June 11, 2025 • 15 mins
Director of NY Thouroughbred breeding, Najja Thompson, talks the process of horse breeding and the enhancements in horse care technology!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now one of the people that knows the most probably
about the horses here, Najaq Thompson, executive director of New
York Thoroughbreds. And you know about the bloodlines, and tell
me about how your uncle got you into this grown
up in Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well thanks first, Rob, just thank you for being out here.
You know, it seems to be a connection between baseball players.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
And a horse.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, yeah, you know, they run up there till we.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Can't run anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
They all love to watching bed And so I grew
up my family from Jamaica.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We owned horses over there, and I was born in New.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
York, so grew up going to Belmont Aqueduct and of
course Saratoga, but always loved the sport in the game.
So one of the path to my for my career
in the industry, and lucky enough to do that in
New York and with our breeding program.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Foremost, geez, how do you run into that program? Like
what gets you started?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
I want to know that was.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
What you wanted when you started to hang around horses,
to hang around horse race.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
We're hanging around the generates.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I work with one. Yeah that's right, but between segment
he's over there.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
But to pick up a love for the game, and
then you want to learn. You know, how do these
horses get good? It's do their bloodlines, right, not unlike athletes.
You know, if you know the mom and dad had
somewhat athletic ability, there's a chance the kids may have
athletic ability. Same with horses. If they run long distances.
Maybe the office ring will run long distances. And of
course the stallions and most times I don't know, Alex
(01:22):
Rob it's mostly the mothers that have the talent.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Honestly, my dad never played a sport. Right dare Walt
was doing radio. Barbara was a cheerleader in five foot
ten and spit out at sixth Well she spit out
six babies, and I pretty start. Yes, I was the
smallest baby my mother's Swedish ten pounds.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
So yeah, there's something athletic about that, I guess.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
So I talk about that.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Okay, well all right, so let's start start there. You
go back.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
You know, I played with the guy Rob Murphy who
used to do bloodlines and stuff, and he actually made
more money selling his charts, his charts and looking back
hundreds of years on bloodlines and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
But at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I think there was like eighteen to twenty horses at
Kentucky Derby or had some kind of relationship with Secretariat.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Definitely, Yes, you just explained some of that, Like.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Is that what the breeders are looking for, like the
pedigree going back?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Certainly so.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So it's about being a historian a bit right, and
Chuck have to be the genealogy, so you want to
see that pathway.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
All Thoroughbraids are related to three initial thoroughbreds.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
When the game first got started back in England, you
could trace back to one of the three. But since
that time, and Secretariat obviously one of the greats of
the game. His bloodline is still in the game through
like the Dams, which are the mothers that have gone
down the line. And like you mentioned Rob, eighteen of
the twenty starters did have some kind of relation back
in their breeding that can trace it back.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
I see it all the time, man, whenever I see
kiss Yes, Kiskis.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
The law was a New York bread run the Belmont
right here and Staratoba during twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
But I see that all the time.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Would there be a horse and why is this? You
would think that secretariat. We should make as much money
as we possibly can, and let's try to put it
in every place. I feel like, like I always joke
with Dibbs, like every pack of cards has Darryl Strawberry
in it, because like he was cool with letting everybody
use his picture and didn't care about the royalties. And
I feel like, 'tis the law is the Darryl Strawberry? Yeah,
(03:24):
a horse reading like what happened there? Why do some horses?
