Q & A WITH FTBOA CFO PEGGY YOST AND REGISTRATION & PAYMENTS COORDINATOR SHEILA BUDDEN

Peggy Yost SERITA HULT PHOTO

with FTBOA Chief Financial Officer Peggy Yost and Registration & Payments Coordinator Sheila Budden

The Florida Horse editor-in-chief Brock Sheridan sat down with FTBOA CFO Peggy Yost and Registrations & Payments Coordinator Sheila Budden to discuss their positions at the Association and the services they provide to FTBOA members.

TFH- Please describe for us your duties with the Association. How long have you been with the FTBOA, and how many years have you been in the horse business generally?

Peggy Yost- As Chief Financial Officer for our family of companies, [Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association, Florida Equine Communications, Florida Thoroughbred Charities, and Ocala Thoroughbred Racing], I have the primary day-to-day responsibility for planning, implementing, managing, and controlling all financial and human resource-related activities. I was hired by and report to our CEO Lonny Powell. I also work closely with our president and treasurer, and I serve as a member of the senior management team overseeing all Association activities. I have been with the FTBOA since November 2017, but I have been in the horse industry for 40 years on the financial/business side. I started working in the quarter horse industry in the early 1980s, then I worked for D. Wayne Lukas, a world renowned thoroughbred trainer, for 18 years. Other major farms I have worked with include Adena Springs, Padua, and Journeyman Bloodstock, among others.

Sheila Budden - As Registrations & Payments Coordinator, I work with Floridabred and Florida stallion registrations, breeder and stallion awards, the Florida Sire Stakes, the Florida-bred Incentive Fund, including all of the payables and receivables associated with these programs.

Peggy [Yost] is my supervisor, and I have been with the FTBOA for nine years, the first two of which were part-time.

I have been in the horse business for 39 years, working with show jumpers, hunters, eventers, and thoroughbreds for the first 10 years. I then have 29 years of experience in the offices for a show jumping/breeding farm, thoroughbred breeding farm, thoroughbred bloodstock agency, and the FTBOA.

TFH- Peggy, as the Chief Financial Officer of the Association, please describe the key functions of the FTBOA Finance & Accounting department. Describe the programs you administer that are of particular importance to the Florida thoroughbred breeder or owner from the farm to the track.

PY- The key functions and responsibilities of the Finance and Accounting department include accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, human resources, financial reporting, and maintaining financial controls. In addition, our department is responsible for coordination and support of the yearly financial audits for the FTBOA, FEC, and the breeder and stallion awards funds, which are conducted by an outside accounting firm. We are also responsible for supporting the audits of those awards funds conducted by the State’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering.

More specific to our industry, our accounting department also performs all accounting duties to administer the Florida Sire Stakes program, the breeder and stallion awards program, foal registrations, membership, and payments to race tracks for stakes programs and the Florida-bred purse supplement program (AKA the Florida-Bred Incentive Fund).

Elaborating a bit on the programs that most impact our Florida thoroughbred breeders and owners:

FTBOA administers the Florida-bred foal registrations. A “Florida-bred” per The Jockey Club is a foal born within the State of Florida that has been registered with the FTBOA. If a foal is not a registered Floridabred, then it is not eligible to receive Florida breeder awards.

The Association also administers the Florida Sire Stakes Program. In order to be eligible for this Program, the sire must be an FTBOA-registered stallion standing in Florida when the foal was conceived and all eligibility payments must be submitted on time. Outof-state foals may also be eligible for select FSS races if the stallion is appropriately registered and all eligibility payments are timely submitted, at double the fee schedule of a

Florida-bred foal. Out-of-state foals, however, compete in FSS races for only 50% of the purse otherwise available to Florida-bred foals, and out-of-state foals are not currently eligible for any other FTBOA purse supplements. FTBOA administers the breeder awards, stallion awards, and stakes programs under Chapter 550 of the Florida Statutes, which designates various sources of revenue for these programs. These programs receive a percentage of the combined on-track and inter-track pari-mutuel handle and a percentage of the income from the outgoing interstate simulcasts. For breeder awards, the Association receives payments from track handle as outlined above and disburses breeder awards to all registered Florida-breds that finish first, second, or third in Florida thoroughbred races, at a respective rate of 10% with a cap of $10,500, 3% with a cap of $3,000, and 2% with a cap of $1,500. The award is calculated as a percentage of the announced gross purse less Florida owner awards.

