Executive Review By Tracy Egan, Executive Director Cooperation among all parties interested in the strength of the New York breeding and racing industries during 2016 led to another year of outstanding competition at the state’s racetracks and steady results in the foaling barns, where the NY foal crop remained more than a third higher than the 2011 low mark. Revenues to the Fund from the Video Lottery Terminals at Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack fell slightly from 2015 levels, and the VLTs at the Resorts World Casino were strong for most of the year. Industry leaders in 2016 pointed to the strength of the NY breeding and racing programs as reasons to declare it the best program in the nation. Boyd Browning, President & CEO of Fasig-Tipton, was asked what he would say to someone buying an in-foal mare from the autumn and winter mixed sales of Thoroughbreds: A: “I would tell them to strongly consider sending that mare to New York. The opportunities there to produce a quality foal are tremendous. The financial incentives are tremendous in terms of the breeder awards that are available there, and if you’re breeding to race the opportunities on the racetrack are unparalleled throughout any of the states that we do business in.” The programs run by the NYTBDF can boast that in 2016: · NY-breds won 18 graded stakes races, including three Grade Ones · The New York foal crop held steady, representing 35% growth since 2011 · Five more NY-breds became millionaires · Thirty-three new Thoroughbred farms opened in New York · The Zweig Fund again benefited from its receipt of 2% of Fund revenues, resulting in a payment of approximately $433,000 The combination of $43.8 million in restricted purse money*, more than 800 restricted racing opportunities, and an enviable awards program have made NY-breds a must-own for most racing stables in New York. GRADED STAKES Perhaps the most important illustration of their improved quality is how well NY-breds perform at the open-company stakes level. New York-breds had another outstanding year in 2016. * See 2016 State-Bred Races on page 77. From January through December, from New York to Japan, from the breeding shed to the racetrack, New York-breds made a powerful impression in 2016. New York-breds accounted for 18 graded stakes victories, including wins in three Grade 1’s by Mind Your Biscuits, Haveyougoneaway and, in Japan, Moanin. In Japan, Moanin won the Japanese Grade 1 February Stakes at Tokyo Racecourse and set a track record in doing so on February 22nd. A month earlier, he also set a track record while capturing the Japanese Grade 3 Negishi Stakes. Haveyougoneaway won the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga on August 27th, exactly one month after winning the Grade 2 Honorable Miss Stakes at Saratoga. Mind Your Biscuits followed a strong third on November 5th in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint ‒ which became a second when original second-place finisher Masochistic was disqualified for the presence of a banned steroid ‒ with a victory in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes on December 26th. Both the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and the Malibu were held at Santa Anita in California. Mind Your Biscuits also won the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga on July 30th. There is no better promotion for New York-breds than having them win graded stakes at Saratoga, Santa Anita and Tokyo. “I think the New York program is the best in the country,” trainer Linda Rice said. “I see a lot of my owners are aware of it.” So is the New York Racing Association. In 2016, NYRA again held three all New York-bred cards on Showcase Days, two at Belmont Park and one at Saratoga. Trainer Rick Violette, President of the New York Thoroughbred Horseman’s Association, added, “Year after year we have graded stakes winners. It’s not a fluke any longer when a New York-bred becomes a serious graded-stakes horse. People are breeding better mares to better sires.” The numbers reflect that. Three New York stallions ‒ Freud (36th), Posse (39th) and Bellamy Road (47th) ‒ finished among the top 50 in progeny earnings in North America in 2016. New York’s Mission Impazible ranked 13th among first-crop sires. New York stallion Dublin ranked 19th among second- crop sires. There has never been a better time to race and breed New York-breds. STALLIONS New York’s stallion roster was well-received by the public, although we must note that a larger portion of mare owners bred to out-of-state (mostly Kentucky) sires in 2015 (see charts on pages 36 and 37). New York will have a minimum of 12 new stallions in 2017 seeking to make