Good New$ for Breeder$ About Withholding$ of 2010 and 2009 from Executive Director Tracy Egan

The Breeding Fund is pleased to inform the state’s breeders, owners, and stallion owners that they will receive 100% of the withholdings for 2010.  Now that we have a good idea what our final revenue figures will be for 2010, we have determined that there are sufficient funds to pay every penny that was held back from awards checks over the past 12 months.  (The Board of Directors imposed a 30% withholding for the entire year, and as NYC OTB started to withhold statutory payments from the Fund, the Board established an additional 20% withholding for awards earned from July to December of this past year.)

In large part thanks to the fact that our Board Chairman, John Sabini, got NYC OTB to set aside payments due the Fund beginning in May of 2010, the bookmaker paid the Fund more than $1.163 million in December and early January. Those payments mean the Fund will have more than $3 million available to make our program participants “whole” for 2010.

On top of that, NYRA made the state’s thoroughbred breeders an offer too good to refuse today, as the Board of Directors of the NYS Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund voted thumbs up on NYRA’s offer to forego acceptance of 2010 purse enrichment money, as long as the money goes towards paying the 30% holdback imposed on awards earned in 2009.  Because NYC OTB went bankrupt and failed to pay the Fund more than $2.1 million in 2009, the Fund was only able to pay breeders about 70% of their earned award amounts that year.

So that purse enrichment of more than $383,000 will be pooled with other money on hand at the Fund, such that we will be able to pay about 52 cents on the dollar towards what you are owed for the withholdings of 2009.

This move underscores the fact that the Fund, its Board of Directors led by Chairman John Sabini, and the NYRA all recognize that breeders need to be able to count on awards payments that are promised under Fund programs.  Stability is very important as breeders make plans on where to foal their mares and to which stallions they’ll breed.

We here at the Fund firmly believe that breeders who stick with the program will still start with an advantage unmatched by any other state.

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