FTBOA pays stallion awards to the owners of thoroughbred stallions standing in Florida and properly registered with FTBOA if their FTBOA-registered Florida-bred offspring finish first in a graded, listed, or blacktype stakes race at a Florida thoroughbred track. The stallion must have been registered with FTBOA in the year of conception of the winning horse and each year thereafter, including the current year. Stallion awards are paid at the rate of 15% of the announced gross purse less owners awards, with each stallion award limited to no more than $15,000. These awards are paid quarterly.

Florida law also provides for the FTBOA to direct 17%-40% of awards funds received from the pari-mutuel handle to a Florida-bred stakes program. This is where the Florida Sire Stakes and all other stakes enhancements, such as Florida-bred purse supplements (AKA the Florida Bred Incentive Fund), Florida Sire Stakes races, and Florida Cup Day, to name a few, come in to play. These programs are in partnership with Gulfstream Park/FHBPA and Tampa Bay Downs/Tampa HBPA.

Although the Florida-Bred Incentive Fund is administered by Gulfstream Park, our accounting staff plays a significant part in the reconciliation and payment of these awards, as Sheila will elaborate further. Up to $800,000 is offered this year for Floridabred purse supplements for FTBOA-registered Florida-breds in certain open and overnight races during Gulfstream Park’s 2020 non-championship summer meet. These purse supplements are paid on first through third-place finishers, with the goal of Florida-breds running for at least $10,000 more in each race than non-Florida-breds. Additionally, the program increases purses in a number of restricted races. TFH- Sheila, please tell us on the key areas and functions of your position, as well as the many inbound and outbound communications you have on a daily basis with members, breeders, owners, etc. What does a “typical day in the office” look like for you? DIMARCO PHOTO Sheila Budden

SB- For breeder awards, I download race information from The Jockey Club on a weekly basis and compare it to what is in our system. I then import anything that is not already in our system and look for problems like dead heats or anything that could complicate the payment of breeder awards.

For example, if someone at the track enters something incorrectly in their system, it can throw off the payment of breeder awards. I combine the weekly downloads into monthly downloads and compare them to the races imported into the InCompass system on a monthly basis in order to pay out awards. This combined monthly download is also used to differentiate between awards earned by Florida-sired and non-Florida-sired horses. I then try to contact breeders and request W9s so FTBOA can pay them their awards. This step can actually prove to be quite difficult, so I call, email, and send out postcards in an effort to contact breeders and obtain their W-9s.

The year a foal crop becomes a race crop, at age two, the foal crop is imported from the registered Florida-bred listing into our awards system.

With regard to registrations, I check the FTBOA membership of the breeder to make sure his/her membership is current when registrations and payments are received by our office. Then the foal, or horse, is checked against The Jockey Club records to make sure that the breeder — per The Jockey Club — is in fact the breeder on the Floridabred application and that the horse was foaled in Florida. It is then processed. Part of this processing also includes identifying and marking every foal that is by a sire eligible for the Florida Sire Stakes.

We always receive quite a number of Florida-bred registration applications where the breeder on the application is not the breeder per The Jockey Club. At least 50% of the time it’s a case of the mare being purchased in-foal, and, when the live foal report was completed, the breeder was not corrected. There are always a few every year where people tell me that, “They didn’t pay me, and I’m paying for the Florida-Bred registration, so I want any breeder awards.” Our registration application form, however, clearly states that the breeder must be the same as the breeder of record per The Jockey Club.

There are also a few each year who ignore or miss what the Florida-Bred registration form requires with respect to identifying the breeder. I explain that when it comes to a breeder award, FTBOA must pay the breeder of record per The Jockey Club irrespective of what they put on the Florida-Bred registration form — and that often resolves the problem.

I should also issue a warning to those who do not turn in live foal reports with The Jockey Club until late in the year. If our records do not match those of The Jockey Club, no breeder awards will be paid until the records do match. That may also negate the original Florida-bred registration and force the breeder to pay a late registration fee of $200.

With regard to the Florida-Bred Incentive Fund, I start with the track overnights to the race conditions to check if there are any FBIF/Florida Sire Stakes funds included in any races. When there are, the first, second, and thirdplaced horses are checked with The Jockey Club and our records to make sure they are registered Floridabreds. Each race has its own printed overnight conditions, The Jockey Club horse page, and Equibase race chart, and all that information is shown on a cover sheet, including the amount of money due to the track for the individual horse in the race. After all “ We are here to assist and serve our members in any way we can, so please do not hesitate to reach out to us at any time. We do our very best to communicate our deadlines to our membership, so please take time to read the correspondence that you receive from us. We hate to receive that call about a missed deadline. We try very hard to keep our membership informed via our website, texts, and e-mails.

