The resurgence of racing and breeding in New York and what other states learn from this
When Funny Cide rolled into the 2003 Kentucky Derby with a school bus full of New Yorkers, few in Sackatoga Stable could have anticipated the ride ahead. One Derby and Preakness victory later, the “Gutsy Gelding” and New York-bred drew new attention to the state’s breeding programs, including the breeder and owner awards as well as a series of stakes races specifically designated for these horses.
Twenty-two years later, a collaborative effort by the New York Racing Association and the state’s breeders’ organizations with legislative backing have revitalized the sport in the state. The result is a reinvigorated breeding and racing industry in one of the country’s oldest circuits, where a new Belmont Park and forthcoming purse parity make the Empire State’s future a bright one.
New York has long been in the business of racing, starting in the colonial era beginning in 1665 when Governor Richard Nicolls built a track on Hempstead Plain on Long Island. After the Civil War, the state emerged as the sport’s refined Eastern hub, while Kentucky was considered the upstart, rustic West. As the Triple Crown era took hold in the 20th century, racing expanded across the country with California, Florida, and other states growing the sport and the competition for horses to fill races. With breeding increasingly concentrated in Kentucky and Florida, individual states needed new ways to support the farms producing horses in their area. One way they found was through breeder incentive programs.
Established in 1973, the New York Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund (NYTBDF) distributes money in the form of breeder, owner, and stallion owner awards of more than $15 million. Funds come from both pari-mutuel wagering and Video Lottery Terminals at Aqueduct’s Resorts World Casino New York and at Finger Lakes Race Track. Breeders, owners, and stallion owners are rewarded when their New York-bred horses race and win in the state. In 2024 alone, over $16.5 million in incentives were paid out.
“[The Fund] incentivized people to get into the business. It gave people who had land in the Hudson Valley more incentive to keep it in agriculture. It was a very insightful piece of legislation that they put together,” long-time breeder Joe McMahon observed. “As the handle grew, those awards grew. There was money to spend. The legislation is written so that all the money has to be dispersed every year. It's about 20-some million dollars in awards alone that the fund administers.”
Funny Cide’s storybook journey through the Triple Crown brought new attention to New York’s breeding programs, spotlighting operations like McMahon’s, and proving the caliber of horse state-bred programs can produce. “Winning the Kentucky Derby gave a lot of additional legitimacy to the New York-bred program. Everybody's dream is to win the Derby and Funny Cide did that as a New York-bred. And I think a lot of people will say that it was a big factor in some of the expansion that happened after that,” Jack Knowlton of Sackatoga Stable echoed. Sackatoga’s success became the state’s best advertising for not only its breeding program, but also for the expansive benefits that come with it.
Funny Cide’s impact extended beyond New York, inspiring then–Kentucky state senator Damon Thayer to introduce legislation in 2004 establishing the Kentucky Breeders Incentive Fund, aiming to replicate the success of New York’s program in the Bluegrass.
“New York-breds have proven themselves to be able to win anywhere. But as someone who participates in a racehorse partnership, for New York owners to know that there is a strong New York-bred program to run their horses in gives them a level of stability,” Thayer shared. “And it's easier for them to make decisions on an investment that doesn't give you a first chance to pay off for three years, knowing that they're going to have those opportunities to race regularly in that state-bred program.”
To continue the momentum generated by Funny Cide, New York, through the New York Thoroughbred Breeders and the New York Racing Association, focused on increasing payouts to breeders, owners, and stallion owners. Since 2011, the program has issued payouts more frequently than other states—every two months—and in 2022, increased breeder award percentages based on whether a New York-bred is also New York-sired or by an out-of-state stallion. Tables 1 and 2 outline current payout rates. In addition, stallion owners receive 10% of purse money earned for first through third place by New York-sired state breds, with a $10,000 cap per award.
“It's a significant amount of money. When the win take home is over $50,000 and you have a New York-sired New York-bred, it's going to get a 40 percent award on that. So that's $20,000 in most cases,” McMahon pointed out. “Even if you're second or third, you're talking about a 20 percent straight award. That's what sets us apart from Florida, from Kentucky, from all the other states.”
The frequency of the payouts also makes New York an attractive place to breed and race. “People go, ‘Oh, I got this just in time. I'm going to pay my property taxes.’ Or they'll say, ‘Oh, this is going to go towards my stud fees or my board bill,’” said Tracy Egan, NYTBDF Executive Director. “That money in motion comes back into the equine industry in New York and helps us, helps the entire equine industry.”