a national impact. Alphabetically they are: • Beautyinthepulpit is a multiple-stakes-placed son of leading “sire of sires” Pulpit, whose sons include super stallion Tapit and Lucky Pulpit, sire of 2014 and 2016 horse of the year California Chrome. He comes from a strong female family that shows 57 black-type horses under his first three dams. • Bethel, representing the A.P. Indy sire line, is a stakes-placed son of Pulpit bred by the mighty Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider. • Effinex is a multi-millionaire son of Mineshaft who is also from the A.P. Indy sire line. The NY- bred represents the kind of soundness you rarely see in modern times: he started 28 times and earned more than $3 million while winning the Grade I Donn Handicap and several Grade II and Grade III stakes races. • Fiddlers Afleet is a multiple stakes winner of more than $773,000, including the prestigious $400,000 Oklahoma Derby and the Albany Stakes at Saratoga. Being by Northern Afleet, he represents the Mr. Prospector sire line. • Laoban is a son of possibly the hottest new sire since Northern Dancer: Uncle Mo. The dark bay won the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga and, while that was his first win, he was also second in the Gotham at Aqueduct and third in the Sham Stakes in California. • Scatman, a son of the late great sire Scat Daddy (Storm Cat sire line) raced an impressive 19 times, winning the Grade III Aristides Stakes at Churchill Downs and placing in three more stakes. • Superestrella is a son of Storm Cat who began his stud career in Ohio in 2015 before moving to New York for the 2017 season. • Tapin Mojo is the son of another “super” stallion: Tapit. While Tapin Mojo notched 5 wins in a 14-race career and earned $119,709, he has the added appeal of being a direct descendant of the great mare La Troienne, “one of the greatest mares ever imported to the United States” according to PedigreeQuery.com. • Tencendur is a NY-bred son of Warrior’s Reward (Medaglia D’Oro) who was a shining star on the Derby Trail in his three-year-old year of 2015, when he finished second in both the Grade I Wood Memorial Stakes and the Ohio Derby. He lost a shoe in the Kentucky Derby and finished unplaced, but he gave his owners the experience of a lifetime. • V.E. Day is a son of one of the nation’s top turf sires in English Channel. His turf credentials were solidified by his win in the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga and his second-place finishes in the Brooklyn Invitational and the Temperance Hill Invitational. In addition, his third dam Outside Sunshine produced Sunshine Forever, the champion grass horse of 1988. That’s a lot of turf, but it didn’t stop V.E. Day from winning the Grade I Travers in 2014. • War Dancer is a millionaire son of leading sire War Front (by Danzig). War Dancer entered the starting gate 30 times and won six times with five seconds, five thirds and earnings of $1,066,925. • Wicked Rich is a son of Yes It’s True, representing the Bold Ruler sire line. His dam is a daughter of Triple Crown winner Affirmed and a full sister to 4-time Grade I winner The Tin Man. NY-BREDS AT AUCTION IN 2016 The 2016 year-end statistics for New York-breds sold at public auction nationwide complete another illuminating chapter in the tale of the dramatic expansion of the New York-bred sales market. Nothing, of course, has been the same since the grand opening of Genting’s Resorts World New York Casino at Aqueduct Racetrack in October 2011. Subsequent gains in the sales marketplace have been fueled and sustained by two key Genting-driven developments that took effect in 2012: implementation of the enhanced purse structure at the NYRA tracks and a 50% across-the-board increase in breeders’ awards from the Fund. Every year from 2012 forward has produced its own sales headline for New York-breds, as each of the three categories of sale horses in turn – yearlings, weanlings and 2-year-olds in training – experienced its initial “boom year.” Over time, we have seen that this first boom may be followed by one or more years of minor market correction, but in each case there has been a “secondary boom.” In 2015, for example a secondary boom in the yearling market following a year of correction in 2014 produced a new record-breaking peak in all indicators. The headline for 2016 belongs to New York-bred weanlings. The initial “boom year” for weanlings was 2013, followed by back-to-back years of correction in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, weanlings experienced their secondary boom that produced across-the-board increases in total sales, average and median, bringing them back up to their 2013 levels.