Posts Tagged ‘american quarter horse association’
Friday, October 9th, 2009
By Ray Paulick
Richard Fields, the owner of Suffolk Downs in East Boston, Mass., is no shrinking violet when it comes to business. The one-time owner of the Catch a Rising Star comedy clubs became a real-life apprentice to Donald Trump and later trumped The Donald on a billion-dollar deal to develop the Seminole Indian tribe’s Hard Rock casinos in Hollywood and Tampa, Fla.
 But by all accounts Fields is just an old softie when it comes to animals. He is a generous supporter of horse retirement and retraining programs, including the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and CANTER New England. Under his urging, Suffolk Downs became the first track to establish a policy banning trainers whose horses ended up being sold or transported to slaughter plants. He’s also been a longtime supporter of the American Quarter Horse Association Foundation and many of its youth programs, through the Fields Family Foundation and Jackson Land & Cattle, his ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyo., where Fields keeps some retired Thoroughbreds himself.
“I wish we had 10 track owners like him,” a prominent New York Thoroughbred horseman recently told me.
Fields bought Suffolk Downs in 2007 when it appeared the track might be on the ropes for the second time in 20 years. Suffolk was closed for more than two years until the late James Moseley took control and brought it back to life in 1992. During his all-too-short tenure as chairman of the board (Moseley died in 1998), Suffolk Downs enjoyed a revival, highlighted by back-to-back victories in the 1995-96 Massachusetts Handicap by two-time Horse of the Year Cigar. But the economics worsened following Moseley’s death, and Coastal Development, a company owned by Fields, bought controlling interest with the hope of bringing Suffolk Downs back to some semblance of its glory days.
The track opened in 1935 to more than 35,000 fans, and over the next 20 years, crowds upward of 60,000 showed up to see such racing stars as Seabiscuit, War Admiral, Whirlaway and Stymie. The Beatles came to Suffolk Downs for an infield concert in 1966 that attracted more than 25,000 screaming fans. A few years later, legendary Major League Baseball team owner Bill Veeck (as in wreck) took over management of the track, which by then was in steep decline, bringing his unique and sometimes outrageous brand of marketing to horse racing. (Veeck sent a midget to the plate as a pinch hitter when he owned the Cleveland Indians, had the first exploding scoreboard with fireworks at Comiskey Park in Chicago, dressed his 1970s version of the White Sox in shorts, and had the mother of all bad promotions in 1979, disco demolition night, which resulted in an inside the park riot and cancellation of the second game of a doubleheader ).
There are a couple of odd holdovers from Veeck’s short-lived management of the track: a huge, wood-paneled office he had built, complete with fireplace, overlooking the turf club dining room and racetrack. It currently sits empty, as something of a tribute to Veeck. Adjacent to the office is one-of-a-kind shower, with a dozen evenly-spaced water jets, that Veeck would use after making his morning rounds on the backstretch. (Veeck had a “peg leg” he removed for bathing purposes and apparently had difficulty using a standard shower.)
Back to Fields. He’s done more than demonstrate a real concern for the animals who are at the heart of this game. His humane policies on that front attracted the attention of horse owners Tracy and Carol Farmer and trainer Nick Zito, who cited Fields’ anti-slaughter position when deciding to race recently retired Commentator in the 2008 MassCap. In addition, while recognizing the importance of good corporate citizenship, Fields and his management team have instituted a number of outreach programs, headed by the Community Winner’s Circle, which recognizes individuals and groups who have dedicated themselves to worthy causes in the surrounding communities. It’s a special Saturday program that runs over the first two months of the meeting each spring.
Suffolk Downs is also the host of the Greater Boston Walk Now for Autism. In its first year in 2007, more than 16,000 walkers circled the dirt track, and the 2008 walk attracted more than 20,000 individuals raising money and awareness for the Autism Speaks charity. All told, the track supports nearly 90 charities.
Fields said his goal when he bought controlling interest of Suffolk Downs was to keep Thoroughbred racing alive in New England, and he injected new life immediately by increasing marketing budgets with an eye toward rebuilding the fan base. But he has bigger plans for the facility than simply offering live racing. He hopes to get legislative support allowing him to build a destination resort casino at Suffolk Downs, something that hasn’t been easy to accomplish.
The drive for a resort casino led to the formation of the Coalition for Jobs and Growth (click here for information). Among other things, the organization’s web site keeps an ongoing tally of how much money Massachusetts residents are gambling in the neighboring states of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine (the current amount exceeds $700 million for the year). Fields and his management team are hoping to convince legislators that a resort casino in the Boston area (as opposed to a racino or racing operation with slot machines) offers the best chance to greatly increase tax revenue to the state and revive horse racing at Suffolk Downs.
