July 2000 California Thoroughbred

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July 2000

Registering Made Easy
by Leigh Ann Howard

The Jockey Club blood kits are beginning to arrive. A new phase of the farm manager's job is starting, about the time the breeding phase is completed. We never seem to run out of things to do!

The Jockey Club form entitled 'Report of Mares Bred', is the first step in a series of steps by which a Thoroughbred foal is ultimately registered. This form is filled out by the stallion owner/manager and submitted to The Jockey Club by the first of August each year. The names of the mares bred, their year of birth, and/or their dam's names have to be exact. If an error is made, the mare is assumed to be 'unknown' and a Service Certificate will not be printed. There is no margin for error. This is why some farms ask for a copy of the mare's own Foal Certificate, when the breeding contract is signed.

Prior to the computer age, and some bright people at The Jockey Club, this used to be a laborious task. In those days, there were only two ways to fill out this form. The stallion owner/manager could type in all the requested information about each mare. Alternatively, the little bar coded tag supplied by the mare owner, found at the bottom of the Live Foal Report, could be attached in the space allotted for the mare information. The first and last date the mare was bred was then typed in the area following the mare information.

It was paramount that the stallion owner/manager save a copy of the report submitted to The Jockey Club. Months later when the stallion's Service Certificates arrived, it is very important that someone check the Certificates received, against the list of the mares submitted. As mentioned above, any incorrect information received by The Jockey Club will result in no certificate being printed.

Now, by using a computer and The Jockey Club Interactive site on the Internet, it is a relatively simple task to fill out the Report of Mares Bred 'on line' and submit it directly to The Jockey Club. Mistakes made when listing the mares are immediately evident and must be rectified before the information will be accepted. The Service Certificates are printed and returned to you within days of clicking the "submit" button at the bottom of your computer screen.

The first year The Jockey Club used the new system, several farms were asked to do the field-testing. I submitted my Report of Mares Bred on the Internet on a Monday and received the Service Certificates in Wednesday's mail!

From this list of the mares bred, the 'Live Foal Report' is created. This is mailed to the mare owner prior to the mare giving birth the next spring. After the foal is born the owner fills out this Live Foal Report and mails it to The Jockey Club. This needs to be done within the first 30 days of the foal's birth.

Live Foal Report
© 2000 https://www.registry.jockeyclub.com

Once again the bright people at The Jockey Club have made the submission of this Live Foal Report very quick and easy on their Interactive site. When you go 'on line' and indicate that you want to report the birth of your foal you will be asked for:

After submitting this information the screen will come back showing the name and address of the breeder, the stallion the mare was bred to, and all the other information listed on the Report of Mares Bred. The foaling date, state where the foal was born and their sex, must be added before the form will be accepted by The Jockey Club. About 20 seconds after you click the 'submit' button, a new screen will appear stating that your information has been accepted. This screen will give you the foal's registration number and the approximate date you can expect to receive the blood kit. The screen is set up so that you can print out a hard copy for the new foal's file.

Once the Live Foal Report is submitted, The Jockey Club has enough information to send the blood kit wherever the owner indicates it should go. The kit is sent out when the foal is about four months old. Mailed along with the blood kit, is the hard copy of the registration application.

This is the next step in the registration process. The blood should be drawn no later than a Wednesday, the blood tubes put in the refrigerator for an hour or so, packed up according to the instructions, and taken to the Post Office just before the mail truck leaves. This is because the blood needs to get to UC Davis before the weekend. Those little Styrofoam mailing packets protect the blood tubes to some extent, but sitting on a loading dock somewhere over a weekend is probably very risky.

The next step is to take color photographs that clearly show all the markings and fill in a written description of those markings. Cowlicks and their placement are also important to list, and to draw on the application. The instructions on the application are quite clear. The Jockey Club likes to have a marker board with the dam's name showing up on each photograph of the foal. The dam's name, as well as the foal's color, sex and date of birth, should also be placed on the back of each photograph.

Taking the photographs on an overcast day here in California is a very good idea. Shadows caused by our bright sun can make the markings difficult to distinguish.

If the registrar at The Jockey Club cannot see the marking you describe, you will be asked for more photographs. This can cause some delays, so don't wait until the last minute to submit the registration application!

Here again The Jockey Club Interactive site comes in very handy. Simply click on the 'Registration Application" icon.

Registration Application
© 2000 https://www.registry.jockeyclub.com

The first screen will ask you for the name of the dam and the year the foal was born. Seconds later, all the information you submitted, via the Live Foal Report three months earlier, will flash onto the screen. At that point you can change the breeder and/or owner, and where the Foal Certificate is to be sent. You will be asked to describe the markings, you can submit a name and, you can pay the registration fee via your credit card. After this information is submitted, you will be prompted to print your copy of the completed application. The last page printed will be a checklist, that needs to be sent along with the photographs of the markings and the Service Certificate.

If you are not sure of the status of your application, The Jockey Club Interactive site has an icon entitled "Online Customer Service". A click here will lead you to a screen that shows what stage of the registration process is complete, and what is still needed. This is very useful if several different people are submitting information on one foal, or you are having trouble remembering whether or not you submitted something.

Some of us remember the LONG wait before the application resulted in a Foal Certificate. Not so anymore, as the computer era has streamlined every aspect of this arduous task. Soon we will be able to scan our photographs into our computers and submit them right along with the application. The Service Certificates can already be submitted via the Internet.

The CTBA is working with The Jockey Club with the hope that we might someday be able to do all our Cal-bred reports "on line".

Are you 'on line' yet? It is very inexpensive, very simple (anyone who can read, can use a computer), and certainly becoming a necessity for anyone wanting to function effectively in today's world.