Fasig-Tipton photo

There’s never a good time for a crisis, but it’s hard to imagine a less convenient time for Covid-19 to have hit the New York racing and breeding industries than mid-March. Mares were foaling and being bred; high-stakes races were on the calendar at Aqueduct; and the popular sales for two-year-olds in training were hitting high gear.

What’s the old saying? “We plan, God laughs”?

Sales were cancelled or postponed; on-line bidding was introduced. In the case of the prestigious Fasig-Tipton yearlings in Saratoga Springs, moved out of the state that became the epicenter of Covid infection, shifting for this year to Kentucky, even the sale of preferred New York-bred yearlings. When that decision was made in late April, Thoroughbred racing in New York was still shut down, with no indicators when it might return, or whether a Saratoga racing meet would happen.

But as Greg Falk, who manages Chester and Mary Broman’s Chestertown Farm, put it, “The mares didn’t know what was going on, and they kept on foaling.”

Continue reading at New York Breeder…