”—Peggy Yost 32 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MARCH 2020

this info is checked again by Peggy [Yost], it is then used as an invoice and entered into our accounting system to pay the track.

With regard to the Florida Sire Stakes, a list of eligible FSS foals is compiled each year from our registered Florida-bred listings.

This list becomes the master FSS list for that year’s foals and will show contact information for owner/payee and dates and amounts when eligibility payments are made. As far as a typical day, I’m afraid I don’t have any. My daily schedule depends on where we are during the month. Breeder award checks are mailed by the 10th of the month following the race, and I frequently have breeders contacting me wanting to pick up their checks or wanting know how much their awards check is going to be.

If it’s close to a deadline for Florida-bred registration or an FSS eligibility payment, lots of people will call because they don’t remember if they already sent in their registration or payment.

If it’s around the time of an OBS sale, potential owners will call or e-mail to see if a horse they are interested in buying is a registered Florida-bred and/or is FSS eligible.

I can go from working on why a threeyear-old running at Gulfstream is not earning owner awards to someone looking for copies of three years of 1099’s with statements — all within the space of 10 minutes.

TFH- Sheila, please tell us about the key deadlines that members need to stay aware of and some of the most common mistakes or misunderstandings that you encounter? First, the Florida-bred registration deadline is Aug. 31 of the weanling year.

The Florida Sire Stakes (FSS) yearling deadline is May 15 of the yearling year, and the FSS 2-year-old deadline is Jan. 15 of the 2-year-old year.

A Florida-bred per The Jockey Club is a foal born within the state of Florida. If a foal is born in any other state, it cannot become a Florida-bred or a registered Florida-bred.

A registered Florida-bred is a foal born within the state of Florida that has been regis-

tered with the FTBOA. If the foal was not registered with the FTBOA, then the horse’s breeder and owner are not eligible to receive breeder or owner awards. With regard to the FSS, a horse is eligible for the FSS if they are a registered Florida-bred foal by a registered Florida sire, with all eligibility fees timely paid. Horses by stallions standing in other states are not eligible for the FSS, but foals sired by registered Florida stallions and foaled outside the state may be eligible with the timely payment of all eligibility fees.

We also encourage members to please remember to renew your membership each year. If a member does not renew their membership, they are not eligible for discounted foal registration fees, additional discounts, publications, and other services provided by FTBOA. TFH- What advice would each of you give to members from your department’s perspective on how to best maximize their FTBOA experience? PY- We are here to assist and serve our members in any way we can, so please do not hesitate to reach out to us at any time. We do our very best to communicate our deadlines to our membership, so please take time to read the correspondence that you receive from us. We hate to receive that call about a missed deadline. We try very hard to keep our membership informed via our website, texts, and e-mails. SB- Remember your deadlines. Don’t ignore information from the FTBOA, be it postcards, e-mails, texts, ads in our publications, etc. It may mean higher costs or missed opportunities. PY- One of the more surprising trends that I have seen from our data analysis is the success of runners by Florida stallions. We found that 70% of the Florida-breds running first through third at the 2019 Gulfstream Park Championship meet were by Florida stallions, with the percentage increasing to 77% for the spring/summer meet. The average of those finishers sired by Florida stallions across all Florida tracks was 75% from January – September 2019.

Another analysis we performed that produced some unexpected results was based on the purses earned by Florida-breds who finished first, second and third at Florida tracks. We projected that purses paid to first-place finishers would be significantly more than those purse monies paid to the second and third-place finishers respectively. However, our analysis revealed that second and thirdplace finishers each earned approximately the same amount of purse monies as winners. So the data show that Florida-breds are consistently and statistically competitive and their success at the racetracks is significant. TFH- In closing, what do each of you enjoy the most about your role as part of the FTBOA team serving our membership and the Florida breeding industry? PY- I am truly blessed to be a part of the team at FTBOA and to work under the leadership of our CEO, Lonny Powell, and a great board of directors. Each of our team members are passionate about their individual contributions to the FTBOA, and we come together each and every day to support our membership and serve as good stewards of the Florida thoroughbred industry. “ Remember your deadlines. Don’t ignore information from the FTBOA, be it postcards, e-mails, texts, ads in our publications, etc. It may mean higher costs or missed opportunities.

”—Sheila Budden SERITA HULT PHOTOS

LIKE USON

TFH- Peggy, as a numbers person, what are some of the more interesting or surprising things you have discovered or come across at the FTBOA in terms of Florida breeding, racing, etc.?

SB- I very much enjoy contacting a breeder who is earning an award for the first time—especially when they don’t keep track of their horses after they sold them. They get very excited! ■