Charitable Man bears Virginia's banner in Belmont, belies state's breeding weakness

Horsepeople in the Old Dominion were thrilled this winter and early spring when a Virginia-bred seemed a serious threat to become the fifth horse born in the state to win the Kentucky Derby.

That horse was Florida Derby-winner Quality Road, but his Derby trail ended with a nagging quarter crack. Commendably, his connections, including breeder and owner Edward P. Evans, decided they were willing to wait on a good horse, and he's being slowly brought back around to racing form for a summer campaign.

Virginia enthusiasts are excited, then, that another VA-bred has stepped in at the end of the Triple Crown Trail: Charitable Man. Coming in off a win in the track's Peter Pan S.-G2, he has a real shot to upset Mine That Bird this afternoon in the Belmont Stakes.

But, both he and Quality Road are evidence of just how far Virginia's breeding game has slumped.

While Charitable Man is owned and campaigned by Mr. and Mrs. William K. Warren, he, too, was born on Evans' expansive Spring Hill Farm near Casanova, Va. More and more, it seems, if you see a high-class Virginia-bred, it really ought to carry the "state tag" (EV), instead: Evans-bred.

This is not a knock on Mr. Evans. In fact, Virginia horse racing should be thanking God for "Ned" Evans. If it weren't for the love of his farm and his willingness to continue foaling mares there in spite of the presumed financial impracticality of the arrangement, Virginia thoroughbred breeding would have almost nothing. Evans keeps an estimated 90 mares at Spring Hill; the whole state of Virginia only foaled around 350 thoroughbreds in 2008.

Evans is the son of the late Thomas Mellon Evans, who owned Buckland Farm and was a noted horseman, breeding champion Pleasant Colony among many others. "Ned" Evans graduated with a degree in economics from Yale and an MBA from Havard, which pretty much punches a man's ticket in the business world. His chosen field was publishing, and while he maintains a residence in New York, as well, the 3,000-acre farm he bought many years ago in Virginia apparently still has a strong tug on his heartstrings.

That's apparent because Evans -- who is a member of the Jockey Club, owns an interest in numerous Kentucky stallions and could probably afford to buy a different farm or to board his mares anywhere -- keeps bringing them home to Spring Hill to live and to foal.

That likely isn't the most economical way to run a horse business, though I know others who take a stab at it, even smaller breeders. But ideally -- no, not ideally, rather necessarily -- if Virginia is going to save its thoroughbred breeding business, it needs a thriving, or at least surviving, stallion colony to do it.

Talk in Virginia Thoroughbred Association circles swirls around getting more off-track betting locations, particularly in Northern Virginia, which is a completely unserved population of around 3.5 million. Indeed, that is a big Step 1 to improving the lot of racing at Colonial Downs, and boosting the awards paid to breeders of winning foals; bonuses relied upon for ongoing income by those who make their living by selling a horse into racing hands. And the VTA makes a compelling case for the OTB expansion, including this pointed letter to Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

But unless the OTB revenues are also funneled into a stallion-specific bonus program -- specifically a VA-sired stakes program at Colonial Downs -- there will still be no incentive to choose a Virginia-based stallion. Breeders will continue to be much better off shipping out of state to quality stallions and returning to foal in Virginia, as Mr. Evans has chosen.

The alarming statistics showing the demise of Virginia's stallion ranks just keep piling up.

As I've already reported, of the 22 horses entered in this weekend's pair of VA-bred stakes races at Colonial Downs, 17 were sired outside Virginia and none of them -- though they're just 3- and 4-year-olds -- were sired by a stallion still standing in Virginia.

I've noted that Virginia's stallion and foaling businesses have plummeted just within the past 20 years. The number of Virginia stallions in service has dropped from 154 studs serving 837 mares in 1991, to 41 stallions serving just 123 Virginia mares in 2008. I have predicted that the numbers will be worse again in 2009.

On opening night at Colonial (scratch-filled, with the turf races moved to the muddy dirt track), there were but 18 VA-breds entered out of 83 horses in eight races. Of those 18, just one was sired by a stallion still alive and known to be standing in Virginia: If Its Meant To Be, by One Tuff Oop. Four others were sired by a quartet of stallions that once were at Virginia Tech University's MARE Center, but that facility was giving away many of its mares earlier this year and shows little evidence that its stallions, such as the capable Fred Astaire, are still in service. The others sired in Virginia, not just born there, were by horses now moved to other states (such as the accomplished runner and sire Black Tie Affair, now in West Virginia) or that have since died.

