HISTORY

GENESEE VALLEY BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
Western New York Thoroughbred Breeders
Vol. 1 No. 1
April 1984

HISTORY OF THE GENESEE VALLEY BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
By Joseph C. O’Dea, DVM
Part I

Major W. Austin Wadsorth of the Homestead Geneseo, founded The Genesee Valley hunt in 1876.  First named The Livingston County Hunt, the name was changed a few years later to The Genesee Valley Hunt.  Its territory included a vast tract from Scottsville and Rush in Monroe County all the way south through Groveland almost to Dansville.

The foxhunting sport developed very quickly, and the Genesee Valley soon became the center of foxhunting in America.  It attracted sportsmen from around the world including Lord Lonsdale, the foremost name in British foxhunting; Teddy Roosevelt, later to become president of the United States; Prince Bernadotte, heir to the Swedish throne; Thomas Hitchcock, Dean of American Sportsmen, and scores of equally prominent people.

The records show that, while the foxhunting in those early days was very good, the horsemanship and, more especially, the horses, left something to be desired.  The Wadsworths were good husbandmen, and steps were taken to correct the problem.  Near the turn of the century, selected thoroughbred sires were procured and placed in suitable locations.

The first sire placed in service is reported to have been Otai., a chestnut foaled in 1890 by Uncus Pouponne by Macaroon.  Full made, a bit over 16.2 hands and carrying 9 ½” of bone, he was an impressive animal who left his mark on his get.

About the same time, Herbert Wadsworth of Ashantee, Avon, N.Y. married Martha Blow of St. Louis, the daughter of a prominent diplomat and a fine horsewoman in her own right.  It was Martha who took Genesee Valley horse breeding in hand and made it internationally prominent.

In 1914, she founded the Genesee Valley Breeders Association at Avon, N.Y., and incorporated it as a membership association under the New York State system of town and county fairs.  Its stated purpose was simply “to aid and encourage the breeding of hunters.”  When the storm clouds of World War I started to gather, it became readily apparent to the Army Quartermaster Corps that there was a cavalry, and that immediate steps must be taken to encourage the production of such horses.  To that end, the U.S. Remount Service was developed with the Jockey Club and Mrs. Wadsworth lending a hand.

The structure and approach of the new Genesee Valley Breeders Association suited the national need- a good hunter is, after all, the same as the local officer’s charger or trooper’s mount and capable of supplying the necessary grit under fire.  With the aid of the Jockey Club, suitable sires were procured, and it seemed that the best gravitated to the Genesee Valley.  In time, Lookover Stallion Station was built by Mrs. Wadsworth as a model of common sense and efficiency.  The house known as “White Lodge” was originally a hunting box owned by a group of Rochester sportsmen and hunting enthusiasts.

By the early 1920s, the Genesee Valley-bred hunter was known and respected far and wide.  The solid base and rapid progress of the program can in large part be attributed to the Annual Breeders Fair which then, as it does now, fostered good husbandry and continuous handling from birth.

In 1924 when A. Munning, the world renowned British artist and horse portraitist, visited the Genesee Valley, he was son impressed by the type, size and substance of the Genesee Valley breds that he inquired of Mrs. Wadsworth: “Why on earth do you Americans want to buy Irish horses when you can breed horses of this stamp over here?”

The answer was then was just as it is today for those who buy and breed to the Trakehners, Holsteiners and Hanovarians – snobbery, pure snobbery!

In those days, some 50,000 acres of prime land were held by the Wadsworth clan – in fact, some 26,000 acres remain with them still.  Much of the land was tenanted.  The Major encouraged all of the farmers to hunt, so they in turn became interested in improving their horses.

The Genesee valley Program was predicated on thoroughbred sires bred to thoroughbred and non-thoroughbred mares.  Each year, Mrs. Wadsworth would go to the local bank, procure a loan, and then search the thoroughbred sales for mares and fillies of the right type with bone, size and substance.  She would then parcel them out to the tenant farmers who kept the mares as their own, agreeing to devote the proceeds from the sale of the mares’ get until the loan was paid off, usually with the first foal.  From then on the mare was, for all practical purposes, the property of the custodian farmer but remained in the legal ownership of the GVBA.  The custodian could lose his right in the mare by failing to care for her and her offspring or by failing to use her for the purpose intended – breeding.  An inspection team visited the custodians’ farms at periodic intervals unannounced.  If at any time, the custodian chose not to breed the mare, then the mare was reverted to the Association and was assigned to a new custodian, who had acceptable facilities and acreage.  The Association always had a long waiting list of breeders wanting an “association mare.”