Is this native New Yorker (Fields was born and raised in the Bronx) practicing good corporate citizenship and providing a safer haven for horses merely as a means to convince legislators to pass the casino legislation? I don’t think so. But even if that was the case, he is giving horse racing a good name in New England, a major market that has a great and long association with the sport. It’s a market we can’t afford to lose.
Liberation Farm celebrates the many horsemen and horsewomen who strive each day to make things better for horses and those who work with them. To learn more about Liberation Farm, click here.
Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report
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Tags: american quarter horse association, Bill Veeck, CANTER, Catch a Rising Star, Coalition for Jobs and Growth, Donald Trump, Fields Family Foundation, Good News Friday, Jackson Land & Cattle, liberation farm, nick zito, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, richard fields, suffolk downs, thoroughbred retirement foundation
Posted in Good News Friday, Race Tracks | 15 Comments »
Monday, December 29th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
One of the first projects that landed on my desk when I joined the Thoroughbred Times as managing editor in 1988 was a feature story on the Jockey Club, the organization historically entrusted with registering Thoroughbreds and being the keeper of the Stud Book. The article was accompanied by a lengthy mail-in survey of Thoroughbred Times readers. The story and the survey results were of great interest, for at the time I had no idea how broadly the Jockey Club reached across the entire industry and how unhappy rank and file breeders then were with the organization’s service, pricing and activities.
It should be noted that there was an agenda to the article. The Thoroughbred Times was then owned by Richard F. Broadbent, whose Bloodstock Research Information Services was facing new competition from a subsidiary of the Jockey Club. There were questions about whether a tax-exempt breed registry like the Jockey Club should create a subsidiary to compete with a private enterprise company like BRIS, which supplied statistical data to breeders, owners and various publications. A few years later, the Jockey Club helped form another for-profit company, Equibase, which competed with the Daily Racing Form to collect racing results (the Form eventually closed its track and field operations and became Equibase’s biggest customer). The Jockey Club has since started other for-profit businesses.
One of the things that struck me was the comparison between how the Jockey Club and the American Quarter Horse Association conduct their business. The Jockey Club is clearly a breed apart from its Quarter Horse counterpart. The AQHA, then and now, is a relatively transparent organization, one whose membership is open and whose leadership is democratically elected through regional and national elections. There is a board of directors, from which comes an executive committee and elected officers. The AQHA has term limits that prevent individuals from maintaining longstanding control of the organization. The AQHA web site publishes a great deal of information about its governance and membership rules, which can be read here.
 By comparison, membership in the Jockey Club has always been by invitation only. Click here for an explanation about membership. It is "governed" by a rotating board of stewards, though that term is used loosely since the Jockey Club has been under the firm control of just two men since 1982, when Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps was named chairman and William S. Farish became vice chairman (pictured left). Click here to see the current list of Jockey Club members, stewards, and officers.
The AQHA is a huge organization that maintains the registration of more than five million Quarter Horses, with 135,000 registered in 2007 alone. There are nearly 350,000 AQHA members. According to Internal Revenue Service Form 990 for tax exempt organizations, the AQHA generated $54.4 million in revenue in the 2005-06 fiscal year, the most recent year available. At that time it had $73 million in total assets, including nearly $49 million in investment securities. Click here for the AQHA Form 990.
The AQHA, like the Jockey Club, maintains pedigree records, but also promotes the Quarter Horse breed through horse shows and publishes three magazines (the Quarter Horse Journal, the Quarter Horse Racing Journal, and America’s Horse) that had total circulation of over 400,000 in 2006.
The AQHA charges as little as $25 to register a Quarter Horse foal if done within seven months of birth. The organization is based in Amarillo, Texas, and its highest-paid officer, longtime executive vice president Billie G. Brewer, earned an annual salary of $424,928; treasurer Lee Callaway was paid $221,965 (both figures are from the IRS Form 990.) The two executive salaries represented 5.5% of the AQHA’s total payroll of $11,725,124.
The Jockey Club is also a rich organization, one that is exempt from federal taxes but also has several wholly owned for-profit subsidiaries. The Jockey Club’s 2006 IRS Form 990 states that it registered 37,300 foals that year. The Jockey Club generated $13.2 million in revenue in 2006, the most recent year the figures are available. It claimed $32 million in total assets, including $21.6 million in investment securities. Click here for the Jockey Club Form 990.
