By Mike Kane
New York's 2016 foal crop will exceed 1,600 for the third straight year, according to statistics compiled by the New York State Breeding and Development Fund.
Tracy Egan, the Fund's executive director, said that her field team has recorded 1,614 foals that were dropped in New York and qualify for the state's incentive programs. That figure is just short of the 1,629 foals that the fund recognized in 2015. Egan said that late registrations might push the final figure beyond last year's total and a fifth straight season of growth.
Nevertheless, she said the up-to-date foal count shows that New York's program remains strong and vital.
“Since 2011, our foal crop has increased about 35%,” Egan said. “It's another good year.”
The Breeding and Development Fund's annual report for 2015 shows that the state's foal crop plummeted during the world-wide economic depression that began in 2008 and reached a nadir of 1,225 in 2011. The recovery coincided with the overall improvement of the economy and the opening in late October 2011 of the Resorts World Casino with video lottery terminals (VLTs) at Aqueduct Racetrack operated by the New York Racing Association. By law, some revenue from the casino flows to New York's Thoroughbred racing and breeding industries. The Breeding and Development Fund, based in Schenectady, registers foals and bloodstock, administers the breeding and racing awards programs and promotes breeding in the state.
“The program doesn't exist in a vacuum,” Egan said. “NYRA is offering excellent purses. Let's face it, the promise of the VLTs has been fulfilled because there is that money from the VLTs that NYRA is putting into purses so that New York-breds are running for really good purses, whether they are New York-sired or Kentucky-sired.”
In its annual breeding statistics report issued by The Jockey Club in September, which shows where foals are conceived, New York's figure of 940 was down 3.59% from the 975 of 2015. Egan said that The Jockey Club number synchs with the fund's overall figure because typically, about 45% of New York's annual foal crop is produced by out-of-state stallions.
According to Egan, some of the pregnant mares bred in other states and sent to New York to foal New York-breds–the bulk of that group is from Kentucky–can stay in New York long enough to be bred to New York-based sires and establish residency. Egan said that there usually is an influx of pregnant mares purchased at the November bloodstock sales.
“What they are coming here for are the generous breeder awards and the fact that we have a lot of racing opportunities,” she said. “In 2015, NYRA wrote 825 restricted races for New York-breds. We also have Finger Lakes Racetrack, which offers bountiful opportunities to race.”
Egan said the fund is nearing the completion of a project that will make video of every stallion standing in New York available through an on-line link. The videos will also show picturesque scenics of the state's stud farms.
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