The changes that the NYTBDF and the NYTB have instituted over the last few years have made breeding, buying, and racing even more profitable and attractive. Fifty years after the fund’s creation, as Najja Thompson, NYTB’s Executive Director, observed, “We thought this was the most opportune time, in a time that's really of concern for our industry overall, that we can make sure that our state is able to make that impact in producing and increasing our foal crop.”
Despite a declining North American foal crop, dropping from an estimated 17,500 in 2023 to 16,675 in 2024, New York’s foal crop grew from 1,281 to 1,530 in the same period. This growth highlights the success of breeder incentives and the organizations’ understanding of how to support farms in breeding and racing New York-bred foals.
In addition, under the new rules, a qualifying mare purchased in foal at auction for $50,000 or more can become New York certified “if the mare is present in New York State within 15 days after the sale is concluded, the foal from public auction mare is foaled in New York State and the mare thereafter is continuously in residence in New York State from within 120 days after her last cover in the year of conception of another foal and remains in residency until foaling” per the NYTBDF’s website. The mare can retain her New York residency even if she travels out of state for auction, provided she is back in the Empire State within 15 days of the auction’s end.
This positive trend in foal numbers comes not only from the actions of the NYTB and the NYTBDF but also from NYRA’s commitment to supporting and growing the state’s horse population. Through its carding of state-bred races and planned purse parity, the nonprofit entity behind the sport at Aqueduct Race Track, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course has reinforced this historical circuit’s vital role in North American racing.
The success of New York’s breeding programs is also seen in the sales ring. As Fasig Tipton’s Evan Ferraro observed, “You see more national stables and trainers, coast to coast, that are focusing on them now as opposed to just the New York guys in the past. As the quality of the horse being bred has gone up, obviously, the sales prices have gone up. And also the overall product and what breeders and sellers are bringing to market, it continues to ratchet up to be a higher level.”
Breeder incentives are not the only driver of the state’s breeding and racing revival. NYRA has also introduced its own incentives to support the stables and farms that supply horses essential to their racing product.
Support from (NYRA) comes in the form of races exclusively for horses bred in New York; in 2024, state-bred races comprised about 25-30 percent of its daily cards, with 548 races worth a total of $42,817,000 in purse money. As part of its ongoing commitment, NYRA has pledged purse parity beginning with New York-bred two-year-old races in 2026 and extending to all races in 2027. This coincides with the reopening of a newly rebuilt Belmont Park that will feature a synthetic surface. The move is expected to boost the value of New York-breds by more than 15%.
For example, the purse for an open company maiden special weight at the Belmont at Aqueduct meet was $85,000 while the same race restricted to New York breds paid $80,000. By 2027, the same races would carry the same purse, regardless of their conditions. For owners of New York-breds, Sackatoga’s Knowlton believes this will be a game changer: “I think that they're going to be able to attract a lot more owners with a new Belmont, and hopefully, a lot of those owners are going to be the people that are involved in New York.”
For trainers like David Donk, whose stable is currently about 60 percent state breds, those increased payouts mean more money for everyone involved: “At the end of the day, we're working off of commission. If the owner is going to run for a little more money, it means the trainer is going to run for more money. In that aspect, we're all going to benefit from it.”
This also means that these New York-sired state-bred horses are going to be a hot ticket: “Now, with this purse parity coming into effect, that's a huge deal,” Ferraro shared. “These yearlings that we're going to have at the sale this year will all be eligible. And I would expect that they'll really be highly sought after.”
“The biggest difference you're seeing that is at the [Fasig-Tipton] Saratoga New York bred sale in August,” Donk shared. “You've seen an uptick in the last few years in the sale prices. So it's been very competitive to buy New York hips. You have the Select Sale the week before, and you're thinking, ‘there'll be a little bit of a downturn to the next sale.’ Unfortunately, it might be the reverse for us value buyers.”
NYRA’s support of the state’s breeding through both the condition book and the purse payouts is a continuation of the investment highlighted by Belmont Park’s reconstruction.
“First and foremost, without quality horses to run our racing programs, our overall product that we put on track suffers,” Andrew Offerman, NYRA Senior Vice President of Racing & Operations, observed. “It's important that we focus on more than just the business of the racetracks. It really does incorporate breeding and the other aspects of the business that go into that overall economic impact.”
