2001 Cal-bred News Archives

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE
CTBA BOARD MEETING
DECEMBER 12, 2001
ARCADIA, CA

PRESIDENT’S DISCUSSION.
Del Mar Sale Workshop Will Again Be Facilitated. There has been much discussion among the board members regarding the January Del Mar Sales Workshop, currently planned to take place on January 29, 2002, in the CTBA Library. There were divergent views on the value of and expenditure for a facilitator. An agreement was reached to use the same facilitator that we used last year. He resides locally, does an excellent job, and is very affordable. It was felt that a facilitator promotes good communications, openness, and a fair hearing of everyone’s concerns. Above all, a facilitated format encourages all to feel that the sale is their sale. Subjects for discussion will include: 1) having a Sunday/Monday instead of a Monday/Tuesday format; 2) what to do with the 600-700 yearlings nominated but not selected if we wish to keep the Del Mar Sale a truly select sale; 3) continued marketing and promotion of other California Sales; 4) ensuring that key ! agents and key buyers are involv d in the decision making process associated with the future of the Del Mar Sale.

Mark Your Calendars for the Annual Meeting! The Annual Meeting will take place at the Radisson Berkeley Marina on Saturday, February 9, 2002. The business meeting will begin at 9:30 am. Lunch and awards will follow at Golden Gate Fields at noon. Northern California members especially-we hope to see you there! Last year’s business meeting and luncheon drew many favorable comments from the two hundred plus attendees.

GENERAL MANAGER’S REPORT.
Stallion Season Auction Supports our Legislative Efforts: This year’s stallion season auction raised over $86,000 to benefit our state Political Action Committee fund.

Great State Challenge to Become Reality. Doug Burge met with NTRA, Breeders Cup, and other state association executives to review the plans for this NTRA and Breeders Cup sponsored event. Plans call for a $1.5 million day. State breeders’ organizations will allocate $50,000 per race with a maximum exposure of $30,000 per race. Any unused state association monies will revert back into each state’s fund. The Challenge will most likely take place on Saturday, December 7, 2002, 35 days after the Cal Cup, at Sam Houston Park. The Breeders Cup is planning to spend approximately $400,000 in marketing the event. Even horses that are not Breeders Cup eligible can compete, running for $150,000 in NTRA money, plus state contributions. The CTBA will budget 50% of the annual stallion registration fees for this event. If all six races were won by Cal-Breds, the association would have a $180,000 commitment, worth it for promotional value alone.

Sunshine Cup, Featuring Cal-Breds and Florida-Breds, Makes Progress. Much discussion between California and Florida interests has yielded a thought of having a single, $5 million day featuring racing in both states. On the same day, each state would card four races (one set at Gulfstream and the other at Santa Anita), arranged so that bettors can watch and wager on all eight races in sequence from their respective locations. (The original idea, which had major obstacles in funding, had been for two days of racing, one in Florida and one in California, with $4 million in purses each day. This original idea would require a substantial increase in takeout through legislation, and there remained the question of whether trainers would ship across country to race if they felt the competition was too stiff.) Funding for the newly proposed $5 million day of racing would be derived from nomination, entry, and starting fees, as well as a minor shift in existing C! al-Bred stakes dollars, allocati n of purses generated that day, and possibly an increase in takeout. The program would not unduly affect our incentive award program. Remaining issues include the need for extensive TV coverage to publicize the event.

Trainer of the Year Selected! While we’re not going to announce it until awards day in February, the board has made its choice. Selection criteria revolved around the predominance of Cal-Breds and the length of time the winner has been involved with Cal-Breds. We also did not want to give the award to the same trainer two years running. So we’ll announce our selection on February 9! Who do you think it is?

How Should We Choose Our Top Stallion? While we have no wish to play down the accomplishments of stallions or discourage the importation of stallions who have sired nice foals in other states before coming to California, the board thought it appropriate to give special acknowledgement to a stallion’s sire record based specifically on the foals sired while the stallion was standing in California, and is still standing in California (or died or was pensioned here) at the time of award selections. This award will be given at the Annual Meeting.

Ballot Process Improved. In the past, members could vote, or change their vote, at the annual meeting. This structure caused administrative and accounting problems, and required that ballots not be kept secret (so the ballot of someone wanting to change a vote could be identified). The board unanimously amended the by-laws to cut off the voting at a time certain, and to require that all votes be submitted by ballot. The cut-off date for receiving ballots will be February 6, the Wednesday before the annual meeting. Myron Johnson was appointed Director of Elections, and will announce the results at the business meeting.

