Letter To The Editor: Why Synthetic Surfaces Make Sense For New York Breeders

A synthetic track is necessary for the survival of New York breeding farms, such as Sequel. The New York Bred program and the breeder awards generated are incredibly beneficial and fundamental to the financial stability of the New York farms and breeders. However, New York breeders only earn awards for horses competing within New York.

Unfortunately, horses that are predominantly competitive on turf are often shipped to Florida or Louisiana for turf racing as owners want to see their horses race. As such, several prominent New York trainers base their “winter” operations in these warmer climates. The breeders of these migrating horses earn no award money during that time.

Our farms require an immense amount of capital to operate as our employees, blacksmiths, veterinarians, feed companies, etc. all require year-round jobs to survive. The addition of a guaranteed winter racing surface has allowed those of us with farms to breathe a sigh of relief as we depend upon these award monies to fund our operations.

As NYRA continues to build the best turf program in the United States, the ability for some of these horses to remain in New York, gives breeders more earning opportunities. The potential for additional award monies is greatly embraced as turf horses, in many instances, convert very well to synthetic surfaces.

The synthetic surface has already increased Sequel's scope of operations. Following the announcement of a new synthetic surface at Belmont Park, leading racing entity, Three Diamonds Farm, chose New York to stand their Breeders Cup winning turf stallion. In addition, they earmarked 15-20 mares to join the New York program.

There is no shortage of quality stallions capable of producing successful offspring on multiple surfaces. Notable stallions such as Uncle Mo, War Front, Into Mischief, Justify and even our own Freud have produced exceptional graded stakes horses on multiple surfaces, including synthetic. As more trainers become familiar with our new Belmont surface, I believe there will be an increased comfort level and participation.

Ultimately, our operation is protected by the guarantee of year-round racing. We, the New York breeding industry, need to embrace this concept and unite in support of our future.

–Becky Thomas, Sequel, New York