Letters to the Editor

I'm writing to offer my thanks for the article you posted recently featuring Dora Delgado. Timely, yes and helpful to learn more about her thinking on diversity, equity and inclusion within our sport. It also hit home for me as my father was one of three black trainers actively campaigning in Chicago during the 1970s - 1990s. Mr. Clifford Scott, Paul Darjean and my father, Clenon Brown. I've enjoyed the sport since age three, when my father started teaching me how to read the DRF, he noted, before I could...

by Craig Bernick The breeding business in America has grown increasingly commercial over the last two decades. I am in favor of the 140-mare cap and applaud the Jockey Club for instituting this change. The metrics of this issue are simple to understand, comparing American foal crops to the number of "140+ stallions": 1999: 33,844--3 2009: 29,612--26 2019: 19,225--45 While I understand that these are the dynamics that emerged in the market, and that market is just a reflection of consumer behavior, I have come to believe we have let...

by Craig Bandoroff It's been a tough few month in our little corner of the world. Ashton Moynihan, Gerry Dilger, Dennis Lynch and now Cris Caldwell. All of them special and wonderful in their own way. We will be reminded of them too often and miss them all. Auctioneers have been a big part of my livelihood for a long time. And I've seen some great ones. When I first came around and after college when I worked for Fasig-Tipton, I got to watch two of the legends, Ralph Retler...

CLAUDE BENIADA Apogee is a name that has been used in the past by the Juddmonte operation of Prince Khalid Abdullah. Apogee (GB) (Shirley Heights {GB}) was a Group 3-winning filly in France in the care of André Fabre. At the heart of a top Juddmonte family, she is the dam of multiple group winner Dance Routine (GB) (Sadler's Wells) and the granddam of champions Flintshire (GB) (Dansili {GB}) and Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) among others. I wish the same future to the Apogee (Malibu Moon) of Christophe Clement. (Click...

In light of recent events impacting global health, perhaps it is time to review two controversial proposals in our industry. The first, seemingly backed by The Jockey Club, is a limit on stallion books. The second, seemingly forever opposed by that same august regulatory body, is some well designed use of artificial insemination. One could reasonably suggest that the two would work best in tandem. Limits on stallion books would, at least in the short term, begin the process of promoting diversity in the thoroughbred gene pool by giving slightly...

Ken Wilkins got it right: "The challenge is to identify and solve the real problem--we do not have enough people that want to own racehorses. More owners will create more demand for our breeding product, period. Conversely, less demand will exacerbate all our problems. It has already impacted us and we are experiencing a slow and sure gradual shrinking of our business. What can each of us do to achieve the outcome of increasing ownership? Let us start with asking the right question. How can we increase demand for our...

Thoroughbred Idea Foundation Pat Cummings's comment on Pa. Governor Tom Wolf's plan to divert the bulk of funding from the Race Horse Development fund (representing about 90% of all purse monies in the state) was both courageous and spot on. For too long Pennsylvania racetracks and horsemen's organizations alike have focused their efforts almost exclusively on procuring annual revenues from slot machine proceeds, while doing little or nothing to build the racing business or promote the sport. In the long run, no state is going to prop up a dying...

Bruce Johnstone was, without question, one of the finest persons I ever met in the Thoroughbred world. At the beginning of 1977, he was 34, I was 30. It was my first year at Fasig-Tipton, then headquartered at the back gate of Belmont Park. A few years on, Bruce opened a public stable at Belmont, under the kindly eye of Horatio Luro, who remained his mentor and friend until Horatio passed away in 1991. Bruce trained there for the colorful Dr. Jose (Pepe) Sahagun and his Villa Blanca Farm, taking...