Page 18 - June_2023

Who doesn’t love this time of year! The weather is getting nice,
and everything is growing. As spring heads towards summer, we also see a changing of the seasons in the racing industry. Schooling races are wrapping up, and we have completed several sets of time trials. We are watching the development of the next class of stakes winners, all the while the yearlings are making their way into the barns to start sales- prepping for the summer yearling sales. It’s an amazing cycle, isn’t it?
Just as the racing season progresses, we at AQHA have our own cycle. While managing all day-to-day activities, we simultaneously navigate from big event to big event, starting the year with the Champions Ceremony,
then on to the AQHA Convention, then the running of AQHA Regional Challenge Stakes and the related hair testing, maintaining a presence at key races, horse sales, and events like the Jay Pumphrey Memorial Cowboy Classic Golf Tournament (this year to be conducted August 30 at The Links Golf Course in Ruidoso). My calendar is chock full through each season, and I look forward to seeing many of you at each stop.
While I may be on the road frequently,
our team at Headquarters works constantly
to move initiatives forward, and there are a couple areas where we are making progress. One such project involves a collaborative effort between AQHA’s technology department and the Racing Department team. Together, we are finalizing the programming to start using microchips to identify racehorses. The Jockey Club has also been
a critical component of the endeavor, since their Equibase and Incompass’ Track Manager are the systems we rely on for race related
data sharing. At this point, we are wrapping up the necessary steps that will enable us to transition to this technology as our means
of identifying racing Quarter Horses and
will start testing the application/website capabilities and training our identifiers. A communication plan has been developed,
and members can look forward to learning more about it in the coming months. In the meantime, know that starting January 1, 2024, we will no longer be tattooing horses.
In other news, I have an exciting announcement to make about the Bank of America Racing Challenge! We have
negotiated a deal with The Downs at Albuquerque to host the Bank of America Challenge Championships for three consecutive years! After going to Lone Star Park this year, our premier event will then be conducted at The Downs in 2024, 2025, and 2026. As the host, they have agreed to increasing their added amount of money to the purses each year, and we are excited to offer enhanced value to the races! Not only is the growing purse revenue exciting but being able to have long term plans for our event should really enhance the opportunity to grow participation and excitement. My thanks to Paul Blanchard and Don Cook
at The Downs at Albuquerque for their long-term support of the AQHA’s flagship program. Albuquerque is lovely in the Fall, and we hope to see you there.
This wraps up my report. I am pleased to offer insight to what your Racing Department team at AQHA is doing, and the role that
I have in representing our discipline. Our primary objective is to make Quarter Horse racing stronger, and we focus our attention on that goal each day. Thank you for affording us the honor of serving this great industry.
Our primary objective is to make Quarter Horse racing stronger, and we focus our attention on that goal each day.
CHANGING OF THE SEASONS
June 2023
by Janet VanBebber, AQHA Chief Racing Officer
16 SPEEDHORSE June 2023