The American Thoroughbred industry is currently a tale of two sports. In one version, the foundation is rotting: foal crops are in a twenty-year nosedive, middle-class owners are being priced out by soaring overhead, and the betting public is being cannibalized by Computer-Assisted Wagering (CAW). In the other version—the one inhabited by the Stewards of The Jockey Club—it has never been a better time to be alive.
As Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners recently noted in his letter to the TDN, the TJC’s recent attempts to answer its critics have been “weak, non-substantive, and overtly gaslighting.” But to understand why they gaslight, you have to look at their balance sheets.
The Profits of Scarcity
When Everett Dobson was elected Chair of The Jockey Club in August 2025, he wasn’t just taking over a breed registry; he was stepping into the role as the sport’s “moral compass.” Yet, Dobson’s personal racing business interests—Candy Meadows and Cheyenne Stables—appear to be thriving in a “scarcity market.” As one of the part-owners of the reigning NBA Champion Oklahoma City Thunder, his non-racing businesses are thriving too.
In 2025, yearling sales grossed a staggering $775.2 million, up 22%. While the median price for a yearling has stagnated for a decade, the “top end” where Dobson and his peers operate is a printing press. When the elite are breaking records at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, they aren’t incentivized to fix the crumbling bottom of the pyramid. To them, the shrinking foal crop doesn’t seem to be a crisis; it looks like a way to ensure their high-end products remain “exclusive” and expensive.
The Flightline Mirage: Monetizing the 1%
Perhaps no figure embodies this “Success Gap” better than TJC Steward Terry Finley. As the founder of West Point Thoroughbreds, Finley’s business model relies on selling the dream of the “Sport of Kings” to high-net-worth individuals.
In November 2022, Finley orchestrated a moment that defined the current era of TJC leadership. He offered a 2.5% fractional interest in the superstar Flightline via a “Metaverse” auction. That sliver of a horse sold for $4.6 million, theoretically valuing the horse at $184 million.
This wasn’t an achievement for the sport of racing; it was a masterclass in monetizing the 1%. While the average trainer in New York or Florida struggles to pay their bills, and while Westlake Stables asks ignored questions on X about transparency and the “for-profit” side of the TJC, a Steward is busy selling the moon to the “Metaverse.”
The Incentive to Ignore
This is why the voices of Repole, Wellman, and Westlake are being met mostly with a wall of silence. There is a “Conflict of Interest of Success.”
- The Reformers see a house on fire because they are looking at the foundation.
- The Stewards see a golden era because they are sitting in the penthouse.
Finley and Dobson are coming off banner years. If your personal portfolio is hitting all-time highs under the current system, why would you listen to “dissidents” – no matter who they are, no matter how successful, credentialed or credible they may be – who would want to upend it?
Conclusion: The Ivory Tower Needs Windows
The Jockey Club is no longer a leadership body; it is a gated community. Their silence toward Westlake Stables and their “weak” rebuttals to Repole are not accidents—to me they are the defense mechanisms of a class that is financially decoupled from the reality of the average horseman.
The “silent majority” is finally finding its voice, and that voice is asking a single, piercing question: Are you stewards of the sport, or are you just managing the decline while your own assets appreciate?
The Path Forward: Taking Back the Sport
The “silent majority” is no longer silent, but volume without action is just noise. If we are to move the needle against a leadership body that is financially insulated from our reality, we must shift from observation to organized pressure.
1. Demand Commercial Transparency The Jockey Club is a non-profit breed registry that operates massive for-profit tech subsidiaries (InCompass, TJCIS, Equibase). We must demand a full public audit of how much revenue these “subsidiaries” generate from owners and how much is being siphoned into executive compensation versus being reinvested into the foal crop and the fans.
- Action: Tag @westlakeracing and @RepoleStable on X and use the hashtag #OpenTheBooksTJC.
2. Support the concept of the National Thoroughbred Alliance (NTA) Under the leadership of Pat Cummings and Mike Repole, the NTA is the only body currently proposing a substantial overhaul of American racing’s approach to aftercare.
Plenty of people suggest that Repole doesn’t have a plan, as if the only strategy he could possibly be considering is limited to whatever he posts on his X account. If anyone thinks that a man whose companies have been sold for more than $14 billion doesn’t have some concept of the strategy to execute meaningful and effective change in racing, well, they should think again.
One piece that Repole has shared publicly is a “Funding Model Projection” that actually provides a mechanism to drive significant increases in aftercare funding across the industry. When I ran into Pat and Mike last weekend, they told me that the funding model came with a set of simple but illuminating findings on the state of “America’s aftercare ecosystem,” which was intended to be a clear analysis of the issues in the space and a great starting point for collaborating with The Jockey Club on needed changes. It was, and remains, pretty much ignored. That’s just unacceptable.
- Action: Publicly back the NTA’s proposal to properly fund aftercare and let’s start talking openly and transparently about what is needed to improve this space, once and for all.
3. Direct Accountability for the “Stewards” Everett Dobson and Terry Finley are not just industry figures operating their own private businesses, they are public-facing Stewards. When they celebrate record-breaking sales at Saratoga, we must remind them of the median prices, struggling trainers and rising costs pushing out long time participants.
- Action: If you are a West Point partner or a buyer of a horse bred by Candy Meadows , ask your leadership: “What is the 5-year plan to save the 10,000 owners who aren’t in the Metaverse?”
4. Vote with Your Entry Fees The most powerful tool an owner has is their horse. We must begin prioritizing tracks and organizations that align with reformist values. If the “establishment” won’t listen to letters to the editor, they will listen to a declining entry box.
Final Thought: The Clock is Ticking
We can no longer afford “Stewardship” that serves as a management of decline. We need a Commissioner-or at the least like figure , a visionary and strategic-minded chairman who embraces innovation and changes the trajectory of our industry. We need transparency, and most of all, we need leaders whose success is tied to the entire sport, not just the top 1% of the auction ring.
The Gilded Cage is comfortable for those inside it. It’s up to the rest of us to start shaking the bars.
You’re in or you’re out:
