In November, The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association held a workshop for regional breeders' organizations in Louisville, Ky.
Also in November, Taylor Made Farm will reduce stud fees for four stallions to zero -- ZERO -- if your mare foals outside of Kentucky and the foal is registered with a state breed association.
In December, panelists at the University of Arizona's Global Symposium on Racing emphasized the need for multi-state cooperation to help stabilize Thoroughbred breeding in states with decreasing numbers.
Feeling noticed?
I guess Mid-Atlantic and other regional Thoroughbred breeders ought to appreciate the attention, but where is this going? Do national organizations and Kentucky farms really want to help regional Thoroughbred businesses? Do they see a need for healthy -- if smaller -- Thoroughbred states? If so, here's a short list of ways to help.
Decrease sire books.
The foal crop continues to decline nationally -- and regionally -- but major stallions keep breeding more mares. Ten stallions bred 200 or more mares in 2025 compared to four in 2015. In that time span, the foal crop decreased by 6,000 foals. Fewer horses, but more by the same sires. That's a race to the bottom nobody will win.
The Jockey Club tried to implement a mare cap of 140 several years ago, only to get thwarted by potential lawsuits from stallion farms and Kentucky's state legislators. I get it -- free-market economy and all that -- but any industry tied to the actual bloodlines of its most important ingredient ought to be able to see the potential for calamity here. Not only will the gene pool shrink, but fewer stallions will get opportunities to affect the gene pool.
How many people would have bred to Danzig in 1981 if the national leaders were attracting 200 mares apiece? Yes, he was by Northern Dancer. He'd also made just three starts -- one in 1979 and two in 1980. He won all three, but none came in stakes and none were even a mile. His first crop included 32 named foals. In today's market, there may have been 15. And maybe 2-year-old champion Chief's Crown isn't one of them. Without those 32 foals, at a time when 40 mares was a big book, racing would have been deprived of one of its great pedigree influences.
Massive Kentucky stallion numbers filter through that state -- concentrating mares to fewer mates on fewer farms -- but also roll on to regional markets where stallions struggle to find enough mares to get a foothold. The foal crops of Blofeld, now a Mid-Atlantic success, didn't go beyond 26 until his fifth season. Galawi (Ire) bred 22 mares in his first season. From 18 registered foals, 10 have started and four have won. That percentage makes him competitive with any freshman stallion in the country. Could he have sustained it with a bigger crop? No one will ever know.
Taylor Made's offer of free matings to Angel of Empire, Dr. Schivel, Idol and Tacitus is innovative, generous and something Mid-Atlantic breeders should consider. But the four aren't much more proven than regional alternatives. Pennsylvania-bred Angel of Empire's first foals arrive this year. Dr. Schivel's first foals are yearlings.
Idol will have his first runners this year. And Tacitus is seven spots ahead of Galawi on the 2025 first-crop sire list with six times as many foals. I'd argue that moving a stallion to a regional farm for two seasons might help as much as a free mating. Maybe more.
Share the wealth.
Bring up revenue sharing in the horse business and get prepared to get hit with something. Maybe a rotten tomato or a "Socialist!" label. But Kentucky's windfall of purse money from historic horse racing machines would go a long way in regional states. At Turfway Park this winter, maiden special weight races carry purses of $100,000. In December, the track took entries for a "synthetic championships" card with $1.6 million in purses.
This will take a bigger math brain than mine, but there must be a way to spread that around to help elevate regional racing -- while also helping Kentucky's industry realize benefits. Healthy racing in other states can only benefit the state that produces most of the horses in the nation.
Get together. This one is for people, associations and racetracks in the Mid-Atlantic.
Kentucky isn't going to save the Mid-Atlantic. The region needs to get proactive too. Virginia, Maryland and Delaware started it in 2025 with some crossover on racing schedules, restricted stakes eligibility and owner/breeder/stallion bonus programs, but a regional Thoroughbred incentive program sure sounds more solid than a state-by-state one. Nobody wants to say it out loud, but each state in the Mid-Atlantic faces an uncertain future when it comes to purses and bonuses tied to alternative gaming or state subsidies -- from legislators, the public, casino companies, you name it.
Be creative. Be bold. Think beyond your state to support Thoroughbred breeding and racing in the Mid-Atlantic. Answer potential critics with innovation. Those University of Arizona panelists are correct.
States outside of Kentucky need to work together and this region can drive that thinking.
