Part of the purpose behind any state’s Thoroughbred de-velopment fund is to bring new commerce into the area, and of course, a horse’s economic impact doesn’t stop at its board bill. Everything from the trailer that hauls horses into the state to the nails that hold their shoes on helps drive small businesses.

In New York, where the breeding industry has been on the upswing for several seasons in a row, some parts of its Thoroughbred infrastructure is growing faster than others.

Veterinary services in New York have expanded rapidly in the past few years. Rood and Riddle partner Dr. Scott Ahlschwede moved to Saratoga Springs in 2012. In three short years, Rood and Riddle has gone from a two-person New York branch to a full-service hospital with nine physi-cians that is this year undergoing an “extreme makeover.”

Ahlschwede reported that the renovation, set to be fin-ished later this year, will quadruple the practice’s square footage and include a new surgery facility modeled after Rood and Riddle’s Central Kentucky facility, a radiology laboratory, an ambulatory garage, and a nuclear scintig-raphy building with four climate-controlled stalls. Podia-trist Dr. Bob Agne shifted from Central Kentucky to New York full-time in early July, adding to the clinic’s roster of services.

“It’s a huge commitment we’re making to the spot we have here,” said Ahlschwede. “I came up here by myself and got my foot in the door … my business doubled the first year and probably doubled again when we bought the clinic and added some veterinarians.”

This expansion comes even as the Ruffian Equine Medical Center reopened at Belmont Park through Cornell a year ago. The center includes five veterinarians that served an

Empire State: Equine Support Businesses Booming, But Still Room For Growth

By Natalie Voss

SPECIALAugust 16, 2015 www.PaulickReport.com

estimated 1,000 horses in its first year, both Thorough-breds and Standardbreds, as well as a few sport horses. The Ruffian Center also boasts a nuclear scintigraphy machine plus a standing MRI. There are plans to install a CT scanner and aquatread system.

If it seems like that’s a lot of technology in a limited geo-graphic area, Dr. Steven Sedrish of Upstate Equine Medi-cal Center, located just a few miles east of the Rood and Riddle facility, said there’s plenty of room in the New York pool for everyone when it comes to veterinary care.

“When Rood and Riddle opened up we actually saw our business increase. I think there’s a different clientele that they’re drawing from. There’s a really good working rela-tionship between the two hospitals,” said Sedrish.

ASK RAY

QUESTION: Was there ever a better field than the Whitney, with seven Grade 1 winners? ANSWER: Yes. The 1998 Breeders’ Cup Clas-

sic, won by Awesome Again, when nine of the 10 starters were Grade/Group 1 winners. Combined they won 32 Grade/Group 1 races and $37.6 million in their careers.

Continued on Page 5

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Pedigree SpotlightHonorable DillonBy Frank Mitchell

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In the no holds barred arena of stallion competition, there is little fantasizing about what it takes to make a significant sire: winners. Lots of them and the higher the class the better.

Among proven stallions in New York, Freud stands clear. He is an honorable representative of the powerful Storm Cat line, known for its speed, and is a full brother to leading international sire Giant’s Causeway.

In the continuing flux of Thoroughbred breed-ing, however, the king of the mountain in Kentucky these days is Tapit. There has been a changing of the guard, especially in Ameri-can breeding, with a continuing shift toward the A.P. Indy line of horses. As a grandson of A.P. Indy, Tapit stands at the head of the class, along with other important sires like Malibu Moon, Bernardini, Flatter, Stroll, and Congrats.

Tapit, however, is the leading sire, and he has proven that as his books improve, his gross earnings and race results have too. And sons of Tapit are horses that breeders want to use.

Not surprisingly, enterprising breeders brought the Tapit son Honorable Dillon to New York and stood him at Rock-ridge Farm near Hudson, N.Y. They sent him to stud in 2015 with a fee of $5,000 stand and nurse, and breeders nearly trampled the place getting to the stallion.

One of the reasons for the interest in Honorable Dillon is the growing impact of Tapit, who has made himself the lead-ing sire in America with champion juveniles like Stardom Bound and Hansen; classic stock like Tonalist (Belmont), Frosted (Wood Memorial), Careless Jewel (Alabama), and Untapable (Kentucky Oaks); and high-class winners like Con-

stitution (Florida Derby), Joyful Victory (Santa Margarita), Tapizar (Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile), and Zazu (Lady’s Secret).Rockridge’s owner-manager Lere Visagie said, “Honorable Dillon was so fertile that you could count on one hand all the mares who weren’t in foal after his first 60 days at stud. So we kept adding mares.”

