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| Registering a Foal |
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By Clydene Boots
Owner-manager, Westview Farm
The Jockey Club issues
rather specific instructions on its application form, and they may vary
from year to year. While this article will touch on some aspects of the
specifics, the focus will be on helping you understand the process, plus
things you can do to make it simpler, more accurate, and less frustrating.
The application process
must be completed 12 months from the date of the foal's birth or The Jockey
Club will assess substantial penalties. However, you need to begin gathering
the information necessary shortly after the foal is born.
Something to keep in
mind throughout the process is that The Jockey Club is very much like the
U.S. Postal Service in that many of the individuals are knowledgeable and
helpful (though some aren't), but the organization itself is a cumbersome,
slow-moving, error-prone bureaucracy that often displays more than a hint
of arrogance toward the public. Unfortunately, many of your dealings with
The Jockey Club will also involve the Postal Service. (I will not deal
here with the various services, including registration, that are offered
online.)
The Jockey Club is notoriously
slow in processing its mail, even Priority Mail bearing frantic notations
such as "RUSH!!", "PLEASE EXPEDITE!!!", etc. One gets the impression
that mail arriving at The Jockey Club is aged carefully, like good bourbon
or a country ham, before it is touched by human hands.
The components of the
registration process are (1) live foal report, (2) stallion service certificate,
(3) genetic sample kit, (4) identification photos, (5) application form
which includes cowlicks and white markings, (6) your check for the fee.
(1) Live Foal Report:
Mares who foaled the previous year will be in the computer and reports
for them will be mailed out early in foaling season. If you purchased the
mare recently, or she is having her first foal, you will need to request
a form, which is best done by phone, fax, or e-mail to avoid the Postal
Service and the mailroom.
As each mare foals,
you are to complete the form and send it to The Jockey Club, where it will
be aged carefully, and when the foal is four to six months old, they will
send you the application form and genetic sampling kit.
The reverse side of
the live foal report is a "no foal report." There is also a tear-off portion
that is to go to the farm where the mare is being bred that year, which
simplifies their reporting of information to The Jockey Club, though most
farms now do that online.
(2) Stallion Service
Certificate: Farms vary as to when they send these out, but it won't be
until you've paid your stud fee. Those sent at that point will need to
be kept in a very safe place, as it may be a year or more till they are
needed if the stud fee was paid the fall the mare was bred. Some farms
have grown tired of people misplacing the certificates and don't send them
out until the mare owner requests it. In that case, make sure you ask for
it in plenty of time.
Some farms no longer
use the actual service certificate but simply send the relevant information
to The Jockey Club via computer once the fee has been paid. This is convenient
but a bit disconcerting to those of us who are accustomed to having the
actual service certificates in our registration file.
(3) Bloodtyping has
been replaced by DNA testing of hairs pulled from the mane, and the instructions
accompanying the kit are very clear. Remember, though, since the DNA is
obtained from the roots, not the hair shaft, the clump of hair cannot
be cut from the mane; it must be pulled out by the roots. Since there is
almost certainly a charge for the DNA testing, even if you don't end up
registering the foal, it may be best to wait a while if the foal is very
crooked or there is some other reason you may not want to register it.
(4) Identification photos:
These are to be in color, but not Polaroid. Take separate photos
of front view, back view, left side, and right side, all showing the entire
horse and clearly showing the white markings with no obstructions such
as grass around the feet. Push the horse's forelock to one side. Look for
tiny snips on the lip or under the halter, or bits of white on the back
of the heel, and take closeups of those and any unusual markings. It is
wise to always include a closeup of the face. It is better to send lots
of extra photos than have the registration delayed because The Jockey Club
wants another photo. On the back of the photo, write the mare's name, and
the year of that foal's birth. Don't wait till the last minute to take
the photos, as you always need to retake some that didn't turn out well!
(5) Cowlicks and white
markings: The single thing that can save grief later on is to "identify"
the foal as soon as possible after birth. Cowlicks and white markings are
more clearly visible then than at any other time. Then save the photos
and description sheet for reference when you do the registration. The worst
time is when the kits arrive and you have light-colored baby fur looking
like white in the photos, or obscuring a tiny bit of white on a heel. So
you wait till the bleached-out baby fur is gone and the white is showing
clearly again, and by then the winter coat is coming in and making it difficult
to see the cowlicks.
The Jockey Club is again
requesting that cowlicks on the underside of the neck be noted, so watch
for those and also any on the chest. They may not get put on the papers,
but they will be on file in case there is an ID problem later on. Be very
thorough--an overlooked white hair or a tiny cowlick can cause you to be
penalized later at a sale or at the racetrack when the horse identifier
compares your horse to the registration papers. And the correction process
is now much more complicated. Even for a tiny overlooked cowlick one must
obtain a "corrected certificate form" from The Jockey Club and redo the
entire application, including another full set of photos.
A common error is mistaken
use of left and right. It is the horse's left/right, not that of the observer.
Thus a cowlick "at eye level to left of midline" would be toward the horse's
left eye. The Jockey Club can get this wrong too. On one group of papers
I sent in, they very diligently changed every description to make it the
observer's left/right, and I had to send the entire group of papers back
and have them corrected to give the descriptions as I had done them. Check
those papers when they come back to you. If the discrepancies are minor,
check by phone to find out whether the omission or discrepancy should be
corrected. If corrections are made within six months of the date the papers
are issued, no fee is charged.
Like many farms, I do
The Jockey Club and Cal-bred registrations for clients' horses, and have
inquiries and the papers directed to me. When the papers arrive, I make
copies and take the copies out to the field and check them for accuracy
against the horses, then check them against my copy of the original application.
Always
keep a copy of anything you send The Jockey Club.
Once all papers have
been received and are correct, I do all the Cal-bred registrations, as
the markings on that form must correspond to The Jockey Club papers, and
the papers must be sent in to CTBA for stamping.
(6) Payment: The fee
you are paying for each horse is part of the information you will fill
out on the application form. The Jockey Club is helping raise money for
NTRA by offering you boxes to check reflecting various levels of donation,
but the basic fee at present is $200--much higher if the one-year
deadline is missed.
So . . . there's how
you do it, and good luck!!
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