Does anyone think kiss the law is even close to
a secretariat? But why does his bloodline get used a
little bit more than some of the other greats of
the past.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Well, you have to factor in the costs.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So every time you go to the breeding shed, you
have to pay that fee to have your meal covered
or make you with that you know, female horse.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So the cap makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
A little more cost beheabitive to go to the tisses
than it is when you go to the American barrows
of the justifies the triple crown winners. Those are the
uber uber bucks, and those horses certainly throw the winners.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
But it costs to play money in cost pay now.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
We know talking to Naja Thompson. He is the executive
director of New York Thoroughbreds. So take us back as
we had Kate Masterson on from the museum here, definite,
and she was talking about the stallions they used to
paint the picture of the stallion for you to mate
with the mayor. Correct, and we're going back to seventeen
hundreds and that's that kind of stuff. How has it
progressed to today? And obviously technology And I watched something
(04:24):
I think it was Real sports where they do all
I didn't. I don't want to get into all the details,
but from from that aspect, they don't.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Always work of spirits exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yes, you know, just to try so talk about, you know,
how how we've come from there to where we are today.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Like any aspect of our lives, modern technology has been
a benefit. So you can go online see the picture
you have mating matchings, so it'll give you an idea
of if you mate your female horse to the stallion,
will it give me a runner that's more inclined to
a turf that's the grass or the dirt. Will it
like it when it's sloppy? Nfortunately have that today. If
(05:01):
it's a mutter as I'd like to say, or for
the like conditions where it's like hard and firm.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So variety of technology has been able to move our
support forward.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And really what's really cool now, like not unlike an
Apple watch, their devices that they put on horses to
track their gate, their heartbeat to see if they're in
the best condition.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
The analytics of horse racing.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
It's pretty wild.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
Oh my gosh, that is wild. Like so I'm imagining
that breeders care about their offspring England if they don't
own them at all.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Oh yeah, certainly. So you could have the sister or
the half sister to a runner in a race. That'll
make your horse more valuable when you go to the
sales if you choose to sell it at a sale
or you choose to keep it and run it. And
that would be a decision of the breeder. You may
just want to some breed to sell, and that's just
you know, being about the prospect of entering sales and
(05:49):
selling on kind of like I don't know if it
would relate to remember.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
The expos great organization, but they would just you know.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Develop these modern players and give everybody else that is
really fun.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, I love like dogs and pure bred dogs stuff
like that, and I know there's a lot of inbreeding
and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Has that ever happened in.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Horses certainly so, but you do have bloodstock agents to
try to prevent that so that you can make sure
that the breeding lines stay within and don't get to
you know, inbreeding too much, so that you know, we
could have horses that will be healthy and keep them
moving the breed forward because you don't run a situation
where every horse is related to it is like you
mentioned that you have some variety in there, so you
(06:33):
get that aspect that will, you know, hope, break up
the breed. Sometimes you'll see a lot of European runners
on European lines getting back into the game.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Now, Naja, tell me about the timeline, Like when a
horse ends Justify, when am I going to start seeing
Justifies babies out here?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
His babies are on the track, So there would be
four years old right now, four to five years old.
So he retired right after his triple crown victorious run.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
And he was three and a half four, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And went to the best life ever, right, just going
to a breeding.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Yeah, is that common where a four year old is
the father.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Not so common to the horse of that ability.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
He was like, you know, when you're one of a
lifetime athlete like that American pharaoh. These are horses that
are the uber of the highest level. Most other horses
will run to like maybe they'll retire. Five other horses
go on to race until they're eight or nine, And
it just depends on the ability and the market demand, right,
like who has that market demand if it's like and
(07:32):
it doesn't always pan out. You know, we love Brownie James, but.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
I think but then you know you have kicking for
Jinnior kicking for Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
Just wait till Bryce James comes out there, right exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, oh god, I forgot what I was gonna ask you,
because you're so fascinating. But as far as trying trying
to keep these horses, how expensive is this? Like, like
you know if because I know in Connecticut there was
some guys that got the Kentucky Derby winner fromout half
(08:07):
a dozen years ago, maybe a dozen years ago, whatever
it was, and they bought into a cheap horse and
the horse ended up being don't.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
Tell my wife's stables.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Yeah, those guys like that, right.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So from from that, you know, I wanted to ask
about pricing out the other people. You know, I'm sure
you know because when I lived down in Ohio, I
drive through Lexington and all those horse farms and stuff
like that, correct, hundreds of horses and stuff like that.
How do you compete with that? So, so from where
you're you know, you're talking about now, you know, how
how is it around here?
