JOCKEY CLUB: ALL ABOUT CONTROL
One of the staples of the Jockey Club Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing, to be held this Sunday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is a report on the activities of the Jockey Club, whose primary responsibility to the industry is registering Thoroughbreds and approving the names horses are given.
Of course, the Jockey Club wants to do much, much more than that, and its executive team, led by president Alan Marzelli, has focused on building the organization’s “family of companies” to include the collection and commercial sales of racing, breeding and auction data, the sale of handicapping information, software development, and technology services to racetracks, farms and other businesses in the industry. Either Marzelli or chief administrative officer James Gagliano will report on Sunday that every branch of the company is doing an outstanding job.
What you won’t hear in the report is how the tentacles of the Jockey Club and some of its individual members strategically reach into various organizations and businesses in an effort to exert control throughout the Thoroughbred industry.
To quote from the book, “The Right Blood: America’s Aristocrats in Thoroughbred Racing,” by Carole Case: “This is a story about money and power, and about a particular group of rich and powerful Americans—the men (and a very few women) of the Jockey Club. With its founding in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century, the Club took the reins of Thoroughbred racing in the United States, and it has never entirely let them go. For more than a century, then, the Jockey Club has dominated horseracing in this country.”
For better or worse, the Jockey Club, which has been ruled since 1982 by chairman Dinny Phipps and vice chairman William S. Farish, has considerable power over the Breeders’ Cup, Keeneland, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and its American Graded Stakes Committee, Bloodhorse magazine, and the New York Racing Association, among others.
Here’s a quick rundown.
– William Farish’s son, Bill, is the board chairman of the Breeders’ Cup, which before its governance was changed a few years ago, had been tightly controlled by the senior Farish and his longtime friend and horse business partner G. Watts Humphrey. The battle over control of the Breeders’ Cup board has been detailed by previous articles in the Paulick Report..
– The senior Farish replaced Ted Bassett in 2006 as one of the three trustees who oversees Keeneland’s operations. Keeeland’s president, Nick Nicholson, is a former executive with the Jockey Club. There is some speculation that one of the senior Farish’s goals is to expand Keeneland to the point where it can bid to become a permanent host for the Breeders’ Cup, making it the Augusta National of the racing industry.. An expansion is on the drawing board now, with Keeneland making a possible Breeders’ Cup bid as early as 2011.
– The NTRA board is populated by several Jockey Club members, including Humphrey and Robert Clay, plus Jockey Club president Marzelli, and three racetrack executives — Nicholson of Keeneland, Bob Elliston of Turfway Park (owned in part by Keeneland), and Charles Hayward of the New York Racing Association, which has been controlled by Phipps for more than 30 years. At one point, the NTRA and Jockey Club shared office space in New York.
– The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association has had some semblance of independence from the Jockey Club in recent years, through its chairman, Bill Casner, who is not a Jockey Club member but has been asked to speak at Sunday’s Round Table. Casner was recently succeeded by Reynolds Bell, currently a steward of the Jockey Club and a bloodstock agent whose major client is Farish’s Lane’s End Farm. Dell Hancock, whose family’s Claiborne Farm boards the Phipps family mares, served as chair of the American Graded Stakes Committee until recently being succeeded by Peter Willmot. Steve Duncker, currently the board chairman of NYRA, was a previous Graded Stakes Commiteee chair.
– Stuart Janney is chairman of Bloodhorse magazine, whose board also includes Bill Farish, G. Watts Humphrey, D.G. Van Clief, and Antony Beck—all Jockey Club members with the exception of Beck, who is very close friends with Bill Farish. Janney is a Jockey Club steward, a cousin of Dinny Phipps, and chairman of Bessemer Trust, the company founded by Phipps’ great-grandfather. He succeeded Humphrey as chairman, who in turn succeeded Bayard Sharp, Farish’s late father-in-law.
– The New York Racing Association’s close relationship with the Jockey Club is no secret. Its tracks serve as playgrounds for many Jockey Club members, most notably Dinny Phipps, who has the most desired finish line boxes at the NYRA tracks. The Jockey Club even has offices at the New York tracks. The Jockey Club once officially ruled New York racing, but lost its official control when a horseman named Jule Fink went to court after being denied an owner’s license. NYRA’s board is populated with Jockey Club members, and its chairman, Steve Duncker, like most chairman before him, is a member of the Club as well.
The tentacles clearly reach into breed associations, regulatory agencies and other organizations throughout racing and breeding.
What isn’t clear is why the Jockey Club, led by its chairman and vice chairman, wants so desperately to control the industry, and what they plan to do with that control.