As Thayer pointed out, “if you're NYRA and you're trying to fill races on a year-round basis, you have to have that strong, what I call native horse population – in this case, New York breds – to sustain a couple of hundred days of racing every year. And they got that in spades.”
Combine NYRA’s support for New York-bred races with NYTBDF incentives, and breeding or racing a New York-bred – especially one by a New York-based stallion – can be more lucrative than with a Kentucky or Florida-bred. NYRA’s Stallion Stakes series and the NYTBDF’s Stallion Owner's Awards provide added incentives for farms like McMahon Thoroughbreds (home to the state’s leading stallion Central Banker as well as Solomini), Sequel Stallion Station, (standing graded stakes winners Keepmeinmind and Fire at Will) and newcomer Ironhorse Stallions, whose Bucchero is a leading sire of synthetic runners.
Harlan Malter, one of the partners behind Bucchero and Ironhorse, saw that moving the stallion from his original home in Florida to New York was right for both his horse and the state’s breeding program.
“I think New York is heavily on the rise. We just felt that with Bucchero's success, when we actually made the decision, the synthetic had not really been lined up. It's obviously worked out well. He was leading synthetic sire in the United States last year. He's basically one of the top ones this year also. It was the right place for us to bring him,” Malter shared. “They have a huge opportunity in New York. The breeders, the horsemen, NYRA, it's all been building to this moment.”
The additional monies from the Stallion Series races as well as Stallion Awards are in place to incentivize breeders to breed their mares to the state’s slate of stallions, but about 60 percent of mares still go out of state to be covered. This highlights New York’s need to continue recruiting stallions. “We just need to slowly elevate the quality of the stallions to give breeders the ability to both sell into this commercial marketplace and then give owners/breeders the ability to go, I can beat anybody in the gate with me with a New York sired horse,” Malter observed.
Echoing Malter, Fasig-Tipton’s Ferraro understands that “the more quality stallions that you can get to the state, the better off the program is going to be, especially with the aid of incentives like this New York Sire series.”
In addition to new stallions, NYRA and the breeders’ organizations see that the state will need more owners to race these growing numbers of New York-bred horses. As Knowlton observed, “you get more owners, you get more horses, and you get more people to the racetrack. To me, it revolves around attracting additional owners and additional capital into the game. We've done it in our small way. We've got, as I said, around 120 partners. They put in money, and they come to the track, and they gamble. There's no better way to improve your product and find more revenue than people in ownership.”
Belmont Park’s scheduled 2026 reopening serves as another opportunity to bring more owners to the state. With the new racetrack comes purse parity and the chance to “participate in the sport on the biggest stage. You have an opportunity when a new Belmont Park is complete to visit both the newest venue in the country, but also the most historic, continuously operating facility in the country is Saratoga,” NYRA’s Offerman observed. “You really get everything from the entirety of the historical perspective of horse racing within the state of New York. And then you've also got the benefit of what we do not only within the facility for the ownership experience, but also the fact that we broadcast more hours on national television than any other racetrack operators.”
As construction continues on a 21st-century edition of Belmont Park, one prepared to support year-round racing in the Big Apple, the racing in this historic circuit is as rewarding as ever. “For the long term, 12 months a year, New York and Kentucky are going to be the pillars that we all stand on,” Malter predicts.
“Obviously, I'm a Kentucky-first guy, but it's important for the Kentucky breeding and racing industry for there to be strong regional markets like the one in New York,” Thayer echoed. “I think it's so critical that New York has a vibrant, year-round circuit. A strong state-bred program is critical to year-round racing in a place like New York. So I'm happy to see it, and it's good for the industry as a whole.”
The current state of the sport in New York shows “that racing is popular, and people will support it in New York State. Next year, we're going to have Belmont opening. We're going to have the Breeders’ Cup back in 2027,” McMahon shared. “We have a friendly government relationship with racing. The Breeding and Development Fund has done an excellent job of encouraging people to keep their farmland as farmland and to get into the horse business and we will continue to do a great job on those fronts.”
“I think the quality of the New York product right now is the strongest it's ever been,” Ferraro observed. From new facilities to growing incentives to rising foal crops, American racing is in a New York state of mind, and if you can make it there, truly you can make it anywhere.
