The Jockey Club, Keepers of the Stud Book

Navigating 130 years of economic cycles, legal challenges, and animal activism

Northern Dancer, 1964 Kentucky Derby winner and greatest sire of the 20th century. Since 1894, The Jockey Club has been keeper of the American Stud Book, a registry of all Thoroughbreds.

Posted Saturday, May 3, 2025 8:00 am

It’s no secret that horse racing has lost ground to online gambling and alternative sports betting, not to mention cultural shifts around the welfare of equines.

But The Jockey Club is no stranger to the challenges and headwinds associated with breeding and racing, having evolved for more than 130 years into something today that is part business and part industry advocate.

On March 9, 1951, a NYT front-page article sent The Jockey Club spiraling into survival mode:

“Court Ends Jockey Club’s Control of State Racing as Unconstitutional”

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With that ruling, which came on appeal, the all-powerful national JC was stripped of its unofficial governance over the horse racing industry.

No longer could a private privileged elite exercise authority to license thoroughbred owners, trainers, and jockeys, or enforce rules at racetracks. That dominion was now in the hands of State officials.

The decision came on the back of a lawsuit brought by a horse owner who was arbitrarily denied a racing license on grounds that he was an ‘undesirable’. In this case, he was alleged to be too closely associated with bookmakers.

Ironically, The JC was formed just for that purpose - to restore integrity to racing, which had become a magnet for crooked hustlers and unscrupulous insiders.

BUY- 'The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told'

Founded in 1894 by a group of Gilded Age ‘patrons of the turf’, the organization played a notable role in the first half of the 20th century.

During WWI, when horses were still used on the battlefield, The JC’s breeding bureau program provided pedigree sires to the U.S. army to help improve their stock.

Many of the breeders were stakes winners and some were even Kentucky Derby champions such as Sir Huon (1906) and George Smith (1916).

The JC watched over the popularity of horse racing in the 1920s and survived the Great Depression of the 1930s when wagering at tracks provided much-needed tax revenues for local governments.

'BUY- Broken'

Though the sport was hit hard during WWII when its labor force was sapped and gas rationing kept patrons away from parks, The JC galloped through and even raised $16 million for the war effort.

The 1951 legal judgement, however, was the hardest test yet for the 19th century institution. Still, the overseers found a new course to stay relevant and even thrive.

They went into the information business.

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The court ruling didn’t affect ownership of the American Stud Book, the Thoroughbred catalogue which The JC had acquired at the time of its founding.

Patterned on England’s horse registry which dates to 1750, the book was first published in 1868 by a U.S. Army Colonel, Sanders Bruce, before The JC bought it.

Serving as a well spring of information, it was the premier source for all Thoroughbreds foaled in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico.

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With its strict rules and guidelines, the American Stud Book has safeguarded the integrity of the Thoroughbred breed for generations.

For example, only foals that were naturally bred (ie-no artificial insemination) and whose parental lineage (both sire & dam) were already in the book, are eligible for registry.

With time, The JC morphed into a one-stop, state-of-the art statistical and media platform for all things related to the sport, from races and gross purses to auctions and yearling prices. Some 70,000 guests visit The JC’s website every day.

In 1998, The JC’s Equibase subsidiary supplanted the Daily Racing Form as the sole record keeper for Thoroughbred racing.

BUY- 'Man o' War'

In 2015, The JC purchased a majority stake in Blood Horse Magazine, the industry’s leading publication that started in 1916 as a monthly bulletin.

By developing for-profit subsidiaries, the non-profit JC has found a smart way to make money in a waning business, and at the same time remain a caretaker.

Since 2011, some $100 million from The JC’s commercial operations were deployed to 40 different initiatives, which include the Equine Injury Database (welfare and safety), America’s Best Racing (promotion of the sport), the Thoroughbred Incentive Program (aftercare), and passage of the 2020 Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (industry reform).

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