Stallion Directory Earliest Ever! The stallion directory was mailed this year in early December, the earliest date ever. The board is very appreciative of the efforts of Deanna Sparks, Rudy Groothedde, and other staff members for driving this project and getting it out so expeditiously.

TREASURER’S REPORT.
Financially, the association continues to operate better than budget. We are still on target to complete our computer conversion parallel testing by April 2002, after calculation and payment of incentive awards. Incentive Award revenues based on takeout are down an insignificant .6%.

SALES COMMITTEE REPORT.
The timing of the Sales Workshop is better this year. The last workshop occurred just before the sale, when there was little time to make changes. This year, by holding the workshop in January, there will be plenty of time to incorporate suggestions into the planning process. This is why we feel that it is especially important that major agents and buyers make every effort to join us in this workshop. To support consignors in the months before the sale, Clydene Boots will prepare a series of articles on sale husbandry and concepts. The first of these will appear in the January edition of the California Thoroughbred. We feel it is critical, for attracting high quality buyers, achieving a high sales average, and having a financially viable sale, that we maintain our strict selection criteria.

RACING COMMITTEE REPORT.
The Racing Secretaries’ Meeting at CTBA was well attended. The most passionate subject was the new nonwinners of $8,000 condition initiated at Hollywood Park. At the request of both the TOC and the CTBA, the nonwinners clause went back to $3,000 in the second condition book. Our recommendation that overall claiming prices be raised was not well received and no progress toward that end was made.

The proposed Race Fund budget was approved. The most notable change was the additional allocation of $25,000 to Hollywood Park. This amount will go toward increasing the purse of the Melair Stakes to $200,000.

Black type rules have changed. Black type will no longer be awarded to races for maidens, races limited to horses that had run for a claiming price, or optional "claiming stakes."

The Cal Cup in early November was a huge success. The handle was a record $19.8 million, with the net for purses generated increasing approximately $260,000 over last year. The TVG coverage was terrific (resulting in an 80% increase in out-of-state handle).

LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE.
To support racing plans like the Sunshine Cup and the Great State Challenge, we’ll need to change legislation to give us some flexibility to make the funds available. This work will need to be carefully done so that in this tight budget year others won’t see our bill as an opportunity to take away some of our earlier legislative achievements. We’re pleased with the results of the stallion season auction supporting our political action committee (PAC), which is a state PAC. Funds from this PAC support selected legislators who are friendly to our industry. Because federal issues of concern to the industry remain with us (e.g., regulation of interstate wagering and the internet as well as environmental controls affecting horse operations), we are planning to establish a federal PAC to support federal candidates.

WEBSITE COMMITTEE.
CTBA staff continues to keep this site current. As a result of our currency and our stylistic updates, the site has become more attractive to advertisers, and ad revenues are trending up. We will implement a space timesharing approach to include more ads in the same space.

MAGAZINE COMMITTEE.
The staff has worked hard to improve the appearance and the timeliness of the stallion directory. The directory was out earlier this year than ever in the past, and has more color pages than past issues have contained.

EDUCATION COMMITTEE.
The San Diego County stallion tour attracted a full bus of breeders, and cars also followed. Over 100 breeders attended the Coastal Region tour. The Riverside County tour will take place in January 2002.

We will attempt to get the CTT to sponsor the large, laminated calendar, which we published in 2001. Not all breeders liked the calendar. This year, we will pay for half of the printing and lamination ($1,000) if the CTT agrees to pay for the other half. The calendar will be made available to those who want it but won’t be mailed to all breeders.

The Harris Farms Seminar is tentatively scheduled for Friday and Saturday, September 20 and 21, 2002. It is tentatively titled "Dreams, Reality, and the Marketplace," and will review the numerous aspects a breeder must consider, such as broodmare selection, foal husbandry, sales preparation, and the importance of the x-ray repository. We are hoping to attract another stellar group of speakers to educate and entertain. SEE YOU ALL AT THE ANNUAL MEETING! DON’T FORGET!
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2002, AT THE RADISSON BERKELEY MARINA.

A DAY AT THE RACES AT GOLDEN GATE FIELDS WILL FOLLOW THE MEETING.