Opinion: The Business of Breeding

Have you NOT read any of the information submitted to the state in their (CEAC's) application? They don't give a rat's patoot about 'breeding horses.' If this was the objective by Commonwealth, we can rest assured they will be bankrupt within 5 years. There is NO MONEY to breeding horses! The cost to keep the number of stallions and mares necessary to have a viable throughbred breeding facility is astronomical. And before you tout that you wouldn't need that many, please read up on the RULES of throughbred breeding. Artificial insemination is NOT allowed. All throughbred breeding MUST be done with live cover. So, you have many stallions moving in and out, and many more mares, as one stallion will impregnate hundreds of mares every year. Do you think these guys will ever be able to compete with the entire state of Kentucky and the huge farms out there that this is their 24/7 business and has been for decades and decades? No champion racer ever came out of Massachusetts, and unless lightening strikes, one never will.

The COST to breed horses is BEYOND high! First, the cost to keep a horse today, even as a pet, is THOUSANDS of dollars a year. A pregnant mare? The cost doubles. That stable of mares will cost you millions to house, feed, care for and maintain, just to get one foal every year. AND, then the babies have to be maintained, so every year, your horse population doubles. And your costs double. Operating as a business - where is the income from breeding horses? Two things - the sale of the foals, which, believe me, most sell for a few thousand, no where near the cost to put them on the ground, or from the winnings those horses pay back when they race. Oh, and if they don't win, then they are sold off for whatever they get at auction, which is pennies on the dollar of the cost to get them to the age they are.

So, if this is JUST going to be a throughbred breeding operation, they will go bankrupt. But it's NOT about breeding horses, it's about GAMBLING! Why are some people finding that so difficult to understand? Why can't they understand that the horses are INCIDENTAL to Commonwealth's game plan? They don't care about the horses, they care about the gambling dollars. What ever they have to say, or do, including throw a few horses out on pasture to make it look good, they will do to make Hardwick bite on their bait and switch. The horses are their 'loss leader.' It's to make it what will really happen go down our throats without us chocking now, and then when we find out we have been taken, they can point to a couple horses out in the field and expect us to accept it. And mark my words, if we are ignorant enough to allow this to happen, within a short amount of time, there will be NO breeding stallions or pregnant mares, and I doubt there will be any 'retired' racehorses on that property. Why waste their time one something that will NOT be making them big bucks? And only costing them big bucks. — Elizabeth Cyran