The horse’s appeal is not limited to the strength of his sire. Honorable Dillon is a good-looking horse standing 16 hands. He has the balance and quality we have come to expect from the stock by Tapit, and he is a gray, mimicking his famous sire in color and deportment.

Honorable Dillon is out of the Argentine mare Shy Greeting (by Shy Tom), who was stakes-placed in her homeland. In Argentina, Shy Greeting produced Forty Greeta (Roar), a champion 2-year-old filly and twice winner at the G1 level, including the Estrellas Juve-nile Fillies.

Brought to the States, Shy Greeting pro-duced Honorable Dillon, who won the G2

Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream.

The family, although based in Argentina, has some familiar names. The young stallion’s second dam is by top Ameri-can sprinter Groovy and produced a sibling to Shy Greeting who is the dam of Greco Tom, winner of the G1 Estrellas Juniors Sprint. Honorable Dillon’s third dam is G1 winner Gioconda (Good Manners), the dam of Fayette Handicap winner Good Command.

This is the family of Argentine star racehorse and stallion Farnesio, who was produced by Honorable Dillon’s fifth dam.

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RANDOM FACTS by Ray Paulick

Over five years, from 2010 to 2014, the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Preferred Sale has enjoyed steady growth. The sale is up 283 percent in gross revenue (from

$3,676,000 to $14,099,000). Average price gained 105 percent ($39,106 to $80,108) and median is 141 percent ($27,000 to $65,000)

2009 CH M, City Zip – M’Lady Doc, by Doc’s Leader. Consigned by Stone Bridge Farm, agt., to 2010 Fasig-Tipton NY Bred Yearling Sale, purchased by Sarazen Stable for $50,000.

Sometimes it only takes one person believing in a horse’s potential to start them on a champion’s path.

When consignor Niall Brennan saw Dayatthespa at the 2010 Fasig-Tipton New York Bred Yearling Sale, he knew she’d probably get passed over due to an unappealing con-formation. Her sire, City Zip, was a multiple graded stakes winner but was offset through the knees, and so was this filly.

“I loved her movement. I loved her head and eye,” said Bren-nan. “She was just an athlete, but I thought people would fault her because of the way she walked.”

Brennan bought Dayatthespa for $50,000 under the name Sarazen Stable and took her home to Florida for breaking and training. At the following spring’s OBS March Sale, buy-ers indeed showed little interest but Brennan convinced bloodstock agent Pete Bradley that she could run through her physical flaws. They struck a private deal, and she was sold to a partnership that included trainer Chad Brown.

“She looked great on the track, and they don’t have any walking races,” Bradley quipped at the time.

Dayatthespa ran over her competition first out at Sarato-ga, airing by four lengths. Brown stepped her up to graded stakes, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf that fall, but she wasn’t quite ready for that level of competi-tion. In 2012, he took a more patient approach, putting her in some softer spots and giving her time off. The strategy produced a campaign in which Dayatthespa won five of six, including a Grade 1 at Keeneland. The next two seasons, Brown used New York-bred stakes as preps for tougher races and Dayatthespa capped off her 11-for-18, $2.2 mil-lion career with a pair of G1 victories, becoming the first New York-bred to win a G1 Breeders’ Cup race. She was named champion Female Turf Horse for 2014.

“The fact that she was a New York-bred allowed Chad to pick some lucrative spots that still allowed her to develop and give her confidence. That’s so important,” said Bren-nan.

The filly that Brennan took a chance on for $50,000 was consigned by Lane’s End, agent, to the Fasig-Tipton Novem-ber sale. She was purchased by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings for $2.1 million and is currently in foal to Curlin.

Honor RollConfidence Turns Dayatthespa Into Champion

By Scott Jagow

www.PaulickReport.com Page 4

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Ray Paulick - Publisher ray@paulickreport.comEmily Alberti - Director of Advertising emily@paulickreport.comScott Jagow - Editor-in-Chief scott@paulickreport.comMary Schweitzer - News Editor mary@paulickreport.comNatalie Voss - Features Writer natalie@paulickreport.comEmily White - Weekend Editor emilywhite@paulickreport.comFrank Mitchell - Contributing Writer

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Upstate was established in Schuylerville in 2008 and Sedrish said the clinic still sees patients hauling in from as far away as Finger Lakes and Belmont Park (both about 3 ½ hours away) on a routine basis.

“People are funny—if they have good luck with someone, they tend to stick with them,” said Sedrish. “You’re only as good as your last episode.”

Other types of equine support services have seen rapid growth in the past couple of years, too. Bart Stark, owner of Stark Equine Transportation, said he’s making a lot more runs between New York and Kentucky or Florida, and that there’s a lot of intrastate business, as well.