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Are they still able to breed some of the best.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, so here in New York State, especially around Saratoga County,
we have a lot of breeding farms. If you want
to learn more information, to visit our website NYT breeders
dot org. What's happened today is you seeing a lot
of partnerships forming. And that's been a great part of
the game because it equalizes the access. That's right, one
person responsible for let's say, you know, a fifteen hundred
dollars bill every three weeks, maybe could spread that out
(09:04):
amongst ten friends, maybe twenty friends. So you see today
you'll see a lot of you know, ownerships because it
is the sport of kings as it initially was, but
as we've gotten to a place where we've gotten more economical,
more egleitarian, we're able to spread that out and let's
form a partnership, a syndicate where we can help level
off those costs for everybody.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Don't join Nazia.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Has there been a horse that has kind of upset
the apple cart that is like not on any kind
of bloodline and kind of came out of nowhere and
now all of a sudden that started a whole different
root system.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
So a couple of years ago from Bob Badfort, you
had Medina Spirit.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I think they purchased a horse for twelve hundred dollars.
Oh my god. Sa As two goes on to win
the Kentucky Derby.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
You know, every year there's about, right now, nineteen thousand
horses born every year, only twenty make the start to
get to Kentucky Derby, right, only eight make the Belmont
in the last like that we have coming up tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
So just the odds to make it that far is enough.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
And you never know about horse's ability, it's just inside
of them, like can they put it all together on
the track. And of course that's the trainer, that's the
blood line, but a number of the jockey, a number
of variety of factors come into it.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Tugian to Naja Thompson. He is executive director of New
York thorough Bridge. I've been around, you know, horses, cows,
everything in my whole life where I grew up a
lot of dairy land around me in Connecticut.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I had never seen a pregnant horse till yesterday.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Wow. I could not believe.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
How why?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Oh yeah, yeah, how congratulations talk about a horse?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah? Why?
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Why are their legs so brittle? How?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
You know God made them but correct? How can we
haven't been able to read them to where they don't
break as easily?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
You know, we are rapping up our technology and the
advancements in Every time the horse offers an injury on
the track doesn't mean that they have to be put
down or euthanized. We've come so far in our developments
where you can actually have surgeries. But it is like,
you know, you have a twelve hundred pound animal kind
of running on metsticks, right, Yeah, So that's.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
When it's the worst of it.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
They do have to, unfortunately, be put down, but it's
for the better of their lives because sources.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Have to be standing up to be able to move around.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
But in ourd bances has been technology and with the
monitoring that we have today, we can know that something's off.
Let's back up, let's take another scan. Is there you
know a fracture? Is there a minor industry that we
can wait hold off on, not unlike sports with MRIs
and like remember I guess twenty years ago if you
got a knee injury, they're kind of you. But now
(11:29):
like you can like have those developments and those surgeries
and then hopefully it can be back in return.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
One of our biggest sponsors is about preventative medicine and
now they can predict, especially in women in ACL MCL tears.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
And that's kind of where I was going with that.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I mean, sure, can we predict better on these on
these horses? You like, no, no, what we can't race
this horse?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Correct that we're more cautious.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
We have the implementation of HAISO, which is the Health
and Integrity.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
And Safety Authority for Horse Racing, which is a federal body.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Every horse you see on the track has been looked
over by veterinarian teams, scoped everything like care topor over
because they are animals and athletes, and people forget the
athletes are what they want to run and they want
to compete.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
It's so hard to keep up with because, like you said,
nineteen hundred are born every single year. We are running
races every day everywhere across this globe.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And what makes Saratoga specials. This is the best of
the best, exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
This is the best jockeys, the best horses, really the
cream of the car.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Are you how do you keep up with it? Man?
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Do you get like a rundown of newborns every day?