In addition, the Jockey Club claimed that its subsidiaries generated over $25.7 million in income for 2006 ($13.7 million by TJC Holdings Inc. & Subsidiaries, which is engaged in information services and software solutions; $4.9 million by The Jockey Club Racing Services, for the collection of Thoroughbred racing data; and $7.1 million by The Jockey Club Technology Services, Inc., for its technology services). Click here for more information on those subsidiaries, which include shared ownership in the data collection company Equibase, and full ownership of TJCIS (The Jockey Club Information Systems and data supplier Equineline), and InCompass Solutions, which provides software systems for racetracks.
The Jockey Club’s IRS Form 990 lists its annual Round Table Conference in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., publication of its Fact Book, and providing financial support to other industry organizations among reasons for its tax-exempt status, in addition to its breed-registry responsibilities.
The Jockey Club charges $200 to register a Thoroughbred foal, considerably higher than the AQHA’s fee. Its last increase was in 2000, when it was upped from $175. The Jockey Club, which for many years was known as the “New York Jockey Club,” relocated its registration department from New York to Kentucky in 1988.
 Its highest-paid officer is president Alan Marzelli (pictured, left), who earned $672,796 in 2006, 58% more than the AQHA’s top executive. The Jockey Club has three executive vice presidents: James Gagliano, with a salary of $256,885; Daniel Fick, $243,546; and Laura Banllaro, $243,804. IRS Form 990 also lists but does not itemize another $542,776 in 2006 pension plan contributions for those officers. The salaries represented 39.1% of the Jockey Club’s total payroll of $3,626,092 (exclusive of its subsidiaries, each of which have its own executive staff and employees).
The Jockey Club’s 2006 tax return came to light recently when an entity called “CTBA Boardwatch” (which generally concerns itself with the inner workings of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association) distributed IRS Form 990 to numerous individuals. A number of those people contacted the Paulick Report and were outraged over the salaries paid to Marzelli and his three executive vice presidents.
I don’t know the going rate of executive compensation for a tax-exempt company in New York, where three of the four Jockey Club officers are based (only Dan Fick, a former AQHA executive, is located in the Lexington offices of the Jockey Club). Perhaps those numbers are perfectly in line with other non-profits. I would imagine, though, that the going rate for an executive staff is higher in New York than it would be in Kentucky.
It does seem strange to me that the Jockey Club continues to maintain a nicely appointed office in the high-rent district of midtown Manhattan, on 52nd Street just off Park Avenue. I doubt that it’s gotten many walk-in customers seeking to register their foals since the registration department was moved to Lexington more than 20 years ago. It is conveniently located near the headquarters of Bessemer Trust, the Phipps family-run wealth management firm whose offices are just a few blocks away on Fifth Avenue.
I asked Jockey Club communications officer Bob Curran why the Jockey Club continues to have a New York office 20 years after the organization’s primary function was relocated to Lexington. A few days later I received the following statement from Jockey Club president Marzelli: “Beginning in 1989, when the first of our commercial subsidiaries was incorporated, The Jockey Club has created and developed a group of for-profit subsidiaries and strategic partnerships, each designed to serve specific segments within the industry by utilizing highly efficient, state-of-the-art technology platforms. We have built and managed this growing list of technology-based companies with a corporate office based in New York and operations centers in Lexington, Ky., and Mountain View, Calif.”
That didn’t really answer the question “why a New York office is necessary” although it did tell me something I didn’t know; namely, that the Jockey Club now has a division in California’s high-tech Silicon Valley town of Mountain View.
The bigger question is who is the Jockey Club accountable to. Is it simply Phipps and Farish and their hand-picked stewards? Is the breeders who have paid registration fees over the 100-plus years of its existence? Is the Thoroughbred industry at large? If there is accountability to the industry, why isn’t there more transparency in the operational and financial activities of the Jockey Club and its various subsidiaries? Why is its membership so restrictive and its governance so secretive?
James Gagliano, one of the aforementioned executive vice presidents, touched on some of these questions, during the Jockey Club Round Table in August in which he discussed some of the activities of the Jockey Club and its affiliate for-profit companies. Click here to read Gagliano’s remarks.
Are you satisfied that the Jockey Club is properly and responsibly representing the best interests of the Thoroughbred industry? Let us know in the comment section below, or take the Daily Paulick Poll about the Jockey Club and its activities, located on the left-hand column of the Paulick Report home page.