It should be pointed out that it was Mrs. Wadsworth’s usual practice to destroy the Jockey Club foal certificates of mares placed with custodians in order to preclude any possibility of the get being raced rather than being hunted or shown.  It is, therefore, very obvious that a high percentage of the Genesee Valley half-bred hunters were, in fact, registered thoroughbreds of size and substance.

When Mrs. Wadsworth died in 1935, her heir Mrs. Nelka DeSmirnoff Moukhanoff took up residence at Ashantee and sold the Lookover Stallion to the Jockey Club to continue the stallion program.  The Jockey Club operated the Stallion Station until 1965, when it passed to the Genesee Valley Breeders Association.  Two years later, the Association phased out the stallion program because many horsemen who stood a stallion or two themselves objected to the competition from the Association’s stallions.  It seemed the Association was competing against its own members.  The stallions remaining, at that time, were leased to suitable lessees.  Subsequently, the Station was sold to Attorney J. Michael Jones, who has some hunter and broodmares in his stable and a modest string at the track.

Under the Jockey Club’s management, the breeding shed had been constructed and the grounds improved.  A large and choice collection of service stallions was procured for the Lookover operation including: Omaha (Gallant Fox – Flambino) winner of the Triple Crown; Tourist II (Son In Law- Touraine) leading steeplechaser and steeplechase sire; Platter (Pilate – Lets Dine) leading 2 year old and stakes sire on flat and over jump; *Rhodes Scholar winner of the Epsom Derby and stakes sire; *Isolater (Blandford – Priscilla Carter) leading older horse and good sire; Hurryoff (Haste - *Blue Grass) winner of the Belmont Stakes; Popcorn (Nirgal – Boomdeay) Gr. I stakes winner and stakes sire; Crash Dive (Devil Diver – Canfli) multiple major stakes winner; Lucky Omen (*Gino – Son Miss) multiple stakes winner on flat and over fences; and many more. 

World War II brought many changes to agriculture and to life in general.  it had a profound effect on the Genesee Valley breeding, as did the advent of the Finger Lakes Racetrack.  To accommodate the changed the GVBA updated its by-laws, rewriting its purposes: “to aid and encourage the breeding of horses of the thoroughbred type.” which includes half-bred hunters and racing thoroughbreds as well.

History of the GVBA
Part II
By Joseph C. O’Dea, DVM

World War II and the departure  from the farms of the scores of young men who entered military service left a large accumulation of young stock on the farms unhandled and unbroken.  That circumstance, coupled with the curtailment of many equine pursuits due to wartime restrictions, caused the market to all but disappear.

It was not uncommon in 1944-45 to visit a farm and find the total five-year production of the resident mares all available for inspection.  Those occasions were fruitful experiences for the keen observer wherein he could see the produce of several sires from a single dam and could thus get a firm handle on a stallion’s prepotency or lack of it.

This ever increasing accumulation of young studs made it readily apparent that innovative measures needed to be taken if the industry was to survive.  Early in the summer of 1945, it was announced that the Saratoga yearling sales would, in fact, be held but would be scheduled for the Meadowbrook (Polo) Club of Westbury, Long Island.  Fasig - Tipton Company was looking for entries for the venture.

With a considerable amount of urging, I was able to talk four breeders into consigning to the sale.  My overall plan was, of course, to start moving the young stock at an age when breaking and training was not a prerequisite for sale.  if we were able to create a market for yearlings, then breeding would continue and over a period of a year or two, the accumulated older prospects could be systematically liquidated.

