Watercress Farm | Horse Racing Free Tips

Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Watercress Farm

The TDN's popular annual series 'Mating Plans, presented by Spendthrift,' continues today in a conversation with Rob Tribbett, General Manager of Fred Hertrich's Watercress Farm.

Comic City (8, City Zip–Comic Marvel, by Distorted Humor) will be bred to Olympiad.

Comic City is a City Zip mare from a top Juddmonte family. Olympiad is the total package. He is a beautiful horse by a top sire, he was a Saratoga 2-year-old old winner himself over some fantastic horses, then showed the ability to consistently dominant at the top levels at four.

Dance Awhile (6, Curlin–Dance Quietly, by A.P. Indy) will be bred to Not this Time.

This is a young Curlin mare from a terrific family. Not This Time is off to an amazing start at stud, the team at Taylor Made has done a great job getting him mares, and his performance is incredible. He is an ideal sire for a young mare that we have high hopes for.

Delightof the Nile (5, Pioneerof the Nile–Delightfully, by Indian Charlie) will be bred to Liam's Map.

This is a filly we bred and recently bought back. She is a beautiful filly out of a favorite mare of ours. Sometimes matings don't have to be too hard. She is a half-sister to the very talented Dr Ardito that we bred, a New York stakes winner and graded-placed son of Liam's Map. We have had great success with Liam's Map, breeding Grade I winner Juju's Map, and we love him to get a mare started.

Desert Tempest (4, American Pharoah–Stormy B, by Cherokee Run) will be bred to Twirling Candy.

Another new mare to the fold, this is a young American Pharoah who displayed some ability on the track. We have been very fortunate with Twirling Candy, breeding a pair of Grade I winners by him. She is from a family that has shown the ability to consistently get stakes horses, and Twirling Candy is the best sire in Kentucky to get your mare going.

Giant Win (13, Giant's Causeway–Win's Fair Lady, by Dehere) will be bred to Good Magic.

Giant Win is the dam of Grade I winner Pinehurst, by one of our favorite broodmare sires, Giant's Causeway. Good Magic is a sire we have been a supporter of since the beginning. We love the speed and determination that his foals exhibit. They always show up and love their job. This is a great type-to-type mating that hopefully produces another Grade I-winning 2-year-old.

Laughing Matters (9, Medaglia d'Oro–Hearty Laugh, by Distorted Humor) will be bred to Mage.

Another homebred mare, she is the dam of the super impressive Saratoga MSW winner last year Sugar Hi, and then sold a More Than Ready colt for $310,000 last September. Mage's performance in the spring of his 3-year-old year was super impressive, he was willing to fight every fight and not back down. When I went to see him, I was blown away. We really love his sire and Mage is a great version of his father.

More Respect (14, More Than Ready–Search and Seizure, by War Chant) will be bred to Constitution.

She is the dam of multiple graded-placed High Opinion from one of our favorite families. We have been involved with Constitution since he went to stud and have so much respect for what he has accomplished. He has demonstrated what great stallions do–improve their mares and sire winners at various distances and surfaces.

Nagambie (11, Flatter–Charming N Lovable, by Horse Chestnut {SAf}) will be bred to Uncle Mo.

The dam of Juju's Map visits Uncle Mo this year. He keeps producing at the top level and we are excited for a colt or filly from her by Uncle Mo. She sold a really impressive Not This Time last year and has a Gun Runner we are really excited about for 2024.

Tulira's Star (12, Congrats–Tulira, by General Assembly) will be bred to Forte.

Tulira's Star is a graded-stakes placed filly in Saratoga, and has already produced the good Mullikin, a son of Violence. We are excited about breeding to Forte, his 2- and 3-year-old form was very impressive and he is a great individual.

Zero to Sixty (7, American Pharoah–Cat Moves, by Tale of the Cat) will be bred to McKinzie.

Zero to Sixty is a young mare for us, she was a super impressive Saratoga first-time out winner herself, going short on the turf, and she is out of the sprint Grade I-winning Cat Moves. We are breeding her to McKinzie, who is a sire we were in love with from the beginning. Similar to the mare, he is out of a top-class speed mare himself, as his dam won the Alicibiades. Everything we are hearing from Ocala gives us a lot of confidence in the horse.

The post Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Watercress Farm appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

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.

