For decades, the Thoroughbred racing industry has operated less like a unified sport and more like a collection of feuding factions. 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.
At Adelphi Racing Club, we want to move past the rhetoric and make actual progress. We are ready to launch a new ground-up aftercare initiative, but to do it right, we need the industry's collective expertise to solve a critical piece of the puzzle.
Nowhere is the need for collective action clearer than in our responsibility to the horses themselves. Many industry participants have repeatedly and rightfully, on this platform, called on the industry to support Thoroughbred aftercare in a meaningful way. Historically, top-down institutional mandates have left massive funding gaps. It is time for a ground-up approach driven by the participants themselves.
We are launching the framework for a Net-Neutral Aftercare Program, a concept inspired by the “carbon neutral” models of other industries. The goal is simple. Participants actively fund the lifetime retirement gap for their entire roster of incoming horses (2-year-olds) to ensure their stable's footprint is entirely “neutral.”
We understand how the lifecycle works. A percentage of horses will have their lifetime care covered “naturally” through breeding value or successful private placement into second careers. Others will require decades of intensive sanctuary care. A portion of that care is already cushioned by current, excellent aftercare donations and registry programs.
But to make this program viable, we must accurately define the baseline. And that is where we need the industry's help.
The Roadblock: Defining “Natural” and Challenging the Math
To launch this effectively, we need to move past guesswork. If a stable brings six 2-year-olds into the ecosystem, how do we correctly estimate the real lifetime gap?
We need to collectively define what percentage of horses “naturally” exit the racing cycle into self-sustaining situations versus those who will rely entirely on the aftercare safety net. What is the true, adjusted dollar amount required per crop to bridge that gap?
If the true average lifetime gap to protect a horse after racing is $1,000 (a purely demonstrative figure), then a stable bringing in six horses would need to generate $6,000 in dedicated funding to achieve net-neutrality. But before Adelphi, or any other stable, writes that check, the math must be checked.
Adelphi Racing Club is ready to champion this model, but we cannot calculate the data in a vacuum.
We are challenging the industry participants reading this–the analysts, bloodstock agents, trainers, track executives, aftercare organizations, The Jockey Club, owners, and breeders, to come to the table. Help us analyze the transition percentages, define what a “natural” transition truly looks like, and calculate a definitive, universally accepted baseline figure.
Once we have that mathematically sound baseline, the blueprint is there for every owner and breeder to do their part from the ground up. Let's stop waiting for an institutional savior. Let's work together, let's define the math, and let's make some tangible progress.
Matt Cutair has owned horses on the New York racing circuit for over 20 years, starting out as a partner with Sovereign Stables, eventually running under his own stable, Cutair Racing, and now running the Adelphi Racing Club partnership group. Cutair currently owns and campaigns over 35 horses in New York (with more than half of them being New York breds). In addition to his racing interests, he also owns New York based broodmares and has a small group of retired horses (including OTTB's) stabled at the barn at his primary residence in nearby Greenwich, CT.
The post Letter to the Editor: A Ground-Up Solution: the Net-Neutral Aftercare Program appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