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Email Flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray Paulick.Tags: Alan Marzelli, american graded stakes committee, Antony Beck, augusta national, bessemer trust, Bill Casner, Bill Farish, bloodhorse, bob elliston, Breeders' Cup, charles hayward, Claiborne Farm, D.G. Van Clief, dell hancock, Dinny Phipps, G. Watts Humphrey, Jockey Club, jule fink, Keeneland, Lane's End, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, New York Racing Association, nick nicholson, NTRA, nyra, Ogden Mills Phipps, peter willmot, reynolds bell, Robert Clay, steve duncker, stuart janney, Ted Bassett, Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, TOBA, william farish
August 15th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Wow, the accumulated wealth of this group is incredible! It’s no wonder Phipps & Co. were able to persuade NY legislators, particualarly Governor Spitzer, to renew the NYRA franchise after clearly losing the case on merits. Money is certainly a powerful weapon when it comes to influencing big time political determinations. I wonder if The Jockey Club and NYRA poo-bahs really ever think about, or even know about, opinions and columns like this one here? If they did, one would hope that they clearly understand the messages and obvious discontent, and then think more about the survival of the sport rather than protecting their individual fifedoms. Keep up the revealing posts Mr. Paulick.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:09 am
You seem a little hung up on the Jockey Club, Ray. Are they really that evil? They must be doing something right. Look at all the positive things going on now in racing because of the Jockey Club. Like…? And…..?
Oh never mind.
Maybe you are right. Time for these old cruds to step aside and give someone with different last names the chance to lead.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
The old cruds trying to hold the fort together from behind blinding cigar smoke are being choked by oxygen, that is uncensored, instant information and progressive exchange of ideas in cyberspace.
JJ… If you are Curly’s JJ, thanks for the fuel, vino and Curly.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
What good is having all this control if they don’t do anything with it? For the life of me, it makes no sense. It seems as if their motive is to prevent, in a defensive fashion & at all costs, any form of change. The problems in racing are not going to be fixed by banning steroids and toe grabs. Does anyone really think that forcing those initiatives down everyone’s throat constitues some kind of major sea-change that will save our sport and industry? Yet that’s the only proactive thing TJC’s done in over 25 years. It’s outrageous. The only skillsets they possess involve registering thoroughbreds and naming them. The Jockey Club should have no responsibilities for anything other than that. Period.
August 15th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Why do they want control you ask? Because it’s what they think they’re entitled to!!!! These people don’t know anything other than “rights” and “privilege”. In their warped sense of self, they probably think they’re an asset to Tbrd racing and breeding. Can you honestly imagine either Phipps or Farish taking an assessment of who and what they really are? NEVER. They are the classic example of “the emperor has no clothes”. I certainly don’t know anyone in the industry with any “standing” who would ever so much as “question” either about ANY issue. I hope that can change one day, but they’ll need to be a couple of obituaries written first……shouldn’t be too far down the road.
August 16th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Since Phipps and Farish Senior want to control thoroughbred racing, why don’t they layout a plan for a turnaround? If they are so intent on controlling the sport, it should be simple for them to state their “specific” goals. What are they going to do to make it better. Just controlling all the important boards is a joke. They haven’t done anything but make things worse for the last 20 years. Losing control of what they deem as theirs is one of our biggest problems. They seem to be incompetent at best.
August 16th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Lord Acton wrote these words about ten years before The Jockey Club was formed in New York. There is no other organization in these United States to which the statement applies so absolutely.
TJC power springs from it’s role as Keeper of the American Stud Book. That is the fountainhead for all other activities.
There is no skill in keeping the Stud Book. It is just a record-keeping function. Simple task that it is, the Book has numerous errors which TJC has not made a move to correct.
They have a wonderfully bureaucratic good-time in applying their silly rules on naming.
First of all, there is no requirement in the “Rules” that a horse be given a name. It is when an owner applies for a name their funtime begins. If the “processor” does not like the name for which you apply, your chance of approval is near zero. They have enough “rules” to find a reason to reject. It is their ultimate demonstration of POWER.
I have a list of hundreds of names that clearly violate the “rules”. A quick review of those names suggests approval all depends on the identity of the applicant or the ignorance of the processor. The real problem is in the state regulations which require a horse to be named by TJC to be recognized as a Thoroughbred and allowed to race. Clearly that gives TJC arbitrary power to decide who shall or shall not be eligible to race.
With that enormous power, recently upheld by US Federal Court, it is plain to see why a challenge of TJC is rare. I know, because I am the only person on record in the last fifty years that has challenged their power to ignore our Constitution. The judges almost gave themselves a judicial hernia bending the First Amendment to suit TJC’s position. Made me wonder just how far it’s tentacles of power can actually reach.
So, if reformers want to wrest control away from The Jockey Club, it must begin by making it divest keeping of the Stud Book. That task properly belongs to a democratically elected group of breeders, each of whom owns the information relating to their horse. There should not be an “owner” of the American Stud Book.
The benefits of breeder-ownership are incalculable. First, we could cut in half the cost of registration. Then, if TJC needs to have that information to feed it’s other, enormously profitable operations, breeders can sell it to TJC.
Greatest benefit of all: we would have freedom from the poobahs and can start our business on the road to recovery.
August 17th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
“sport of kings”?