The first four pioneers were: Leo W. Davin of Caledonia: ch. c Omaha-Chance Flyer by Chance Play (Omaha Flyer) - $900; Fred L. King of Phelps: ch. f. Omaha-Sun Alberta by *Sun Briar (Omaha’s Betty) - $1,100; John Steele of Avon: Bay, g. *Tourist II - *My Princess by *My Prince II (Bought for a hunter) - $1,100; Capt. Charles K. Bassett of Buffalo: ch, c. *Tourist II – Stormful by Stormscud (Quick Steward) - $300.

The sale was a great success in that the yearlings were in fact sold and brought a total of $3,400, several times their collective asking price at home.  The Bassett Colt, a late foal, brought only $300, but the other three averaged $1,033.33 which was approximately 100 times their stud fee.

A total of 55 head were sold at the “Saratoga at Meadowbrook Sale” of 1945 for an average of $5,491 which was slightly ahead of the North American average.  At the top of the sale was a brown colt by Easton-Alexandrea by Pharos which brought $22,500.

In 1945, 986 yearlings were sold in North America and brought a total of $5,146.37, the highest average ever attained on the North American market.  The tops in 1945 was a bay filly by Blue Larkspur-Risk and a grey colt by *Sir Gallahad III-Scenery II.  Each fetched $46,000 and both were bred and consigned by A.B. Hancock’s Claiborne in Kentucky.  Sixteen yearlings each brought $30,000 or more, six of which were purchased by the Maine Chance Farm of Mrs. Elizabeth Graham.

The success of that first venture created considerable excitement and interest among New York breeders and have sold at Saratoga, Garden State, Timonium, Belmont, and Hialeah.

In an effort to move some of the accumulated older stock, a hunter sale was cataloged and held at Ashantee farm in Avon, which was still in excellent condition.  The late Humphrey S. Finney conducted the sale for us and, while many horses changed hands, the sale could not be considered a success.  It is interesting and sad that hunter auctions in America have never worked very well.  In retrospect, the announcement of the reserves prior to bidding, many of which were too high for starters, killed the bidding before it got underway.

The sale did, however, help to focus attention on the availability of Genesee valley breds for showing and hunting and, within a relatively short time, horses purchased here became national champions.  They included “The Angel” (National Working Hunter), “Andante” (National Jumper Champion), “Verity” (National Working Hunter Champion), “Peter Priam” (Junior Hunter Champion) and many others of championship caliber.  The story of “The Angel” and how he was saved from the “killers” as a yearling in particularly interesting.

The rapid growth of the horse industry for racing, showing, hunting, eventing, pony club, trail riding, and plain old horseback riding preserved and enhanced the welfare and growth of the breeding industry through the fifties.  Horses were really coming back despite the mournful predictions of the thirties that the horse in America was doomed.

In 1962, the long hoped for finger lakes Race track finally came into being-May 23 to be exact-and more than 10,000 people jammed the facility on that clear, crisp day to the tunes of Conductor Frederick Fennell and his Rochester Brass Ensemble.  It was a neat little plant, well equipped and staffed with enthusiastic and competent horsemen.

Retired racing executive, Luke O’Brien who formerly ran Jamaica and Laurel, came out of retirement from NYRA and managed the new plant.  Veteran Charlie McLennan was racing secretary and, as “the local,” I became association steward at the personal request of Racing Commissioner Ashley T. Cole.

Among the many internal problems was an insufficiency of horses.  It resulted from the adverse “crepe hanging” publicity of some of racing’s feature writers who were guided by competing racetracks into believing that Finger Lakes would never open.  However, when the track did open as scheduled and they got a look at it, the attitude changed.  Veteran writer Red Smith visited on opening day and gave it full marks.  His featured story in the “New York Times” calculated to help the horse problems, was headlined: “Finger Lakes-Long on Scenery, Short on Horses.”

His headline did not help; interest grew rapidly and a number of locals took the plunge into owning a stable.  Trainer Hohn Jacobs brought up a set of suitable horses won a lot of races and sold them on the spot.  He had a “field day.”

Due to the thin financing which resulted from “skin off” by some of the principals in the form of consultant fees and the high cost of underwriters’ fees for the public issue, the operation was plagued by bankroll problems-operational cash.  Further complicating the problem was the high purse distribution, which bore no relationship to the mutual handle, and the high interest rate on short term borrowing and accumulating deficits.