Like you just look at race programs? How does it
come across your deck?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
It's a lot of race programs.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
It's not unlike I guess, boy, how many Like look
at the I was learning about the MLB.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Draft and how it just goes on and on and on.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Sometimes, but like not only an MLB scout, just like
you might have a region.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
So my reagion is the northeast of New York, right,
So I try to follow all the horses around in
this area.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
But the standouts, you know, the standouts as they come along,
and really for us, the sales are like the drafts.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
So the owners go.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
To the sales, purchase the horses, and then you know
the players, the Todd Pletcher's, the Chad Browns, those are
the guys and the organizations and the really teams.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
That draft the best quality each year.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
What are these drafts like, Like, have you been to
one of the Yes, for every million summer.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
At Saratuga, at Pasik Tiptons, we have two sales.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
There's one for strictly New York breds.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
This was.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
So American.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Pharaoh was sold in the open sale right across the
street when he was one years old as a yearling.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Yeah, we're missing out, dude.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The White Line is another great horse that he was
sold as a one year old as a yearling. And
these were like like they're sold for like eight hundred thousand,
like over a million out because there are like think
of like the best prospects you've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Some people just have that eye.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And now there's some pit not being out of course,
the ones that do, you can go back and say, wow,
from the moment that they saw them, they reached their
utmost ability.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
So like Chad Brown and Pletcher and and and do
they go to these oh yeah, check them out certainly.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
No, it really is like the combine. Okay, it's really
like the NFL combine. They're not like.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Drill.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
So are we drills working out of the game, we're
doing the forty times they're a guy out there with
the stop Watch.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Well, I guess it's more a fashion show though they
go the walk, the runaway, and then if they are
the traders that get turned on like okay, I like
that horse.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
That's when the bidding started.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
Thoroughbreds are born in New York State in the game.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Great question, ben so about we're about out of thirteen
hundred every year in that mark, we're number three. Kentucky's
number one, like are over seventeen thousand. Florida's big as
well with California, but we're up on the rise in
New York. And that's the great abilities of NIRA to
make it attractive in purses. In the purse money might
work with our organization. We talked to the state governments
on the impact because the breeders are the farm owners
(14:49):
like you grew up rob and Connecticut, and it's the agriculture.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Every horse you see employees of vetting area, a shoe smith, you.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Know, a ferrier, a groom, a trainer, a horse, hey
feed constructor, tractors, trailers. So that's the economic benefit to
our communities, especially agriculturally.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Naja you're fascinating.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Thanks. I don't want your job.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
I thought I did before he sat down, and now
you explained it. It's too much in my head.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
He's kind of like the he delivers the babies, even
though he didn't deliver the babies.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
But I've run the world series ar Angue.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
You're the best.
Now one of the people that knows the most probably
about the horses here, Najaq Thompson, executive director of New
York Thoroughbreds. And you know about the bloodlines, and tell
me about how your uncle got you into this grown
up in Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well thanks first, Rob, just thank you for being out here.
You know, it seems to be a connection between baseball players.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
And a horse.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, yeah, you know, they run up there till we.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Can't run anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
They all love to watching bed And so I grew
up my family from Jamaica.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We owned horses over there, and I was born in New.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
York, so grew up going to Belmont Aqueduct and of
course Saratoga, but always loved the sport in the game.
So one of the path to my for my career
in the industry, and lucky enough to do that in
New York and with our breeding program.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Foremost, geez, how do you run into that program? Like
what gets you started?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
I want to know that was.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
What you wanted when you started to hang around horses,
to hang around horse race.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
We're hanging around the generates.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I work with one. Yeah that's right, but between segment
he's over there.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
But to pick up a love for the game, and
then you want to learn. You know, how do these
horses get good? It's do their bloodlines, right, not unlike athletes.
You know, if you know the mom and dad had
somewhat athletic ability, there's a chance the kids may have
athletic ability. Same with horses. If they run long distances.
