Machowsky Talks California Breeding: A Unique Situation Needs “Unique Ideas”

[Wandering Eyes]

Over the 30 years former trainer Mike Machowsky spent plying his trade with stopwatch and condition book, his constant companion was the doughty California-bred.

A Cal-bred helped launch his career-Native Boundary, who showed class and grit aplenty over three years and 22 starts. Only the Bobby Frankel-trained Eternity Star stood between him and the 1991 G1 Hollywood Derby.

Later in Machowsky's career, the wily Cal-bred Caracortado stamped his mark over several seasons on some of the West Coast's most illustrious slug-fests over a mile.

As Fasig-Tipton's California representative-a position he has held since 2019 after handing back his license-Machowsky views the role of the Cal-bred through a different but no less appealing lens.

Only now, the critical role of the Cal-bred in propping up the industry has perhaps never been of greater import. Same goes for the owners' and breeders' program built up around them.

“The likes of New York and Pennsylvania have very good breeding programs. But California really is one of the best. It always has been. I just think we need to capitalize on it more,” said Machowsky, one recent morning in his small office adjacent to the Santa Anita paymaster.

“And how can we make it better?” he added. “How can we make it worth more to everyone?”

The need for a healthy breeding model is borne out in the numbers. Since 2014, Cal-breds have represented between 45% and 50% of all starters at Thoroughbred race meets in the state. During the recently concluded six-month Santa Anita meet, they accounted for just over 48% of starters.

But modeling performed for the TDN suggests there will be a combined 290 fewer Cal-bred runners competing in California between 2026 through 2028. Over the next few years, therefore, racing secretaries will have to rely on fewer of them.

Which begs the question: how to shore up California breeding to ensure that the next few years will followed by a renaissance?

“It's such a great program. If you've got a good Cal-bred, especially if you're the breeder of the Cal-bred, it's a great program. And if you're an owner that owns in California, or a trainer that trains in California, you have to have Cal-breds to support your stable.”

The way Machowsky sees it, there are two main approaches. You can take a scalpel to the problem, or an axe.

In terms of the latter approach, Machowsky believes that former California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (CTBA) vice chair Harris Auerbach might be onto something when he proposed consolidating the breeding industries in the nation's Western and South-Western regions.

“There's a lot of potential plusses here for combining forces,” said Machowsky, adding how, in recent years, he has tentatively broached such a scheme with other jurisdictions.

Consolidation is always proposed as a means to strengthen. In this case, it would strengthen the breeding industries in states like New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona, reinforcing what remains of the racing programs in these states, all the while giving breeders-and struggling breeders especially-reason to keep going.

“Washington doesn't have racing in the winter, right?” said Machowsky. “This could be a program to give your horse more options to run by offering incentives for you to run in New Mexico or in Arizona or in California or Washington or wherever.”

He knows such a radical rethink of the West Coast breeding machine would require a radical set of events to give it life.

Even if enough prominent figures from a diverse set of competing enclaves could come to some kind agreement, individual legislatures would likely have to sign off on it. That's why the specifics are light. But the genesis of the idea is an imperative.

“We're in a unique situation and we need unique ideas,” said Machowsky. “Something to give these guys a dream.”

From dreams to missed opportunities, Machowsky's other big-ticket idea is built around his suspicion that not enough influential figures around the country understand just what a lucrative breeding and incentives program exists in California.

“Maybe this article will help people realize we've got such a good program out here,” he said, pinpointing provisions in the state's owners' and breeders' incentives and awards program, like the maiden bonus program, the stallion awards, and how the program extends to out-of-state graded stakes races, as well.

“Maybe it'll open somebody's eyes.”

More pointedly, an opportunity exists for a large out-of-state breeding operation to come to California with a stallion that's perhaps not as commercially viable as his more illustrious barn-mates, said Machowsky, along with a squad of mares to support him. The offspring, he added, would do better as headline acts at a California sale rather than sideshows in another.

“Maybe he doesn't fit as well in Kentucky anymore, not going to get as much market share in Kentucky as he would in California,” said Machowsky, about the sort of stallion that would fit the bill.

California's breeders' awards make such a proposition financially viable, said Machowsky. Like a rising tide lifting all boats, this injection of outside quality into the state would help all breeders, bringing more eyes to the sales, and likely more dollars, too, he said.

There would also be a smart philanthropic element to the venture, helping to shore up a key corner of the industry in a state so vital to horse racing's nationwide health.

“I think everybody understands we need California to survive. There's a lot of money that's pumped out of here,” said Machowsky. “They would bring more quality out here, do well at the sales selling them and racing them, and then reap the breeders' awards and stallion awards.”

A tilt towards quality is evident in one of Machowsky's more pointed suggestions, that of affording the offspring of mares in foal to Californian stallions-but which are foaled in another state-the same breeders' awards were it born on home soils.

“Say, John Harris has one of his super mares in foal to one of his stallions. He wants to foal her in Kentucky but he's still going to bring her back. Same with Terry Lovingier or any of these guys.

“If they had one of their nicer mares, and say she's going to foal in January in Kentucky but they wanted to breed her in February then get her back out here, then let her foal in Kentucky and that foal is still eligible for the breeders' awards in California. Because right now, it's not,” said Machowsky, who added that caveats would have to be explored, like placing a time-limit with which the mare must return to California.

Another idea is to make changes to the Cal-bred turf program, including expanding the number of turf stakes races for Cal-breds.

“There's plenty of good turf sires in California,” said Machowsky. “But how do we fund it? That's the thing. Is there a way to make a futurity program for the breeders? It's possible-kind of like they do with the Quarter Horses, where you pay into it.”

Such ideas, said Machowsky, aren't meant as finished thoughts but rather launching pads for all industry stakeholders sat around the negotiation table to grapple with, to drop or to take up accordingly, then shape into their own.

“Everybody has to sit down at the table and talk about these things. We need to incentivize these breeders, give them as much opportunity to make as much as they can through their breeding programs or their stallion programs,” said Machowsky. “Us losing Northen California racing, we've got to all get together and make sure this thing survives.”

 

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