The Declining Foal Crop: A Further Look

When Harness Racing Update surveyed some of the smartest minds in the sport of harness racing and asked why the annual foal crop of standardbreds keeps falling, most weighed in with similar answers. The conventional wisdom was that not enough money was allocated to 2-year-old races and therefore the only reason people would buy yearlings was the dream of hitting one out of the park. People knew that if they bought an ordinary horse they were likely going to lose a lot of money, a major disincentive when it comes to buying yearlings. And if people aren’t buying yearlings, people won’t produce Yearlings.