CTBA

Over the 30 years former trainer Mike Machowsky spent plying his trade with stopwatch and condition book, his constant companion was the doughty California-bred. A Cal-bred helped launch his career-Native Boundary, who showed class and grit aplenty over three years and 22 starts. Only the Bobby Frankel-trained Eternity Star stood between him and the 1991 G1 Hollywood Derby. Later in Machowsky's career, the wily Cal-bred Caracortado stamped his mark over several seasons on some of the West Coast's most illustrious slug-fests over a mile. As Fasig-Tipton's California representative-a position he...

California-breds have long been the backbone of California racing. Since 2014, they've represented between 45% and 50% of all starters at Thoroughbred race meets in the state. Over half of all horses currently stabled in Southern California tracks are understood to be Cal-breds. A shrinking foal crop in the state, however, means that racing secretaries will have to rely on fewer of them than is currently the case over the next few years. Modeling performed for the TDN suggests there will be a combined 290 fewer Cal-bred runners competing in California...

California-breds have long been a staple of the state's racing product. Since 2014, CA-breds have represented between 45% and 50% of all starters at Thoroughbred race meets. Since the consolidation of racing in the south of the state, that trend has continued. From the start of the Santa Anita winter meeting through mid-March, Cal-breds made up about 47% of all individual starters, which includes both open races and those restricted to northern trainers. But with last year's foal crop (now yearlings) currently sitting at just below 1000 amid a breeding...

The news has arrived thick and fast for the Northern California industry over the last couple of months, as racing operations have consolidated in the Southern half of the state. Few state industry stakeholders remain unaffected by these developments, certainly not the breeders, whose commercial decisions today ripple years into the future. The breeding sheds don't open for another couple of weeks. During that time, many currently undecided minds will be resolved. Among those California breeders currently canvassed, however, their outlooks for 2025 are a mixed bag. On the one...

The 2025 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association (CTBA) Winter Mixed Sale, which includes a special 22-horse dispersal from the farm of Donald Valpredo, will be held Tuesday, Jan. 21, at Noon PT in the Hines Pavilion at Fairplex, the organization said in a release on Friday. Valpredo, a California industry leader and former President of the CTBA, passed away in November. Handling the consignment will be Checkmate Thoroughbreds. Including the dispersal, there are 143 cataloged and supplemented broodmares, racing prospects, yearlings and 2-year-olds available in a sale that previously produced stakes...

The two-day California Thoroughbred Breeders Association's 2025 Stallion Season Online Auction will start at 8:00 a.m. PT on Monday, Jan. 6, exclusively on www.Salering.net, the organization said in a press release on Friday, Jan. 3. Set to conclude at 8:00 p.m. PT on Tuesday, Jan. 7, the auction features seasons to 29 California stallions, including perennial leading Golden State sire Stay Thirsty. All seasons listed are being sold with no guarantee. The proceeds from the event benefit the CTBA's Political Action Committee Fund, which works in support of legislation to...

The catalog for the 2025 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Winter Mixed Sale is now online. The sale will be held Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 12 noon at Hinds Pavilion at Fairplex in Pomona. A total of 143 horses have been cataloged for the sale. Of that total, 25 are yearlings, 75 are 2-year-olds and 24 are pregnant mares. Online bidding will be available.

The 2023 California-bred Horse of the Year will be announced at the CTBA Awards Dinner and Annual Meeting on Tuesday, Mar. 12 at Le Meridien Hotel in Arcadia, CA. The finalists for Horse of the Year are (in alphabetical order) Ceiling Crusher (Mr. Big), Kings River Knight (Acclamation) and The Chosen Vron (Vronsky). For ticket information for the Awards Dinner and Annual Meeting, click Annual Meeting & Awards Dinner | CTBA or contact Christy Chapman at Christy@ctba.com.   Other Cal-bred champions to be recognized at the banquet:   Champion Two-Year-Old...

John C. Harris, Ty Green and Andy Mathis have been appointed to the board of the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC). Owner of Harris Farms, Harris was inducted into the California Racing Hall of Fame in 2008 and was honored last year by the Edwin J. Gregson Foundation for his industry service. Harris Farms has been connected to over 50 California divisional champions, including eight California Horses of the Year. He is a former California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) Commissioner and currently serves on the board of the California Thoroughbred...

Behind the scenes there is a battle taking place for the future of racing in Northern California. Approximately 30 million dollars is at the center of the battle, the projected net revenue from wagering derived in the north. The projection is derived from past revenues generated annually through Thoroughbred simulcast, ADW and live racing wagering in the north. Under current law, these funds must remain in the north, for the benefit of the north--both for horsemen and any race meet that continues to offer Thoroughbred racing in the future. The...

A son of Vronsky sold for $100,000 to top the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Northern California Yearling and Horses of Racing Age Sale, which posted year-over-year result increases, the auction said in a release late Tuesday. With 114 yearlings sold, gross sales were $1,064,900 for an average of $9,260 and median price of $5,500. Last year, 105 yearlings sold for $871,100, an average of $8,296 and median price of $4,500. The average sales price for yearlings this year was 11.6 percent higher than last year. The sales topper, the first...

Thoroughbred owner and breeder John C. Harris will be honored at a charity fundraising dinner hosted by the Edwin J. Gregson Foundation. The event will take place Thursday, August 17, 2023, at The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, in Rancho Santa Fe, CA, located just a few miles east of Del Mar Racetrack. "We're delighted to honor John, not only for the accomplishments of his Harris Farms Horse Division, one of the country's leading racing stables and utmost influential owner/breeder operations, for which he has been inducted into the California...