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
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Tags: Alan Marzelli, american quarter horse association, aqha, bessemer, bessemer trust, billie brewer, billie g. brewer, bloodstock research information services, bob curran, breed registry, bris, california thoroughbred breeders association, ctba, ctba boardwatch, daily racing form, dan fick, Dinny Phipps, equibase, Horse Racing, incompass, james gagliano, Jockey Club, jockey club racing services, jockey club round table, jockey club steward, jockey club survey, jockey club technology services, laura banllaro, Ogden Mills Phipps, Paulick Report, phipps family, quarter horse, Ray Paulick, richard f. broadbent, the jockey club information systems, thoroughbred, Thoroughbred breeding, thoroughbred times, tjc, tjc holdings, tjcis, Will Farish, William S. Farish
Posted in Breeding, Industry Organizations, Jockey Club, daily racing form | 27 Comments »
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
National Thoroughbred Racing Association CEO Alex Waldrop said his organization neither opposes nor supports a U.S. House of Representatives bill that would criminalize transportation of horses with the intention they be slaughtered for human consumption. A letter from Waldrop expressing the NTRA’s neutrality was entered into the record on Wednesday by Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) during a markup hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on H.B. 6598, known as the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008.
The bill, introduced in July, is sponsored by Democratic Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers of Michigan and 11 other House members.
In his letter to Congress, Waldrop said the NTRA supported 2003 anti-slaughter legislation, which failed to pass. He did not reference support or opposition to current legislation before the House (H.B. 103) and Senate (S.B. 311) that would prohibit slaughter and transportation to slaughter plants.
Those bills will prohibit slaughter, while H.R. 6598 criminalizes transportation of horses to slaughter plants for human consumption by amending federal criminal law and calling for fines and imprisonment. There currently are no slaughter plants operating in the U.S., the two in Texas having been shut down by a court ruling and a plant in Illinois shuttered after a state law was passed. There has been an increase in the number of horses being transported across the borders into Canada and Mexico, however, and this law provides enforcement for federal officials to end that. Horses confiscated would be under the jusisdiction of the attorney general, who, according to the bill, “shall provide for the humane placement or other humane disposition of any horse seized.”
Waldrop’s difficulty in supporting or opposing the bill stems from the makeup of the NTRA membership, which is funded in part by organizations such as the American Quarter Horse Association and the American Association of Equine Practitioners, which have opposed anti-slaughter legislation.
Passage of the bills seems a longshot with time running out during the current session of Congress.
Following is the text of Waldrop’s letter, citing the NTRA’s neutrality and concerns with the bill:
Dear Representative:
It has come to my attention that the House Judiciary Committee plans to mark up H.R. 6598, the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008. As you may know, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) has previously supported another bill to ban the slaughter of horses, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 857), introduced in 2003.
We are now examining H.R. 6598, but have reached no decision as to whether we would support or oppose this legislation. After an initial review, we have some concerns with the bill and potential unintended consequences, notably that:
- The bill would require the Attorney General to provide for the humane placement or other humane disposition of any horse seized in connection with an offense under this section. As an organization deeply involved in the care of horses every day, we have concern that this requirement (for the Department of Justice, with no known capacity to care for seized horses) could result in improper treatment.
- Simply adding criminal penalties – while not providing procedural guidelines or funding for the care and treatment of abandoned horses – will likely only exacerbate the situation. While supporters of this bill might believe that adding criminal penalties would cure the problem, it could easily make it worse.
These are but a few of the questions that we and our members are examining.
With all due respect, I believe that prior legislation dealt with this issue in a more comprehensive way, was designed to address some of the possible unintended consequences that we find troubling, and was on the whole better legislation for horses and horse owners. We continue to examine this legislation but these concerns remain.
Finally, several anti-slaughter advocacy groups, including the Humane Society of the United States and Animal Welfare Institute, listed the NTRA as supporters of this legislation before consulting us. We trust that they, and any other third party with whom you may have spoken relative to the NTRA’s position, have clarified that they claimed our endorsement before discussing our concerns with them. Our association takes no position on this bill at this time.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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Tags: aaep, alex waldrop, american association of equine practitioners, american quarter horse association, animal welfare, anti-slaughter legislation, aqha, bob goodlatte, congress, h.b. 103, h.r. 6598, horse slaughter, john conyers, judiciary committee, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, NTRA, prevention of equine cruelty act, s.b. 311, u.s. house of representatives, u.s. senate, unwanted horse coalition, unwanted horses
Posted in Congressional Hearing, Horse Slaughter, Horse Welfare, Industry Organizations, Industry Reform, National Thoroughbred Racing Association | 42 Comments »
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