Keeneland
Tax Break
Get a FREE racehorse in 2011, courtesy of the IRS. From an analysis of the recently passed federal tax bill in today’s TDN:
Bonus Depreciation was increased to 100 percent for eligible horses or farm equipment placed in service after September 8, 2010 and before January 1, 2012. In other words, the entire cost of eligible horses or farm equipment purchased and place [sic] in service during that period can be written off. For example, two yearlings purchased and placed in service in 2011 at a total cost of $1 million can be entirely written off that year.
Just in time for Keeneland January shopping. (And a reminder that there are more ways to support ownership than increasing takeout for purses.)
I haven’t done more than skim the sale catalog online, but @irish_1 pointed out on Twitter this morning that Antoniette, dam of G1 La Brea winner Switch, is up for auction next month as hip #267 in foal to Roman Ruler.
Final Appearances
Zenyatta paraded for fans in sunny California on Sunday, in snowy Kentucky on Monday. Despite the cold, a good-sized crowd turned out at Keeneland to see the champion one last time before she retreats to stud. I wish the same could have been done for Rachel Alexandra, unceremoniously retired at the end of September. But even though honoring the filly was something Churchill Downs was interested in doing, her connections were not, explains Jennie Rees: “However, six days before the fall meet began, Stonestreet Stable quietly sent a van to pick up Rachel at Churchill to take her to the farm …”
10:50 AM Update: Many thanks to Susan for pointing out a recent post (with photo!) on the Stonestreet Farms Facebook page: “For those of you who are interested in seeing [Rachel Alexandra], we wanted you to know that after the first of the year, we will be announcing … occasional visitation days …”
On the Surface
And so, as it became apparent that Pro-Ride was not the answer to synthetic success, just as 3M’s Tartan had not been, I realized things had come full circle in racing, as in much of life. First, I had watched Delvin Miller’s dream for a synthetic track implode, and now Richard Shapiro’s as both visions disintegrated with their tracks.
Oh, come on.
At the fall meet midpoint, Keeneland, now in its fourth year with Polytrack, reports on-track handle has increased and that all-sources handle is barely off from 2009. Horseplayers are betting the surface. Breeders’ Cup contenders are prepping over it. The Polytrack is, as Alan pointed out on LATG, “as much of a synthetic surface success story as Santa Anita was a failure.”
But that’s not the story you’ll get, and most certainly not from DRF, which sells products as speed-biased as the old Santa Anita dirt track.
Tangentially related: At the Races blogger Matt Chapman rounds up the likely European contenders for the Breeders’ Cup. He comes up with 24 names, 19 of those for the turf races. If that is indeed the likely contingent, it’ll be off about a third from the number of 2009 European contenders, and I don’t think there’s much argument the return to a main track dirt surface isn’t a factor. Fewer Euros isn’t such a big deal this year, but I keep bringing the subject up because — as suggested most recently by the new Champions’ Day, which is marketing itself as an alternative to Churchill dirt in 2011, and the shift in breeding power to European studs, as discussed by Bill Oppenheim and Sid Fernando — it does seem as though the era of American exceptionalism, vis-a-vis dirt breeding and dirt racing, is passing. We can keep our dirt — at the price that we’ll matter less internationally in the future.
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Jessica Chapel is a writer, editor, and web producer living in Massachusetts. Railbird is a thoroughbred horse racing blog published since June 2004. More ›
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