Maybe the office ring will run long distances. And of
course the stallions and most times I don't know, Alex
(01:22):
Rob it's mostly the mothers that have the talent.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Honestly, my dad never played a sport. Right dare Walt
was doing radio. Barbara was a cheerleader in five foot
ten and spit out at sixth Well she spit out
six babies, and I pretty start. Yes, I was the
smallest baby my mother's Swedish ten pounds.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
So yeah, there's something athletic about that, I guess.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
So I talk about that.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Okay, well all right, so let's start start there. You
go back.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
You know, I played with the guy Rob Murphy who
used to do bloodlines and stuff, and he actually made
more money selling his charts, his charts and looking back
hundreds of years on bloodlines and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
But at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I think there was like eighteen to twenty horses at
Kentucky Derby or had some kind of relationship with Secretariat.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Definitely, Yes, you just explained some of that, Like.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Is that what the breeders are looking for, like the
pedigree going back?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Certainly so.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So it's about being a historian a bit right, and
Chuck have to be the genealogy, so you want to
see that pathway.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
All Thoroughbraids are related to three initial thoroughbreds.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
When the game first got started back in England, you
could trace back to one of the three. But since
that time, and Secretariat obviously one of the greats of
the game. His bloodline is still in the game through
like the Dams, which are the mothers that have gone
down the line. And like you mentioned Rob, eighteen of
the twenty starters did have some kind of relation back
in their breeding that can trace it back.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
I see it all the time, man, whenever I see
kiss Yes, Kiskis.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
The law was a New York bread run the Belmont
right here and Staratoba during twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
But I see that all the time.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Would there be a horse and why is this? You
would think that secretariat. We should make as much money
as we possibly can, and let's try to put it
in every place. I feel like, like I always joke
with Dibbs, like every pack of cards has Darryl Strawberry
in it, because like he was cool with letting everybody
use his picture and didn't care about the royalties. And
I feel like, 'tis the law is the Darryl Strawberry? Yeah,
(03:24):
a horse reading like what happened there? Why do some horses?
Does anyone think kiss the law is even close to
a secretariat? But why does his bloodline get used a
little bit more than some of the other greats of
the past.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Well, you have to factor in the costs.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So every time you go to the breeding shed, you
have to pay that fee to have your meal covered
or make you with that you know, female horse.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So the cap makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
A little more cost beheabitive to go to the tisses
than it is when you go to the American barrows
of the justifies the triple crown winners. Those are the
uber uber bucks, and those horses certainly throw the winners.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
But it costs to play money in cost pay now.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
We know talking to Naja Thompson. He is the executive
director of New York Thoroughbreds. So take us back as
we had Kate Masterson on from the museum here, definite,
and she was talking about the stallions they used to
paint the picture of the stallion for you to mate
with the mayor. Correct, and we're going back to seventeen
hundreds and that's that kind of stuff. How has it
progressed to today? And obviously technology And I watched something
(04:24):
I think it was Real sports where they do all
I didn't. I don't want to get into all the details,
but from from that aspect, they don't.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Always work of spirits exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yes, you know, just to try so talk about, you know,
how how we've come from there to where we are today.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Like any aspect of our lives, modern technology has been
a benefit. So you can go online see the picture
you have mating matchings, so it'll give you an idea
of if you mate your female horse to the stallion,
will it give me a runner that's more inclined to
a turf that's the grass or the dirt. Will it
like it when it's sloppy? Nfortunately have that today. If
(05:01):
it's a mutter as I'd like to say, or for
the like conditions where it's like hard and firm.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So variety of technology has been able to move our
support forward.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And really what's really cool now, like not unlike an
Apple watch, their devices that they put on horses to
track their gate, their heartbeat to see if they're in
the best condition.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
The analytics of horse racing.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
It's pretty wild.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
Oh my gosh, that is wild. Like so I'm imagining
that breeders care about their offspring England if they don't
own them at all.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Oh yeah, certainly. So you could have the sister or
the half sister to a runner in a race. That'll
make your horse more valuable when you go to the
sales if you choose to sell it at a sale
or you choose to keep it and run it. And
that would be a decision of the breeder. You may
just want to some breed to sell, and that's just
you know, being about the prospect of entering sales and
(05:49):
selling on kind of like I don't know if it
would relate to remember.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
The expos great organization, but they would just you know.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Develop these modern players and give everybody else that is
really fun.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, I love like dogs and pure bred dogs stuff
like that, and I know there's a lot of inbreeding
and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Has that ever happened in.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Horses certainly so, but you do have bloodstock agents to
try to prevent that so that you can make sure
that the breeding lines stay within and don't get to
you know, inbreeding too much, so that you know, we
could have horses that will be healthy and keep them
moving the breed forward because you don't run a situation
where every horse is related to it is like you
mentioned that you have some variety in there, so you
(06:33):
get that aspect that will, you know, hope, break up
the breed. Sometimes you'll see a lot of European runners
on European lines getting back into the game.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Now, Naja, tell me about the timeline, Like when a
horse ends Justify, when am I going to start seeing
Justifies babies out here?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
His babies are on the track, So there would be
four years old right now, four to five years old.