“There has always been a lot of back-and-forth for brood-mares and stallions, but just in the last two years, it’s coming full circle—there are a lot more people racing, and a lot of people who are returning horses from racetrack to farm,” said Stark. “I just can’t keep up with [all the interstate travel]. I just take a small piece of the pie, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger even for me.”

Unlike Central Kentucky’s Thoroughbred business, which is largely localized around Lexington, New York’s Thor-oughbreds are scattered all over the state, which compli-cates matters for veterinarians and other practitioners trying to care for them.

“My personal practice is really big. I drive a lot of miles. Logistically, it’s way more challenging,,” said Ahlschwede, who noted Rood and Riddle’s podiatrist treks to Long Island periodically to see clients. “It’s a fact of life up here that you have to go farther, or people have to bring their horses a little farther.”

Becky Thomas of Sequel New York in Hudson said there are still a few equine support services in New York that could benefit from growth. In particular, she hopes some more experienced farriers find their way north in the com-ing years. Although the quality of available care in New York is strong, Thomas believes the state needs profes-sionals with more Thoroughbred-focused experience to keep up with the increasing demand for work.

“The biggest problem in New York right now is educa-tion,” said Thomas. “We are so highly tuned toward going towards sales … a lot of the breeders in New York have never been exposed to that, so they don’t know to ask their blacksmiths about [that work.]

“Usually the better blacksmiths in New York … they’re booked. Just like in Lexington, if you have just four or five horses, you’re not going to get the Bobby Langleys of the world. That’s absolutely an area that’s growing and we do need. And a lot of it, I think, is people in outside areas don’t understand there’s a need for quality blacksmiths there.”

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Continued from Page 1

The Perfect Trip

* DEPART FOR EUROPE 27th SEPT

* Arrive Dublin Goffs Orby Yearling Sale 29th-30th Sept

* Arrive Paris Arqana ‘Arc’ Sale 3rd Oct

* Arc meeting at Longchamp 3rd-4th Oct

* Arrive London Tatts Oct Yearling Sale - Book 1 6th-8th Oct

www.destinationeuroperacing.com

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Hip 444 Colt by Smart Strike x C C’s Pal, by Alex’s Pal: By leading sire Smart Strike, this colt is a March foal and is out of Grade 2 stakes winner C C’s Pal. An earner of $799,420, C C’s Pal produced this colt as her first foal, and she is the best of five winners from six starters out of the second dam, one of only two foals from the G2-placed stakes winner C.C.’s Return (Conquistador Cielo).

Hip 471 Filly by Mineshaft x Fahamore, by Gulch: A half-sister to four winners, each with earnings in six figures, this filly is a half-sister to stakes winner Akilina and to stakes-placed Kitty Panda. Akilina’s yearling of 2015 by Speight-stown sold on Monday at the Saratoga select sale for $250,000, and each of this yearling’s winning siblings is a filly. The third dam is G1 winner Classy Cathy, winner of the Alabama, Ashland, and Gazelle.

Hip 479 Colt by First Samurai x Flame Trick, by Mt. Liver-more: A G1 winner at 2, sire First Samurai has sired top performers at all ages, including G1 winner Lea (Donn). This April 7 foal is out of Flame Trick, the dam of two stakes win-ners, Legal Consent and Fuzzy Britches. Both are stakes

winners in New York, like First Samurai.

Hip 509 Colt by Congrats x Intentional Fever, by Stormin Fever: Leading sire Congrats, one of the most important stallion sons of A.P. Indy, has already gotten three G1 win-ners, Turbulent Descent, Wickedly Perfect, and Emma’s En-core, and more than a dozen other stakes winners. This colt is out of stakes winner Intentional Fever, a winner of open stakes and earner of $219,266. She has three black-type siblings, and all are out of stakes winner Dance Teacher (Smarten), winner of the G1 Ladies Handicap.

Hip 564 Colt by Scat Daddy x Morning Gallop, by Victory Gallop: The sire of nearly 50 stakes winners, including two G1 winners, Scat Daddy is the top stallion son of Johan-nesburg, representing the Hennessy branch of the Storm Cat line. This grand-looking colt is out of Morning Gallop, a stakes-placed daughter of Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop. The mare has produced stakes-placed John’s Island (Posse), and she is a half-sister to stakes winner Wake Up Kiss (Cure the Blues), the dam of Japanese G1 winner A Shin Forward. PRS

Five to WatchA look at some of the sale’s top hips

By Frank Mitchell