the stallion market is built on momentum. A stallion that gets hot at the right time can fill his books with mares for years to come, while one that gets cold could take just as many years to rebuild their base of breeders, if they ever do.

Building from that framework, it makes sense that the two stallions who saw the biggest year-to-year gains in mares bred from 2019 to 2020 were ones that went into last autumn with some of the nation's top 2-year-olds, and carried that momentum into this spring as the breeding sheds opened and commitments were made.

WinStar Farm's Constitution and Three Chimneys' Palace Malice, each coming off electric freshman seasons in 2019, were the two North American stallions who saw year-to-year increases of more than 100 mares bred, among those who covered at least one mare in each season.

Constitution's book saw a 146-mare shift in 2020, growing from 85 mares in 2019 to 231 last year, making the son of Tapit the fifth most active stallion in North America.

It's easy and correct to trace Constitution's rapid ascent with the trajectory of his best son, Tiz the Law.

The New York-bred quickly established himself as one of the best in his crop as a juvenile with a win in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes and a third in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. He then became the presumptive favorite for the Kentucky Derby, prior to its rescheduling due to COVID-19, over the spring with convincing wins in the G3 Holy Bull Stakes and G1 Florida Derby.

However, Tiz the Law was hardly a fluke for Constitution. He finished 2019 as North America's leading freshman sire by winners and graded stakes winners, and he was second by earnings.

“He had a tremendous start to his career, not only in quality, but in the depth of his runners,” said Liam O'Rourke of WinStar Farm. “It seemed like every weekend, we'd see a new brilliant Constitution run through the latter half of 2019. You combine that early success with looking at him as an individual – the pedigree he has, the race record he has, and he's a spectacular physical – all the ingredients were there, and the final piece was these horses performing so well on the racetrack.

“The breeders who put up the stud fees and trust in us and our product; it's a very hard road, and when you have a stallion that works out the way he has, it's rewarding to everyone that's involved,” he continued. “We're just thrilled for everybody who believed in the horse, to share the success with them.”

A top-shelf freshman season carried into the early Triple Crown trail, where Constitution not only had Tiz the Law making noise, he had significant Kentucky Derby qualifying point-earners in Jerome Stakes winner Independence Hall and Gouverneur Morris, who finished second in the G1 Arkansas Derby. Staying in the headlines with that kind of depth can help keep a stallion's book full until the breeding shed closes.

“The spring was a continuation of what we saw early on,” O'Rourke said. “It validated what we had seen in late 2019, and it's pushed him even further into early requests for 2021.”

Palace Malice covered 116 more mares in 2020 than he did the previous year, benefitting from a formula similar to Constitution's.

The son of Curlin earned his high-level bona fides as a freshman sire with the undefeated Structor, who broke his maiden at Saratoga, then took the G3 Pilgrim Stakes before winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita. The baton was then handed to Mr. Monomoy during the spring campaign, when the half-brother to champion Monomoy Girl won the G2 Risen Star Stakes.

Palace Malice was third among North America's freshman sires by earnings in 2019, and Structor's $709,500 made him the highest-earning runner by a freshman sire last year.

Tom Hamm of Three Chimneys said Palace Malice's high-level success as a sire of runners over both dirt and turf opened up the stallion's options in terms of what types of broodmares might match well with him. That kind of versatility can bring in numbers.

“We're very pleased with how well he's been received,” Hamm said. “We believe in the horse. He has a great book of mares out there that he bred this year, so it's only going to get better.”

Both Constitution and Palace Malice saw their jumps in their fifth books of mares, immediately in the aftermath of their first 2-year-olds completing their seasons. This was a common refrain amongst those seeing the biggest gains in mares bred, with half of the top 10 being in their fifth books of mares.

Joining them in the top 10 were Khozan (75 more mares in 2020), Tapiture (72 mares), and Tonalist (59 mares).

Especially in the commercial marketplace, breeder activity has become increasingly polarized toward first-year stallions and proven commodities. This puts extreme pressure on young stallions to roll out winners and expensive auction horses as early as they can during their freshman seasons, and preferably sustain them into the following spring, or risk facing a slower climb as breeders gravitate toward shinier prospects.

“If you have good winners at two, they're loving you, and if you don't have something by September or October, they're looking for a reason to go elsewhere,” Hamm said. “At the end of the day, the sales are important for their first three years until they get runners. Then, once the runners get on the track, it's just a matter of them performing.”

However, there were some stallions that took a slightly longer path to a bigger book in 2020.

Clubhouse Ride, who stands at Legacy Ranch in California, saw his book explode from 16 mares in 2019 to 97 this year. Ranch manager Terry Knight said it was a matter of his foals getting hot at the right time after an extended cold streak.

The son of Candy Ride went winless from six runners during his freshman season. The tables turned last year, though, and he finished the season as California's leading second-crop sire and overall juvenile sire. He was led by Warren's Showtime, who was a stakes winner during her 2-year-old campaign, then started the 2020 season with a pair of high-profile stakes wins at Santa Anita Park. Club Aspen bested Golden State Series rivals to take the King Glorious Stakes during December of his juvenile season, as well.

Once California's breeders figured out that the Clubhouse Rides were late-maturing, but would often be standouts once they're dialed in, Knight said the phone started ringing.

“People piggyback on success, and he had a couple runners that kind of got him jump-started,” Knight said. “They won a couple stakes, and then other horses started running in the fall. That's when they started to get on to him. His 2-year-olds develop a little late, but by October, some of those horses started running as they progressed in distances and changed surfaces. I think the timing of everything just came along at once, and they followed the success of that group of horses that was running.”

The list of stallions that see significant bumps in mares bred often features a healthy number of horses that recently moved to new surroundings. A stallion that slipped through the cracks in Kentucky could be a much bigger fish in a regional market, and that was the case with the likes of Flat Out and Itsmyluckyday, who each saw bumps of 30 mares or more after moving from Kentucky to regional markets.

Clubhouse Ride was also standing at a new farm in 2020, having relocated within California to Legacy Ranch from Harris Farms. However, Knight said the change in mares had little to do with the new scenery and everything to do with the stallion's performance.

“It's certainly nothing we're going to be able to do that the other farm didn't do,” he said. “It's timing. The results on the racetrack are either going to sell the horse or be the failure of the horse.”

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