Executive Review By Tracy Egan, Executive Director The year 2020 will always be remembered for the terrible toll COVID-19 took on human lives, the economic devastation it wrought and the tremendous disruptions it caused in all of our lives. That backdrop makes the achievements of stakeholders in New York’s Thoroughbred industry all the more laudable. From the crucial backstretch workers, trainers, jockeys and exercise riders who willingly and uniformly wore masks to stop the spread, to the farm owners and farm workers who also masked up and kept their distance from each other, all contributed to getting racetracks open and keeping the industry alive. The front side of racetracks closed in March but the horses on the backside still needed to be fed, watered and exercised until racing was allowed to re-open on June 3rd without spectators. Meanwhile, foals were being born on farms in the state and the breeding sheds opened with new “signs of the times”: signage telling van drivers to stay in their cabs so that farm employees could handle arriving mares with the least possible human interaction. COVID-19 forced Fasig-Tipton, the nation’s longest-running Thoroughbred auction house, to cancel its August open and NY-bred yearling sales and the October mixed sale in Saratoga Springs. The Triple Crown races for three-year-olds were held out of order, with the third leg of the series, the Belmont Stakes, being run before the other two legs. NY-bred Tiz the Law won the Belmont and the Mid-Summer Derby (a/k/a the Travers) before finishing a brave second in the Kentucky Derby when it was run in September instead of on the first Saturday in May. According to Fasig-Tipton President and Chief Executive Officer Boyd Browning, who was in a unique position to observe the topsy-turvy industry landscape, “The New York-bred racing and breeding program continues to be the best in the United States. Despite the adversity and challenges of 2020, NY-breds continued to attract great interest among Thoroughbred industry participants. The tremendous accomplishments of Fasig- Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale graduate Tiz the Law demonstrated once again the outstanding quality of horses produced in the NY-bred program.” Notable benchmarks of the past year include: NY-bred Tiz the Law won three Grade 1 races, including the Belmont and Travers, retiring with over $2.7 million in earnings. Nine NY-breds scored a dozen graded-stakes wins, including five Grade 1 victories. NY-breds averaged $20,215 in earnings per runner for the year, made more than 15,000 starts in North America and earned close to $63.4 million worldwide in a truncated year. Auction revenue from NY-bred weanlings, yearlings and two-year-olds have more than doubled over the past decade, from $16.4 million in 2010 to nearly $34 million in 2020. Such auction results prove once again Mr. Browning’s point that New York remains the premier regional Thoroughbred breeding program. The NYTBDF will be able to pay out 96% of awards earned in 2020. The Fund remained the main supporter of research conducted by the Zweig Fund by contributing 2% of our total revenue. The 2020 foal crop of 1,549 was down slightly from 2019 but remains roughly 30% higher than the decade’s low mark of 1,225 foals in 2011. Stallions A total of 42 registered stallions stood in New York State in 2020. Breeders who use these stallions are rewarded with double the awards earned by the offspring of non-registered NY stallions or stallions who stand in other states--30% of first-place purse money vs. 15% of first-place purse money. Second- and third-placed NY-sired horses receive 15% of purse money vs. 7.5% of purse money for the offspring of non-NY stallions. In all cases, races must be held at tracks in New York State for awards to be generated. Seven New Stallions for 2020 Future New York-breds may be a bit grayer in the upcoming years thanks to the addition of two highly accomplished gray stallions to the state’s stallion roster. Standing his first season in 2020 at Rockridge Stud in Hudson was Patricia Generazio’s homebred world-record setter Disco Partner, a son of Disco Rico out of Lulu’s Number by Numerous. Disco Partner was one of the best turf sprinters on the planet, winning 11 of 33 starts, including consecutive victories in the Jaipur Invitational, a Grade 3 stakes in 2018 and a Grade 2 stakes in 2019, with six seconds and eight thirds. In the 2018 Jaipur, Disco Partner set a world record for six furlongs of 1:05.67. He also won five other stakes, earning just under $1.5 million. He stands for a stud fee of $5,000. “I believe Disco Partner is a very exciting prospect for New York breeders,” his trainer, Christophe Clement, said. “He had a tremendous amount of speed, and speed is always dangerous. He also had a fantastic turn of foot, and he’s retiring perfectly sound after consistently racing for many years at the highest level.” The gray Leofric, a son of Candy Ride (ARG) out of Lady Godiva by Unbridled’s Song, stood his first season in 2020 for a stud fee of $7,500, also at Rockridge Stud. He posted a record of eight wins, one second and three thirds from 14 starts, earning $951,040. He captured the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, the Grade 2 Fayette and the Grade 3 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes on the way to winning five of seven starts as a five-year-old in 2018. Dr. Disco, also a son of stalwart NY sire Disco Rico, is a chestnut who won multiple stakes races while amassing earnings of just under $360,000. With a record of 8 wins, seven seconds and three thirds from 34 starts, he should prove to be a good source of soundness for breeders. Being out of a speedy Dr. Blum mare, his connections expect he will also pass along speed to his offspring. Dr. Disco is standing at Keane Stud, the same farm that stood his sire from 2008 to 2014. Sakonnet earned a place in the stallion barn at Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater by virtue of a winning race record and the fact that he is by the late great sire Scat Daddy, out of Beckles Road by Smart Strike. He stood in 2020 for a stud fee of $1,500. Snow Trouble landed on the Foggy Bottom Farm roster in Livingston County as an allowance-winning son of top sire Tapit, out of the Storm Cat mare Smara. Perhaps more importantly, his eighth dam is the Reine de Course mare La Troienne. He stood for a 2020 stud fee of $1,000. Solomini, a son of Curlin also out of a Storm Cat mare, Surf Song, finished first in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity but was disqualified and placed third. He ran second in the Grade 1 Frontrunner Stakes and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at two, and placed in both the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes and the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at age three. He stood for a stud fee of $6,500 at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in 2020. Zamperini, a son of Meadow Monster out of the Lac Ouimet mare Lizotte, took up residence at Chamberlin Farm in Comstock, Washington County. He stood for a stud fee of $800 in 2020. Becoming a New York-Bred In order to encourage breeders to keep their mares and foals at New York State farms, the Fund has firm rules that must be followed to ensure that a foal that is dropped here is eligible to become a registered NY-bred. Breeders must make sure that their mares follow our residency rules, which necessitate that they submit mare movement information to help us establish compliance, allow their mares to be inspected by our field team, and in some cases breed their mare back to a registered New York stallion. It follows that only Thoroughbreds registered by the Fund by virtue of meeting the residency and inspection requirements can be entered in races restricted to NY-breds held at race meets conducted by the New York Racing Association and Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack. Similarly, only registered NY-breds can generate awards for their breeders and owners, as well as for the owners of registered New York stallions. NY-breds can also run in any “open” races in the state and throughout the world. In a public meeting subject to the Open Meetings Law, the Board of Directors of the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund on October 29, 2020 adopted new rules concerning the residency requirements for dams of New York-bred foals, including certain mares purchased at public auction on or after November 1, 2019. These rules became final upon publication in the State Register of New York on or about November 18, 2020, and shall have retroactive effect with regard to eligible mares purchased at public auction sales occurring on or after November 1, 2019. The new rules establish definitions for resident mares and non-resident mares and set forth program eligibility requirements for their foals. Under the new rules, a resident mare is a mare that is continuously in residence in New York State from date of conception in New York State or within 120 days after her last cover in the year of conception occurring outside of New York State, and that remains in the State until foaling the following year, with no breed-back required.