The post Another Year, Another Declining Foal Crop; Experts Chime In appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Mating Plans: Hertrich Seeking the Long Game in a Risky Game

Fred Hertrich III, along with partners John Fielding and Rob Tribbett, celebrated an exceptional year after their breeding program produced six Grade I winners in 2021: Americanrevolution (Constitution), Beyond Brilliant (Twirling Candy), Hit The Road (More Than Ready), Juju's Map (Liam's Map), Maxim Rate (Exchange Rate) and Pinehurst (Twirling Candy).

Such an achievement has led to many asking Hertrich the warranted question, 'What's your secret?'

He doesn't have one good answer other than this: “There's no magic to it, but there is a secret sauce and that sauce is luck,” he said. “Think of all the people involved in getting a horse to the winner's circle for a Grade I. One day we counted it up and guessed that 60 different individuals were involved in the process from when the mare was bred and when she foaled through when the foal went through the sale, and then the foal can take varied paths based on where it's broken, who trains it and of course the jockey. All you have to have is one glitch in that entire process and that horse may never even get to the track.”

Hertrich said he enjoys the in-depth strategic project that comes with drawing up mating plans for his commercial breeding operation each year. With over 100 mares visiting the breeding shed this year, the process is far from a one-day task.

Before breeding season begins each year, Hertrich will sit down with a panel that includes partner John Fielding, partner/advisor Rob Tribbett and Shane Doyle, the farm manager for Hertrich's Watercress Farm who Hertrich refers to as the conformation expert of the group.

As the panel makes plans for their young mares, Hertrich said their number one goal is to get winners on the mare's progeny record early in her career.

“They have to produce a horse that can run so that everyone can look and say that mare is a great producer,” he explained. “If a mare can't produce runners, it really doesn't matter how well her foals sell.”

According to Hertrich, this approach doesn't necessarily mean that an unproven mare will always visit a proven stallion.

“We do some analytics with it and while you're trying to get a runner, it may be that a first-crop sire conformationally and genetically fits that mare better than anything else. For the six Grade I winners we had, they are by five different stallions. It's not an exact science and that's why the guy with the most money doesn't always win.”

When evaluating mares that have already produced runners, he said it comes down to the balancing act of producing a horse that will have commercial appeal but can also conceivably have success on the track.

“It becomes an economic decision as to how do we maximize value of the foals from that particular mare with a mating that will give us the individual that will produce the best results,” he said. “We always lean toward [a focus on] race performance.”

Hertrich's strategy is perhaps atypical for many commercial breeders pointing their foals for the sales.

“There are some guys who just breed commercially and they're always trying to get Miss America into the yearling ring,” he explained. “That's great, except can Miss America go out and run? If she doesn't, you're only going to trick the market for so long.”

Fred Hertrich | Keeneland

Hertrich acknowledged that his program does have the luxury of not always needing to have progeny by the flavor-of-the-month sire to have success at the sales because many people seek out horses coming from his operation.

“The great thing is that over time, because of the results owners and trainers have had with us, we have built-in clients who come to the farm and want to buy from us because they know how we raise a horse and care for a horse, so they want to be involved in that process.”

While Hertrich always has his eye on the long game in this business, he acknowledges the high risk involved in the game he plays, citing how just last week they had a dystocia with one mare and ended up losing the foal but then had two healthy fillies on the ground three hours later.

“When someone says they want to go into the breeding business, I always tell them to make sure they really look at it before they get into it,” he said. “The breeding business is not for the faint of heart. How many great horses either are never foaled or get injured? It's a high-risk game.”

Hertich passed the baton to advisor and partner Rob Tribbett to discuss mating plans for a few of their top mares.

ALWAYS AUDITIONING (m, 16, Mizzen Mast – Nawal (FR), by Homme de Loi (Ire)) to be bred to Catholic Boy

Always Auditioning is the dam of GIISW Ready to Act (More Than Ready). This year we are booking her to Catholic Boy. He's a horse that we are obviously a bit biased on because we bred him, but we're big believers in him with not only the speed that he showed but also his determination and versatility. There aren't many stallion that have done what he's done on the track. This mating will produce a three-quarters sibling to Ready to Act, who of course is by More Than Ready.

BRAZEN PERSUASION (m, 11, Indian Charlie – Beholden, by Cat Thief) to be bred to McKinzie

This mare was a recent purchase of ours at the November Sale last year. She was a really good 2-year-old. She won the 2013 GIII Schuylerville S.