So he retired right after his triple crown victorious run.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
And he was three and a half four, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And went to the best life ever, right, just going
to a breeding.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Yeah, is that common where a four year old is
the father.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Not so common to the horse of that ability.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
He was like, you know, when you're one of a
lifetime athlete like that American pharaoh. These are horses that
are the uber of the highest level. Most other horses
will run to like maybe they'll retire. Five other horses
go on to race until they're eight or nine, And
it just depends on the ability and the market demand, right,
like who has that market demand if it's like and
(07:32):
it doesn't always pan out. You know, we love Brownie James, but.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
I think but then you know you have kicking for
Jinnior kicking for Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
Just wait till Bryce James comes out there, right exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, oh god, I forgot what I was gonna ask you,
because you're so fascinating. But as far as trying trying
to keep these horses, how expensive is this? Like, like
you know if because I know in Connecticut there was
some guys that got the Kentucky Derby winner fromout half
(08:07):
a dozen years ago, maybe a dozen years ago, whatever
it was, and they bought into a cheap horse and
the horse ended up being don't.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
Tell my wife's stables.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Yeah, those guys like that, right.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So from from that, you know, I wanted to ask
about pricing out the other people. You know, I'm sure
you know because when I lived down in Ohio, I
drive through Lexington and all those horse farms and stuff
like that, correct, hundreds of horses and stuff like that.
How do you compete with that? So, so from where
you're you know, you're talking about now, you know, how
how is it around here?
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Are they still able to breed some of the best.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, so here in New York State, especially around Saratoga County,
we have a lot of breeding farms. If you want
to learn more information, to visit our website NYT breeders
dot org. What's happened today is you seeing a lot
of partnerships forming. And that's been a great part of
the game because it equalizes the access. That's right, one
person responsible for let's say, you know, a fifteen hundred
dollars bill every three weeks, maybe could spread that out
(09:04):
amongst ten friends, maybe twenty friends. So you see today
you'll see a lot of you know, ownerships because it
is the sport of kings as it initially was, but
as we've gotten to a place where we've gotten more economical,
more egleitarian, we're able to spread that out and let's
form a partnership, a syndicate where we can help level
off those costs for everybody.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Don't join Nazia.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Has there been a horse that has kind of upset
the apple cart that is like not on any kind
of bloodline and kind of came out of nowhere and
now all of a sudden that started a whole different
root system.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
So a couple of years ago from Bob Badfort, you
had Medina Spirit.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I think they purchased a horse for twelve hundred dollars.
Oh my god. Sa As two goes on to win
the Kentucky Derby.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
You know, every year there's about, right now, nineteen thousand
horses born every year, only twenty make the start to
get to Kentucky Derby, right, only eight make the Belmont
in the last like that we have coming up tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
So just the odds to make it that far is enough.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
And you never know about horse's ability, it's just inside
of them, like can they put it all together on
the track. And of course that's the trainer, that's the
blood line, but a number of the jockey, a number
of variety of factors come into it.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Tugian to Naja Thompson. He is executive director of New
York thorough Bridge. I've been around, you know, horses, cows,
everything in my whole life where I grew up a
lot of dairy land around me in Connecticut.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I had never seen a pregnant horse till yesterday.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Wow. I could not believe.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
How why?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Oh yeah, yeah, how congratulations talk about a horse?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah? Why?
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Why are their legs so brittle? How?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
You know God made them but correct? How can we
haven't been able to read them to where they don't
break as easily?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
You know, we are rapping up our technology and the
advancements in Every time the horse offers an injury on
the track doesn't mean that they have to be put
down or euthanized. We've come so far in our developments
where you can actually have surgeries. But it is like,
you know, you have a twelve hundred pound animal kind
of running on metsticks, right, Yeah, So that's.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
When it's the worst of it.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
They do have to, unfortunately, be put down, but it's
for the better of their lives because sources.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Have to be standing up to be able to move around.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
But in ourd bances has been technology and with the
monitoring that we have today, we can know that something's off.
