Everett Dobson, the new Chairman of The Jockey Club, just delivered a keynote at the HBPA conference in Arkansas. He spoke about “collaboration.” He spoke about “unification.” He told a room full of horsemen—the people who actually wake up at 4:00 AM to feed, groom, and care for our athletes—that the Jockey Club’s “first allegiance is to the horse.”
It’s a beautiful sentiment. It’s also, unfortunately, mathematically impossible to reconcile with the current reality of the sport.
Just last month, The Jockey Club released its 2026 Industry Impact Report, bragging about a $112 million investment in the sport over the last 15 years. That sounds like a massive number until you do the actual math. That averages out to about $7.5 million a year—a rounding error for an organization sitting on large reserves while the foal crop shrinks and the “Ghost Zone” pipeline in Guyana and Puerto Rico continues to swallow horses whole.
Mr. Dobson told the HBPA that “credit should be spread far and wide” to the horsemen. He’s right. They are the ones paying the hay bills. They are the ones dealing with the “Scratch Tax” (entry fees) that stay with the institutions instead of going to the purses. Bragging about “investing the interest” on a huge while aftercare groups are fundraising on social media for basic medical supplies isn’t leadership—it’s an endowment strategy for institutional survival.
Here is the “Spider and the Fly” moment: You cannot stand at a podium and call for “unification” while simultaneously ignoring a formal, professional invitation to a public forum to justify these very numbers.
We’ve offered the table. We’ve offered the platform for a fair, transparent Q&A.
If your “first allegiance” is truly to the horse, why is the conversation being ducked? Silence isn’t a show of strength; it’s a tell. It says the status quo is indefensible under the light of a real audit.
If you want to grow the sport, Everett, stop cheerleading from the lunch room and start answering the questions from the paddock. The industry is tired of “No Comment.” We’re looking for leaders, not just chairmen.
The chairs are still empty. The clock is still ticking.
The Invitation
March 3rd, 2025
RSVP’s pending……….
