The Jockey Club

John Deere, Keeneland, and The Jockey Club will be presenting sponsors of the 52nd Annual Eclipse Awards, honoring Thoroughbred racing's champions of 2022, to be held Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, at The Breakers Palm Beach, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced Wednesday. "We are grateful to John Deere, Keeneland, and The Jockey Club for their partnership in serving as this year's presenting sponsors for the Eclipse Awards," said Tom Rooney, President and CEO of the NTRA. "We're very excited to welcome the Thoroughbred industry to The Breakers to celebrate the...

Officials at The Jockey Club have announced that it is budgeting to make a record executive contribution of £31.1 million for 2023. That figure is ahead by £2.7 million year-on-year and continues the upward trend of the last decade, where fully 93% of The Jockey Club's financial growth has been reinvested back into prize money (between 2012 and the pandemic, The Jockey Club has grown its core operating profit before prize money by £10.6 million per annum and put £9.9 million--93.4%--of this into prize money). The 9.5% rise in the...

"Twelve-thousand dollars going once...twice...SOLD!" It was the Keeneland November Sale and for the second time in a year I had to watch my big beautiful chestnut mare slip out of reach. The former black-type runner was vanned 2,100 miles away to her next venture as a broodmare prospect despite having previously failed to conceive. Six years later, I would be paying that mare's bail from a Texas livestock yard after she failed to produce but one foal who has yet to race. A graded stakes-placed mare from humble beginnings with...

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) and the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA) announced that a team led by Brendan Kumagai has been selected as the winner of the inaugural Big Data Derby competition, beating out 105 other submissions for first prize. Kumagai, together with Gurashish Bagga, Kimberly Kroetch, Tyrel Stokes, and Liam Welsh, took the $20,000 first prize with the submission, "Bayesian Velocity Models for Horse Race Simulation." Kumagai's team created a dynamic model that focused on horses' forward versus lateral speed and examined the results of...

The Jockey Club will increase the fees for horses being imported, exported, and returned, as well as associated late payments, by $50 after they've stayed at the same level since 2013. The updated fee schedule will go into effect Jan. 1. Following is the new fee schedule: Certificate of Export $225 if all requirements are met within 60 days from departure from the U.S., Canada, or Puerto Rico  $475 if all requirements are met after 60 days from departure from the U.S., Canada, or Puerto Rico Certificate of Foreign Registration...

Keith Doleshel, fined $2,000 by the New York Gaming Commission for "failing to conduct business in a professional manner," will appeal that ruling before the commission, and has retained attorney Drew Mollica to represent him, according to Mollica. The ruling stemmed from an incident at Saratoga in which an unauthorized agent was allowed to claim a horse this past summer. The New York State rules of racing require that an individual be licensed with the Gaming Commission and registered with The Jockey Club. After the claim, NYRA officials informed the...

Applications are now open for The Jockey Club (TJC)'s five academic scholarships, which apply to the 2023-24 academic year. Applications close Feb. 1, 2023, with recipients to be announced in the spring. The five available scholarships, worth a total of $76,000, are as follows: The Jockey Club Scholarship ($15,000; $7,500 per semester): available for students in academic pursuit of majors for future employment in the equine industry. Open to any equine breed or discipline; preference will be given to candidates with the expressed desire to secure employment in the Thoroughbred...

Ontario Racing's Thoroughbred Improvement Program's (TIP) Mare Purchase Program (MPP) is back in time for the upcoming breeding stock sales, with a total budget of $800,000. The MPP provides Ontario residents, who purchase an in-foal mare at a recognized public auction outside of Ontario, a rebate of 50% of the purchase price up to $25,000 CAD. There is a maximum distribution of $75,000 CAD for any one individual, partnership, corporation or other ownership group. The MPP is operated on a first come, first served basis, and in order to qualify...

The Jockey Club has released its Report of Mares Bred (RMB) statistics for the 2022 breeding season. Through Oct. 18, 2022 and based on the RMBs received, a total of 925 stallions covered 27,163 mares in North America this year, a decrease of the reported 27,829 mares from 2021. In Kentucky, the state's 196 reported stallions served 16,689 mares, a number which translates to 61.4% of all breeding activity in North America. That number reflects a decrease of 0.2% from last year when 16,727 mares were reported as bred in...

The Fashionable Fillies Luncheon, a long-time fixture at Saratoga and added at Santa Anita this year, will be held in Lexington as part of the Breeders' Cup Festival Week. The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation will host the event at Jeff Ruby's on Nov. 2 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with TOPSINLEX as media partner. The event will honor Middlebrook Farm's Helen Alexander and Keeneland's Shannon Arvin, both The Jockey Club members and Safety Net trustees. The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation is a charitable trust which provides, on...

Some 38 works of art with a combined estimated value of $900,000 to $1.3 million from The Jockey Club will be auctioned off in Sotheby's Sporting Life Sale, with online bidding open from Oct. 14-25. Leading the group is a significant painting by John Frederick Herring Sr., titled: The 1828 Doncaster St. Leger Won by The Colonel, which is estimated to fetch between $400,000 and $600,000. John Frederick Herring Sr.'s series of racing pictures inspired by the 1828 St Leger S. are some of his most highly prized sporting works...

The Jockey Club (TJC) announced Wednesday that breedings in 2021 have resulted in 18,609 live foals of 2022. At this same time last year, The Jockey Club reported that the breedings had resulted in 19,021 live foals, which marks a year-over-year decline of 2.2%. The foal crop has declined every year since 2015 and was at 35,274 as recently as 2008. The Jockey Club estimated that the number of live foals reported so far is 85-90% complete. In total, 1,303 stallions covered 29,065 mares, according to statistics compiled through Oct....