The story of the refinancing, restructuring and new ownership of Finger Lakes is a lengthy tale which spans several years.  Refinancing was ultimately achieved with and by the world-wide Buffalo conglomerate.  Delaware north originally called “Sportservice.”

My original interest in a local track was to create a catalyst for the improvement and development of the breeding industry and the use of horses generally.  In our development of the project, we pointed to the founding of a new agro commercial industry in Ontario County and virtually all of central and western New York.  To ensure that the track fulfilled its mission,   it was required that active steps be taken to give a special earning opportunity to locally bred horses.

General Manager Luke O’Brien was an “easy sell” and, once convinced, put his support behind the program.  Due to the paucity of New York-bred horses, we started out with a series of “New York-Bred Preferred” races which required that we have a New York-Bred Registry.

As president of the Genesee Valley Breeders Association and a Finger Lakes Steward, it fell to me in initiate a system of validation as soon as possible.  To do this I surveyed every geographical entity where a registry existed, then took the best from each and added what was necessary to meet the special needs of New York.  Bob Dygert and Frank Laimbeer were our first registrars.

Let all new Yorkers and the world remember that the New York State-Bred Registry and the program of new York Bred races was founded and established by the Genesee Valley Breeders Association, with the help of Finger Lakes race Track and its president-general manager, Luke O’Brien.  The registry has in recent years been shared with Eastern New York Thoroughbred Breeders a voluntary action by the GVBA which helped in several ways to develop the ENYTB and the NYTB.

It is a continuing source of disappointment to me that FLRA, NYTB, the New York Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund Board, N YRA or no other organization or person in a position of “clout” has seen fit to recognize the man who first made it possible to get a new York-bred program off the ground: Luke O’Brien.  If had remained unconvinced and had said “No, “ we would be years behind where we are today, and the New York Fund program may never have come into being.

History of the GVBA
Part III
By Dr. Joseph C. O’Dea

With the development of a race program at Finger Lakes, the interest of the Breeders Service Bureau of the State Racing Commission waxed increasingly warm, and legislation was proposed for a New York Thoroughbred Breeding and development Fund.  The task was made somewhat easier by the fact that the standard bred industry already had an incentive program in place.  As a former director of the Empire State Harness Horse Breeders, I was well aware of what could be accomplished by a Fund program.

Breeders, horsemen, farmers, the whole of the agro commercial community lent their support, and the legislature quickly endorsed the bill.  “The Standard bred Fund was accomplishing its purpose, why can’t a Thoroughbred Fund do the same,” they reasoned.
 
Prior to its passage by the legislature, Governor Rockefeller was queried about his attitude towards the Fund Bill, and he gave his commitment that if the legislature approved the bill, he would sign it.  Unfortunately that commitment was repudiated-not once, but twice.  He finally signed the bill prior to his departure for Washington.

Our fund”baby” which had endured such a long and painful pregnancy was finally delivered.

With the passage of the Fund legislation, it was evident that the Jockey Club Stallion Station, as originally conceived, was no longer necessary to insure the health of New York thoroughbred breeding.  The Jockey Club felt the need to streamline its operation and concentrate on the developing needs of all the horsemen in the hemisphere.

History of the GVBA
Part IV
By Dr. Joseph C. O’Dea, DVM

The development of New York racing and Breeders Fund, and the spawning of
The Eastern New York Thoroughbred Breeders with our help (voluntarily altering our charter, ceding the 31 eastern counties and granting part-ownership of our registry) required some new posturing on our part.

The fund wanted to do business through a small, efficient representative single entity.  We knew from experience that the state is too big, and local attitudes too disparate to have a single organization capable of caring for the individual needs of our breeders.

The logical solution was to form the Fund-mandated entity by joining a small, knowledgeable group at the top drawn equally from the GVBA and the ENYTB with the Fund administrator added to help the conduct of business and to serve the “tie breaker.”  The income of the New York Registry with adjustments along the way was calculated as sufficient to meet the needs of the new summit entity which was named The New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc.

