The Jockey Club has rolled out a new pilot project, the Mare Incentive Program, that waives registration fees for certain 2026 foals of mares that meet certain criteria in order to assist breeders with their mating plans, the organization said in a press release early Friday.
“The Jockey Club is waiving registration fees for any 2026 foals of mares that are listed and that are introduced or returned to the breeding population in 2025 in an effort to stimulate interest in this group that appear to have left production,” said James L. Gagliano, president and COO, The Jockey Club. “We believe the complimentary software tool developed by TJC Innovations that prepares the report of these mares provides an invaluable asset for breeders as they consider potential matings.”
Each December, The Jockey Club will provide a list of the mares identified in the Mare Incentive Program through Interactive Registration (IR). The list for the 2025 breeding season is available now, and The Jockey Club Registry will waive the registration application fee for 2026 foals out of these mares.
“The Mare Incentive Program is an incredibly useful resource for the industry,” said Walker Hancock, president, Claiborne Farm. “We are excited to see where this may lead and hopefully some of these mares will re-enter breeders' broodmare bands.”
“We are delighted to learn of The Jockey Club's initiative to waive the registration fees for foals from those mares that are not currently in the system,” said MV Magnier of Coolmore. “Anything we can do to bring these mares back into production is a positive for American breeding and racing. You never know from where the next champion will come.”
The criteria are for mares divided into two age groups. The first are for mares from 6 to 9 years old as of January 1, 2025:
- A registered Thoroughbred
- Name registered with The Jockey Club
- No race starts in the past two years (2023 and 2024)
- Not reported as the dam of a foal in the past two years
- Not reported as covered by a stallion in the past two years
- Not exported to a foreign country from the USA, Canada, or Puerto Rico with the export as the last movement of record
- Not reported dead
The second are for mares from 10 to 19 years old as of January 1, 2025. These mares must meet the criteria above and must have produced a registered foal in 2021 and/or 2022.
“When including both sets of mares, approximately 23,000 mares have been identified that could be introduced or returned to the breeding population,” said Jamie Haydon, deputy executive director, The Jockey Club. “We hope state breeding associations consider adding other incentives to get these mares into production and to get their foals registered.”
“With the current incentives, awards, and purse structure available to New York-breds, we are excited to have more participation in our program by everyone who will take advantage of the quality mares available to be found and covered using this tool,” said Najja Thompson, executive director of New York Thoroughbred Breeders.
The report of Mare Incentive Program mares is available to anyone with an IR account and is filterable by 12 data elements, including sire, dam sire, age, money earned, and class of race achieved. Users can also search by mare name. The list includes all mares that meet the criteria for their age group.
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