The signs of Virginia's breeding demise are almost entirely negative, and undeniable.

Virginia thoroughbred farms have produced the third-largest number of Triple Crown race-winners in history. Charitable Man could add to that number today.

But, almost by himself, Ned Evans can't keep Virginia-breds on the map forever.

Virginia's 'vanishing' breeding biz

I've alluded to this fact in a prior blog, and The Washington Post caught up to the story for Tuesday's editions. (You'll need a free logon I.D. to read.)

Thoroughbred race-breeding farms in Virginia are becoming very few and quite far between. From my limited experience as a budding horseman in my neighboring state -- plus evidence that continues to pile up -- it has a lot to do with the men and women in Virginia's government not really caring enough about the industry enough to cultivate it. And the fact that a significant percentage of the general public neither appreciates, nor understands horse racing.

Virginia has a fine racing venue in Colonial Downs. I happen to like the location, a rural setting near Interstate 64 on the way from Richmond to Virginia Beach, but apparently it isn't closer to bigger markets because of the NIMBY factor -- Not in My Back Yard. (Dear North Carolina: Feel free to build a racetrack in my actual back yard.)

But other than horsemen themselves, Virginians' minds are consumed by visions of the venue, off-track betting and the controversial notion of slots or other gaming to augment revenues.

Witness the immediate response of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine when asked by a radio show host to comment on the Post's story about the loss of farms. Kaine can't get his mind off the gambling: "We have a track," he said, "we have a lottery and that's enough for me." It took multiple attempts for the program's moderator to get Kaine merely to understand that the question was about raising horses, not racing them or, the logical leap in the mind of the governor, the subject of gambling on those horses.

Kaine goes on to say that Virginia has "a number of good raising opportunities," though he admits to not being an expert on the race scene. That lack of expertise is clear, for when it comes to breeding and raising racers, the Virginia horse business could be on its last legs.

Despite the superb track that Kaine touts, Virginia's breeding, foaling and horse-development businesses are tanking. In the 1960s, Virginia was home to around 1,400 new thoroughbred foals a year; now that figure is closer to 350. As I've blogged before, the Virginia stallion scene has wilted from 154 studs serving 837 mares in 1991, to 41 stallions serving just 123 Virginia mares in 2008. I suspect the numbers will be worse again in 2009.

How many millions of dollars in Virginia income (and taxes) are lost in that decline? How many hundreds or thousands of jobs have disappeared? How many farms are folded, their green spaces paved over for a Super Wal-Mart parking lot or turned into cookie-cutter houses?

It's all but certain Tim Kaine isn't aware of those figures; nor are most members of Virginia's legislature. Perhaps it's equally likely that they don't care. That's both wrongheaded and sad.

Racing is, or should be, a key element of any thriving Virginia equine industry, particularly since the state does maintain a racing venue. And that equine industry is bigtime business for Virginia. The law firm of Sands, Anderson, Marks & Miller, which numbers equine law among its specialties, cites the horse biz as a $1.65 billion annual industry for the state, in some fashion still supporting up to 20,000 jobs. If virtually any other industry that helped employ 20,000 in the Old Dominion were struggling, you can bet Tim Kaine and the legislature would take note, and try to do something to help.

Meanwhile, many laymen simply consider horse racing, and the gambling that surrounds it, a vice that Virginia would be better off without. They figure a track and nine OTBs are more than enough, even if there doesn't happen to be a wagering facility anywhere near most of the 3.5 million who live in Northern Virginia, losing an estimated $100 million in wagering annually to neighboring states. And there's no way these opponents of horseplaying want slots or other gaming approved for the state.

Fully detailing all the present challenges about the breeding business in Virginia, and all the potential fixes, would be better-suited for a future post. (Or a book.) Suffice to say that while 100 percent owner's bonuses paid at Colonial Downs last year were great, they do little or nothing for the breeder who sold that foal to the racing connections. And with a brilliant but brief Colonial meeting that completely lacks a Virginia stallion series (like successful models in New York, Louisiana and elsewhere, stakes races for which only foals sired in Virginia would be eligible), there's almost no point in standing a sire in Virginia.

The numbers don't lie. If action isn't taken soon, the race-breeding business in Virginia will die.

Of course, then it won't cost much at all to fund 100 percent owner's bonuses for VA-breds running among open company at Colonial.