It’s a hard truth to swallow, but I can no longer pretend that this industry cares about its core customer: the gambler. Even though I don’t like it, I’ve learned to live with it, just like most players; some are unaware of it, and others simply don’t care. But when it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that the leaders and loyal players of this game care about the horses, that’s where I draw the line. I can’t ignore it, I won’t resign, and there’s certainly no ‘quitting’ here. The hits keep coming, and right now we’re not just dealing with bad leadership.it is a total vacuum. It’s a complete lack of leadership, and that’s exactly where we find ourselves today.
The recent expose on Guyana’s ‘Wild West’ of horse racing – a landscape of undocumented imports and zero regulatory guardrails – is a chilling reminder of how easily the North American Thoroughbred can slip off the grid. While much of the industry’s ire is directed at sales companies and middlemen, the ultimate responsibility for the integrity of the breed rests with the holder of the American Stud Book: The jockey club.
We highlighted the systemic welfare gap in Puerto Rico, where horses often disappear in a cycle of excessive racing and abandonment. In our Open letter to the Supervisory Boardwe demanded that The Jockey Club treat these high-risk shipments with the seriousness they deserve. So far, these demands have been met with administrative silence.
The ‘domestic’ deception
Below Rule 10 of the Main rules and requirements of the American studbookstrict ‘export certificates’ are required for horses moving to international jurisdictions. However, because Puerto Rico is classified as a “domestic” territory alongside the US and Canada, horses are shipped there without more supervision than a van across state lines.
This is a legal fiction. Once a horse reaches Puerto Rico, it enters a jurisdiction plagued by a documented welfare crisis. By refusing to treat Puerto Rico as an export destination, The Jockey Club is essentially facilitating a pipeline to a ghost zone where traceability is in danger of disappearing.
The Guyanese Precedent
The situation in Guyana is even more dire. As reported this week, Guyana does not have an approved studbook and the racing authority remains only a body on paper. Yet North American Thoroughbreds continue to arrive there through handshake agreements. While individual tracks like Gulfstream Park have shown leadership in banning individuals from shipping to these areas, the race registry remains a passive spectator.
A call to action: three mandates for the Jockey Club
We call on the Board of Stewards to exercise its authority to protect the breed and its participants:
- Change line 10: Requires a mandatory Welfare export certificate for every horse that moves to Puerto Rico. This would subject these shipments to the same stringent identity and health monitoring required for any other international export.
- Trigger rule 19 for high-risk shipping: The jockey club recently used Rule 19 to deny registration privileges to individuals for cruelty violations. They must now extend this enforcement to anyone who ships a horse to an unregulated jurisdiction like Guyana.
- Set a “No-Export” registry flag: For horses sold with aftercare-oriented ‘no-export’ covenants, The Jockey Club must provide a mechanism to flag these horses on the register, making them ineligible for transfer or registration in high-risk jurisdictions. Not voluntary, mandatory.
The industry cannot claim to be committed to aftercare as long as it continues to supply the raw materials for unregulated racetracks. The Jockey Club must stop being a passive record keeper and become the guardian it was built to be. If a jurisdiction cannot guarantee the safety of our horses, they should not have access to our studbook in any way.
It’s time. Lead or step aside:
#Closure #pipeline #Guyana #Puerto #Rico