We are going to breed her to McKinzie, who is a horse that we really like because he was brilliant at two as a Grade I winner, but he was also durable enough to be a Grade I winner at three and four. We also love that McKinzie's dam, Runway Model (Petionville), won the GII Alcibiades S. We love to breed to those stallions that have a pedigree full of brilliance. I like this mating a lot because you're taking the brilliance of the mare, who was such a good 2-year-old, and putting it with a lot of speed from both McKinzie and his dam.

CATCH MY EYE (m, 13, Unbridled's Song – Sharp Eyes, by Storm Cat) to be bred to Curlin

This is the dam of GISW Maxim Rate (Exchange Rate). She's by Unbridled's Song, who we know is one of the best broodmare sires out there.

This year we are sending her to Curlin. Maxim Rate is a turf filly, but with matching this mare's pedigree to Curlin, we think it's a chance to produce that successful Classic-type runner. We think it's certainly within this mare's range of ability and Curlin is obviously one of the best stallions out there when it comes to getting that type of horse.

HOT CHA (m, 7, Bernardini – Hot Water, by Medaglia d'Oro) to be bred to Not This Time

Hot Cha is a young Bernardini mare that is from the family of champion Xtra Heat (Dixieland Heat). Again, I love mares that have speed in their family and there aren't too many fillies faster than Xtra Heat. This mare is a half to Hot and Sultry (Speightster), who just won really impressively at Oaklawn.

We are going to breed her to Not This Time. We think that the start he's gotten at stud with a lower stud fee was really impressive and is the mark of a stallion who could end up being a top-tier stallion after succeeding with those mares bred on a lower stud fee. As he gets these better books, I think the sky is really the limit for him.

LUNAR EMPRESS (m, 9, Malibu Moon – Holy Princess, by Holy Bull) to be bred to Liam's Map

This mare is from a really good family of stakes producers and she was very talented on the racetrack herself. She was a maiden special weight winner at Santa Anita and was fourth in the GI La Brea S. She's by Malibu Moon, who is another good broodmare sire.

We are going to breed her to Liam's Map, the sire of GISW Juju's Map that we bred in 2019. We're trying to raise runners; that's our main goal and then the commercial thing comes after that. Liam's Map certainly gives you a chance to have a great runner and they're going to be commercially-appealing horses as well.

MISS ARRANGEMENT (m, 11, Mr. Greeley – Shy Greeting (Arg), by Shy Tom) to be bred to Honor A.P.

Miss Arrangement was a maiden special weight winner on debut at Keeneland and she already had a yearling sell at Saratoga for $400,000.

We are going to breed her to Honor A.P. He's a horse that we have a lot of confidence in. He was such a talented horse and the win he had over Authentic in the GI Santa Anita Derby was really an impressive race. Like McKinzie, he's out of a top-class race mare which I think is such an added benefit when you're looking at a stallion prospect.

Nagambie's 2021 Audible filly that topped Book 5 of the Keeneland November Sale | photo courtesy Rob Tribbett

MO MUSIC (m, 4, Uncle Mo – Harmony Lodge, by Hennessy) to be bred to Authentic

Mo Music is carrying her first foal by Street Sense now. She is out of Harmony Lodge, who was another filly with a lot of speed. It's a really great female family.

We will be sending her to Authentic. With the natural speed that Authentic had and the stamina he had to carry that speed, we think it is a great match with this mare because there's already so much speed and class coming from her family.

NAGAMBIE (m, 9, Flatter – Charming N Lovable, by Horse Chestnut (SAF)) to be bred to Gun Runner

This is the dam of GISW Juju's Map (Liam's Map). She is currently in foal to Not This Time, who is the brother of Juju's Map's sire. This year she will be going to Gun Runner. Other than maybe Uncle Mo, it's hard to recollect another horse that had such a good first crop. Gun Runner was such a good racehorse and there's really no holes to him as a sire.

POLLY FREEZE (m, 9, Super Saver – Elusive Gold, by Strike the Gold) to be bred to Constitution

This is the dam of Americanrevolution (Constitution), who won the 2021 GI Cigar Mile H., as well as Bold Journey (Hard Spun), who just ran second in the Gander S. on Saturday. Polly Freeze has a really good Collected 2-year-old filly that brought $210,000 as a yearling and she is currently in foal to Frosted. She's a mare that makes a really good foal and she's from a family of really good producers.

We're going to send her back to Constitution. Some people say that he's the next great stallion, but I would say he's already a great stallion with what he's done on these lower-priced books. That's the mark of what his sire did and what Into Mischief has done that makes them a breed-changing stallion when they can succeed with a variety of mares.