Let's back up, let's take another scan. Is there you
know a fracture? Is there a minor industry that we
can wait hold off on, not unlike sports with MRIs
and like remember I guess twenty years ago if you
got a knee injury, they're kind of you. But now
(11:29):
like you can like have those developments and those surgeries
and then hopefully it can be back in return.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
One of our biggest sponsors is about preventative medicine and
now they can predict, especially in women in ACL MCL tears.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
And that's kind of where I was going with that.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I mean, sure, can we predict better on these on
these horses? You like, no, no, what we can't race
this horse?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Correct that we're more cautious.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
We have the implementation of HAISO, which is the Health
and Integrity.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
And Safety Authority for Horse Racing, which is a federal body.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Every horse you see on the track has been looked
over by veterinarian teams, scoped everything like care topor over
because they are animals and athletes, and people forget the
athletes are what they want to run and they want
to compete.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
It's so hard to keep up with because, like you said,
nineteen hundred are born every single year. We are running
races every day everywhere across this globe.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And what makes Saratoga specials. This is the best of
the best, exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
This is the best jockeys, the best horses, really the
cream of the car.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Are you how do you keep up with it? Man?
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Do you get like a rundown of newborns every day?
Like you just look at race programs? How does it
come across your deck?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
It's a lot of race programs.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
It's not unlike I guess, boy, how many Like look
at the I was learning about the MLB.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Draft and how it just goes on and on and on.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Sometimes, but like not only an MLB scout, just like
you might have a region.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
So my reagion is the northeast of New York, right,
So I try to follow all the horses around in
this area.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
But the standouts, you know, the standouts as they come along,
and really for us, the sales are like the drafts.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
So the owners go.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
To the sales, purchase the horses, and then you know
the players, the Todd Pletcher's, the Chad Browns, those are
the guys and the organizations and the really teams.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
That draft the best quality each year.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
What are these drafts like, Like, have you been to
one of the Yes, for every million summer.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
At Saratuga, at Pasik Tiptons, we have two sales.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
There's one for strictly New York breds.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
This was.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
So American.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Pharaoh was sold in the open sale right across the
street when he was one years old as a yearling.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Yeah, we're missing out, dude.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The White Line is another great horse that he was
sold as a one year old as a yearling. And
these were like like they're sold for like eight hundred thousand,
like over a million out because there are like think
of like the best prospects you've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Some people just have that eye.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And now there's some pit not being out of course,
the ones that do, you can go back and say, wow,
from the moment that they saw them, they reached their
utmost ability.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
So like Chad Brown and Pletcher and and and do
they go to these oh yeah, check them out certainly.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
No, it really is like the combine. Okay, it's really
like the NFL combine. They're not like.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Drill.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
So are we drills working out of the game, we're
doing the forty times they're a guy out there with
the stop Watch.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Well, I guess it's more a fashion show though they
go the walk, the runaway, and then if they are
the traders that get turned on like okay, I like
that horse.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
That's when the bidding started.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
Thoroughbreds are born in New York State in the game.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Great question, ben so about we're about out of thirteen
hundred every year in that mark, we're number three. Kentucky's
number one, like are over seventeen thousand. Florida's big as
well with California, but we're up on the rise in
New York. And that's the great abilities of NIRA to
make it attractive in purses. In the purse money might
work with our organization. We talked to the state governments
on the impact because the breeders are the farm owners
(14:49):
like you grew up rob and Connecticut, and it's the agriculture.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Every horse you see employees of vetting area, a shoe smith, you.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Know, a ferrier, a groom, a trainer, a horse, hey
feed constructor, tractors, trailers. So that's the economic benefit to
our communities, especially agriculturally.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Naja you're fascinating.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Thanks. I don't want your job.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
I thought I did before he sat down, and now
you explained it. It's too much in my head.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
He's kind of like the he delivers the babies, even
though he didn't deliver the babies.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
But I've run the world series ar Angue.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
You're the best.
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