Adelphi Racing Club@AdelphiClub
The Choice Facing Thoroughbred Racing: Row Together, or Sink Alone
For decades, the Thoroughbred racing industry has operated less like a unified sport and more like a collection of feudal kingdoms. We protect our individual borders, engage in bitter internal disputes, and litigate our differences in the court of public opinion. While we have been busy fighting over our slice of the pie, however, the pie itself has been shrinking.
We find ourselves in a defining moment for the future of our sport. We face a stark choice - we can continue our negative focus, public infighting, and short-sighted posturing, or we can finally get into the same boat and row in the same direction. In a contracting industry, collaboration isn't just a buzzword, it is a requirement for survival.
So, in the spirit of making actual progress, I’m asking you to take a minute to look at an idea for aftercare, challenge the math, and join me in making it a reality.
A Ground-Up Solution for Aftercare
Nowhere is this need for collective action clearer than in our responsibility to the horses themselves. @RepoleStable has repeatedly and rightfully, on this platform, called on the industry to support Thoroughbred aftercare in a meaningful way. Historically, we have watched the industry fail at a top-down approach to fully funding aftercare. Mandates and administrative programs only go so far. It is time we try a ground-up approach, one driven by the participants themselves.
We can look to other industries for inspiration. Let’s create a "carbon neutral" equivalent for horse racing: a Net-Neutral Aftercare Program. The concept is simple- participants actively fund the lifetime retirement gap for their entire roster of incoming horses (2-year-olds).
We know how the lifecycle works. Some horses will have their lifetime care covered naturally through breeding or private placement. Some will need decades of intensive sanctuary care. A portion of that care is already cushioned by current, excellent aftercare donations and existing registry programs. But a massive funding gap remains.
If the average lifetime gap to protect a horse after racing is $7,000 (a completely made up and demonstrative figure), and a stable buys six 2-year-olds at auction (or breeds them), that stable's leadership should work to generate $42,000 in dedicated funding to ensure their participation is completely "neutral."
I have wanted to implement this exact model for Adelphi Racing Club for a while now, but the roadblock has always been data…finding an accurate, universally accepted way to calculate that specific "gap" per horse figure.
I am challenging the industry participants reading this…The analysts, the bloodstock agents, the trainers, the tracks and track executives, the aftercare organizations, the Jockey Club, the owners and the breeders…To come together and help us calculate that definitive baseline figure. Once we have it, I challenge every owner and breeder to do their part from the ground up to fill that gap for their own stable of horses. Let’s stop waiting for an institutional savior. Let's work together, let's lead, and let's actually make some tangible progress.
-Matt C
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