Bold Journey (Hard Spun), the half-brother to GISW Americanrevolution, recently ran second in a stakes at Aqueduct for Bill Mott | photo courtesy Rob Tribbett

SUMMER ON THE LAWN (m, 12, First Defence – Summer Exhibition, by Royal Academy) to be bred to Charlatan

This is the dam of GISW Beyond Brilliant (Twirling Candy). She is booked to Charlatan. We were fortunate to be a part of his racing career as owners. He had so much speed and an ability to carry that speed a distance. Beyond Brilliant also has speed that can carry on both surfaces and I certainly think Charlatan could produce dual-surface runners given his pedigree.

SWEET CAUSE (m, 7, Giant's Causeway – Sweetness 'n Light, by Distorted Humor)

We are big believers in Giant's Causeway mares and Sweet Cause is from the family of MGISW Ms. Eloise (Nasty and Bold). We love mares with that type of race filly in her pedigree.

She will be booked to Catalina Cruiser. He is a horse that we really like and his first crop looked the part, which really didn't surprise us much because he is a beautiful horse. He's a big horse but he had a lot of speed for a big horse. We are going to be supporting him heavily this year.

YEAR OF PROMISE (m, 9, Gio Ponti – Shandra Smiles, by Cahill Road) to be bred to Twirling Candy

This mare is a half-sister to two Grade I winners–She's a Tiger (Tale of the Cat) and Smiling Tiger (Hold That Tiger). This year she will be going to Twirling Candy. Of our Grade I winners in 2021, two of them were by Twirling Candy. When we bred those mares he stood for $20,000 and really the best is yet to come for him.

This mare has already had a More Than Ready and a Constitution and now she will have a Twirling Candy. When we breed these young mares, we love to give them shots with these types of stallions. If she's going to be a producer, these stallions will get her there. Twirling Candy is rightfully now at that stud fee range where he's proven that he belongs. The two Grade I winners that we produced were a dirt 2-year-old and a turf horse, so that's a pretty impressive display of versatility.

Let us know who you're breeding your mares to in 2022, and why. We will print a selection of your responses in TDN over the coming weeks. Please send details to: garyking@thetdn.com.

The post Mating Plans: Hertrich Seeking the Long Game in a Risky Game appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The Jockey Club Elects Bell, Hertrich, McIngvale, Scollay, Sikura As New Members

The Jockey Club today announced the election of five new members: Gatewood Bell, Fred W. Hertrich III, James McIngvale, Dr. Mary Scollay, and John Sikura.

Gatewood Bell is president of Cromwell Bloodstock Agency. As a bloodstock agent, he has selected horses such as Mastery and Undrafted. In addition to his work in bloodstock, Bell is a member of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and a United States representative for Goffs sales agency. He previously worked for Kiaran McLaughlin and Nicoma Bloodstock and served as a jockey's agent for Fernando Jara.

Fred W. Hertrich III is chairman of the Breeders' Cup and proprietor of Watercress Farm. Horses co-bred by Hertrich include Boys at Toscanova, Catholic Boy, Diversify, Rushing Fall, Shamardal, and Street Boss. Hertrich is also the president of the Hertrich Family of Automobile Dealerships.

James “Jim” McIngvale is a longtime Thoroughbred owner who is best known as the owner of Eclipse Award Champion Sprinter Runhappy. He has also campaigned grade 2 winners During and Wimbledon. McIngvale owns and operates Gallery Furniture in Houston, Texas, and is known for his philanthropy efforts for a variety of causes in the Houston area and around the world.

Dr. Mary Scollay is the executive director and chief operating officer of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium. Previously, she was the equine medical director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and the senior association veterinarian for Calder Race Course and Gulfstream Park. She has served as a member of the New York Task Force on Racehorse Health and Safety, a veterinary consultant for The Jockey Club Equine Injury Database, and a board member of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory.

John G Sikura is the president and owner of Hill 'n' Dale / Xalapa, a 1,400-acre estate founded by Edward Simms in 1903. A perennial leading consignor and breeder, Hill 'n' Dale bred/co-bred Belmont winner Touch Gold and Preakness winner Cloud Computing and owned Broodmare of the Year Better Than Honour, dam of Belmont winner Rags to Riches. Hill 'n' Dale stands a notable roster of stallions, including champion and leading sire Curlin. A native of Toronto, Canada, Sikura has resided in Kentucky since his early 20s.

The post The Jockey Club Elects Bell, Hertrich, McIngvale, Scollay, Sikura As New Members appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post