John Sikura Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

[Wandering Eyes]

The TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland returned this week with its first podcast of 2026, and the guest was John Sikura, the owner of Hill 'n' Dale Farms at Xalapa. Sikura was the Gainesway Guest of the Week.

While there were several subjects to discuss with Sikura, the prominent farm owner largely focused his attention on racing in California, its problems and what he sees as the industry's obligation to improve the situations at Santa Anita, Del Mar and Los Alamitos.

“We need to fix this today,” he said.

While admitting that fixing the problems in California will not be easy because it is the last major racing state that does not receive alternative revenues from casinos, slot machines or HHR machines, he called on the Breeders' Cup to step up and help the sport there.

According to Sikura, the Breeders' Cup has set aside $100 million in nominators' awards in what he called a “rainy day” fund. He believes that some of that money should be allocated to improving the purses in California.

“I've always been a huge critic of the fact that the Breeders' Cup keeps $100 million of nominators' awards for a rainy day fund,” he said. “My joke was that if you think the flood was bad for the Noah's Ark, well, what about this? In order to have a rainy day fund that needs a hundred million dollars, there will have to be a torrential flood of epic proportions. I might be a loner in the minority so far as my critique goes, but I don't believe the founders of the Breeders' Cup, in their original statement and in their original mission, believed it was necessary to put away $100 million. When you have current crippling issues in our business that are affecting the validity of breeding programs in states and, maybe even the existence of some markets, that money, in my strong opinion, should be put into use to help the Thoroughbred industry. And if there's a cause more important than the survival of California racing, I don't know what it is.”

Sikura recalled that it wasn't that long ago that the Breeders' Cup supplemented purses for several stakes races. He called on the organization to revisit that policy.

“This is the proposal that I had made to the Breeders' Cup: let's supplement the Grade I races in California and make sure the purses for them are at least $500,000,” he said. “Let's work to restore prestigious races like the Santa Anita Oaks to Grade I status. Let's have a moratorium on downgrading races there for three years. And by doing so for three years, that hopefully would give some time and a spark of enthusiasm to come up with a solution for California. Obviously, it's a legislative one. They need Historical Horse Racing machines. That's a challenge because of Indian gaming. How do we tackle that? You have to boost, you have the supplement, you have to have a bottom underneath you for three years, and that would really give an incentive for somebody to try to work out a solution.”

Sikura, not exactly one to mince his words, said that a “rainy day” fund should be unnecessary because the Breeders' Cup should be making money on what is such a prestigious event that takes in millions in betting handle and nominators' awards.

In response to Sikura's proposal, the Breeders' Cup offered the following:

“Breeders' Cup Limited maintains an endowment generated by strong financial management. As of their last publicly reported fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2025, the balance was $98.5 million, at least 85% of which is investment income. The endowment is managed by an investment committee, and all decisions regarding the endowment are carefully evaluated and approved by the board of directors.”

They added, “As a non-profit whose mission is to conduct the Breeders' Cup World Championships at the highest levels of quality, safety and integrity and to promote the growth of Thoroughbred breeding, racing, and sales through proactive leadership, innovation, and service, Breeders' Cup Limited must exercise prudent fiscal stewardship while thoughtfully leveraging the endowment and related income to enhance the World Championships and advance their mission.”

Sikura also discussed his acquisition of 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) and his breeding plans for the superstar mare. Another subject he touched on was the promotion of his son, Jes, who was recently named to the position of director of bloodstock at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa.

The “Fastest Horse of the Week” was Stiglets (Spun to Run). Trained by Phil D'Amato, the sprinter earned a 107 Beyer figure in a Jan. 3 allowance race at Oaklawn Park. The Fastest Horse of the Week segment is sponsored by WinStar, which stands the stallion Straight No Chaser.

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the PHBA, 1/ST TV and West Point Thoroughbreds, Randy Moss, Bill Finley and Zoe Cadman discussed what made them optimistic about the sport in 2026 and what made them pessimistic. Cadman, who won 311 races during her riding career, gave a moving tribute to the pioneering female jockey Diane Crump, who passed away last week at the age of 77.

To watch the TDN Writers' Room podcast click here. To listen to the podcast click here.

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