Now that most of the yearling sales are over and the Sires Stakes programs have crowned their champions, I told Editor Derick I wanted to do an objective comparison and evaluation of the various state programs in the United States. Which is the best? Which is not so good? Which provides good value? The more research I did, the harder the task became. How do you rank these things – value of preliminary legs, number of preliminary legs, number of eligible horses, yearling cost, purse of the final? So, I must start with the following disclaimer, quoting Baz Lurhman: “Wear sunscreen. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.” On paper, Kentucky has the best Sires Stakes program in the sport. The $400,000 Finals are the richest in the nation. There are four $80k preliminary legs. Kentucky also offers a second-tier program, the Commonwealth Series (as many states do), but it also offers a third-tier series, and while an argument can be made that the New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania Fairs provide a third series, they are structured as different entities, although they too offer year-end championships. The downside to racing in Kentucky? $$$. Kadena (Gimpanzee-Mission Brief) equaled the record for most expensive trotting filly ever sold when she was hammered down for $800,000 on October 2 at Lexington. Treacheryinthedark, a daughter of Captaintreacherous, set a record a few minutes later when she became the most expensive pacing filly yearling ever sold at $700,000. Kadena is Kentucky eligible while Treacheryinthedark is both Pennsylvania and Kentucky eligible. The generous foaling rules state that mares who foal in the state after a residency requirement have their foals eligible to the program, regardless of where the stallion stands (Iowa and Virginia also have residency programs, rather than sires stakes). Another potential pitfall in Kentucky is that if you try the top level of the Sire Stakes you may be required to race in that final rather than a lower rung. So classification and evaluation is key before entering. If the upper level at The Red Mile in Kentucky has become too much of a rich man’s playground, there are the races at Oak Grove and Cumberland Run, or we can look outside the state for other options. So where do we go to race and make some stakes money? Ohio is a close second on the Sire Stakes spectrum. With $300,000 finals and five preliminary legs going for purses between $40,000 and $100,000, depending on how many divisions draw, it is very attractive. This year $11,000 purchase Sugar Instead won the 2-year-old trotting filly title (as described in my last column) and the record Ohio yearling purchase is a $225,000 Catch The Fire colt named Catch The Cowboy, who was sold last month. While there are plenty of $100,000 Ohio-breds sold at auction, plenty of horses that sell between $25,000 and $50,000 do well. Ohio features five-eighths and half-mile tracks, which some horsemen don’t like, but it also offers the Buckeye Stallion Series, with five $20,000 legs and a $75,000 final. Both the Buckeye and the Sires Stakes offer consolation finals, too. And 65 fairs! Indiana’s finals go for $250K and all the races are held in one place – Hoosier Park – so if you have a horse for the course, you are in great shape. If not, well, it’s off to the fairs. The Indiana program offers six preliminary legs, and like Ohio, purses vary with the number of splits. Purses are on a sliding scale from $28,500 to $128,500. Yearlings are still relatively reasonably priced, with fewer horses selling for less than $100K than in Ohio, but many in the $20,000 to $50,000 range. Pennsylvania has legs that range from $40,000-80,000 and a final that races for over $250,000. As Ryan Kell of the Pennsylvania Racing Commission explained, the purses for each leg vary by number of divisions and the track’s contribution. Looking for a 2-year-old pacing filly to avoid undefeated Kentucky Sires champ Geocentric? Don’t go to Pennsylvania. She won that state’s title, too. New York’s program is solid and appears to have fewer eligible competitors than the first four states mentioned. It certainly fits with the top programs. The Empire State features eight preliminary legs valued at anywhere from $40,000 to $110,000, again depending on the number of splits. Division Finals, held on the Night of Champions (New York was one of the first states to champion this idea) are worth $225,000. New York also features the second-tier Excelsior Series and an extensive county fair schedule that also offers a statewide championship. The drawback for horsemen is lots of half-mile tracks and a vast state to travel. New Jersey’s program is small, but growing fast as it attracts stallions not named Lazarus N on the pacing side. It features a spring/summer Sires Stakes with $30,000 legs and a $240,000 Championship at The Meadowlands, and a two-leg series in the fall at Freehold Raceway, with more modest $10,000 legs and a $70,000 final. The recently revived New Jersey Classic series in the fall offers those horses a second option to make a lot of money in $150,000 to $275,000 Finals. Of course, with the Meadowlands’ extensive stakes schedule, there is plenty of opportunity outside the Sires Stakes program in New Jersey as well. Minnesota’s final only goes for $65,000, but our 3-year-old filly Wisco Tootsie, who won that title this year, banked over $95,000 thanks to the 12 preliminary legs offered. Her stablemate (also trained by Dan Roland), 3-year-old Iron Sharpens Iron, repeated as champ and set a state-bred record, earning nearly $125,000. The record yearling price in Minnesota is $50,000 and yearlings rarely sell for more than $20,000. The upside (and downside) is that there are very few eligibles. If the filly race doesn’t fill, they go against the boys. And if there are two divisions, they split into an A and B divisions, with purses of $22,000 and $14,500, as opposed to the $18,500 for a single division. And your filly doesn’t get a break for gender. The races are set by earnings in the last four starts. But, as Running Aces announcer Darin Gagne regularly reminds me, these are not Stakes races, but Minnesota-Sired races. There are no entry fees once you are eligible. So, there is good and bad to be found in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Much like Minnesota, Massachusetts has a nice program with very few horses eligible to its fall series, despite offering a mare residency program. No more than 25 horses in any division were eligible to compete for the $2.65 million in purses the state program offers. Delaware offers two $20,000 legs twice during the year as well as two $100,000 finals - once at Harrington and once at Dover Downs. Maine and California also offer programs without a lot of competition, though for substantially lower sums of money. Michigan is starting to get more and more attention and if the new Northville Downs is built, it will get even more. The Sires Stakes themselves consist of one elimination leg and a $90,000 Final, but there are stakes all year at the fairs and at Northville for the Michigan-breds, with purses ranging from $11,000 to $20,000. The program is strong enough to have gained the attention of TheStable.ca, which purchased two trotters this year. Illinois doesn’t have much pari-mutuel racing, but the state-bred finals are guaranteed to go for $100,000. Based on 2023 yearling prices, there could be some value there, and the quality of stallions seems to be improving in anticipation of a possible new track. Finally, no offense to my Canadian friends with the rich Ontario program and other Provincial stakes available that certain should rank highly on this list, but we are keeping it south of the border for today. So when you come down to it, what’s the best program? I guess it really depends on what you are looking for. Not really much help. But trust me on the sunscreen. Now go cash, hopefully on a Sires Stakes champ at better than even money.