The NYTB worked well in the early years.  Everett Schoenborn, Bert Bongard, Chester Davis, John Hettinger, Bill Heller, Willie Waller, Dr. Domini, DeLuke and others worked hard to develop the ENYTB and to put it on a par with the GVBA. As time passed and new breeders and speculators entered upon the ENYTB scene, many of the responsibilities of the association were pushed upon the New York Thoroughbred Breeders and the Fund office.  It was an insipient thing.  The ineptitude and inertia of certain officers in the east and their inability to understand the role and mission of the NYTB resulted in the transfer of many of the functions and responsibilities of the ENYTB to the NYTB.  As one would expect, interest in the ENYTB waned and as things stand today, it appears that it serves only to select representatives for NYTB and to collect dues for transmission to NYTB and to collect dues for transmission to NYTB.  There appear to be only sporadic attempts in the east, through the efforts of some of the old guard, to generate an ENTYB association program. 

The GVBA, in the meantime, remains well and healthy.  Its treasury maintains sufficient funds to meet the needs of its breeders as they arise.

Among the many services it renders to its members an allied horse groups are: (1) educational seminars on horse husbandry, sales, veterinary medicine, etc; (2) an up-to-date reference library; (3) a series of scholarships to 4-H and Pony Club instructors for its Horse Course at SUNY Geneseo; (4) support to steeple chasing and hunt racing in western New York.  It has developed a set of portable brush fences, etc.: (5) monitoring horse diseases and other problems in the area and notifying breeders as required; (6) publishing this newsletter; (7) maintaining an up-to-date list of “horses for sale” by the members; (8) conducting the annual Genesee Valley Breeders Fair (its 70th in 1985) for thoroughbreds and thoroughbred-sired stock of all ages-mares, stallions, foals, yearlings, 2-year olds, 3-year olds and horses under saddle.  Both conformation classes, and manner and condition classes are conducted which serve as yardsticks and models for good husbandry.  It is a very objective and worthwhile undertaking; (9) publishing an annual “Breeders Directory” at show time which serves all year as a very good reference to horses and to breeders; and (10) helping individual breeders with individual needs.

The soft thoroughbred auction market, except for the 3 or 4 percent at the top, has caused many breeders to curtail their operations or give up completely.  This appears to be particularly true in the east where many went into breeding for tax purposes or other ulterior motives.

Here in the western counties, we have a solid core of breeders who breed because they enjoy horses in sport.  This gives our industry stability not always found in other places.  Breeding in the Genesee Valley survived the very lean years between World War I and World War II, and it will survive through the soft market years of overproduction in the mid-eighties.

In recent years, some elements in New York Thoroughbred Breeders have chosen to look to government for additional subsidy as the main thrust of the association’s activity.  I doubt that additional subsidy will ever accrue from the state for the concept is fundamentally wrong.  The support that the industry enjoys is sufficient to protect the industry while it matures and establishes a good solid market of its own for New York Bred horses.  This “shake-out” and maturing process is a normal sequence of events in most new industries and was anticipated by many of us. 

The rightful role of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders is to handle those matters which the individual associations are unable to handle on their own.  The thrust must be to; (1) insure the efficiency and visibility of the Breeders Fund as it is presently constituted and to support those who administer it; (2) develop out-of-state markets for our product in racing areas that do not have a competitive breeding industry, i.e., New England, and in now racing states like Minnesota, Alabama, Iowa, etc.

In this its 71st year, I hope our Genesee Valley Breeders Association will continue to thrive and to preserve its effectiveness as an association.  I hope, too that the necessary steps will be pursued to preserve its identity and integrity as an independent association while working effectively within the New York Thoroughbred Breeders.

If Albany ever mandates a serious curtailment or abolition of the Fund, I believe that the New York Thoroughbred Breeders will cease to exist, as well may be the ENYTB, but the GVBA will endure and continue to serve the purposes for which t is constituted.

For those who approach the breeding of horses on a sensible and conservative basis, the market remains strong.  It requires study, good husbandry and genetic capability, conformation, and soundness in the breeding stock.  Raise a good horse and you’ll have a market, and the market will come to your door.