PETA Statement: The Jockey Club Stud Book Cap Rule

For Immediate Release:
February 17, 2022

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding The Jockey Club’s rescindment of the stud book cap rule:

Shame on Kentucky racing and The Jockey Club for caving to horse racing industry greed. Dollar signs are motivating unlimited breeding of stallions to the detriment of the individual horses and the soundness of the breed. Stallions are subjected to a forced and relentless regimen, which takes a physical and psychological toll. PETA has captured undercover footage of elite breeding farms in the U.S. and South Korea showing how unnatural and dangerous this process is for both stallions and mares. Breeding more than 140 mares to one stallion—trying to squeeze out every last drop from these top stallions—also limits the diversity of the gene pool, resulting in increased vulnerability to catastrophic injuries of this already fragile Thoroughbred breed.

Take Charge Indy is shown here in an afternoon breeding session in South Korea with a leg wrap for an injury he had sustained or exacerbated while breeding earlier that day Take Charge Indy is now standing at WinStar Farm in Kentucky.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.