Photo Credit: Audrey Crosby

NYTHA is dedicated to ensuring safe and healthy retirement for New York’s racehorses. Created in 2013, TAKE THE LEAD facilitates the search for rehabilitation and retraining placements with Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance-accredited programs. TAKE THE LEAD is open to all horsemen based at New York Racing Association tracks.

Owners and trainers who would like assistance in finding a retirement home for a horse stabled at a NYRA track can contact TAKE THE LEAD Executive Director Andy Belfiore at (732) 673-2855, or NYTHA Aftercare Committee Chairman Rick Schosberg at (516) 528-1360.

To ensure that retired Thoroughbred racehorses have the chance to shine in second careers, NYTHA and NYTB launched the TAKE2 Program in 2012. TAKE2 sponsors prize money and awards for Thoroughbred-only Hunter and Jumper divisions at more than 400 USEF-rated horse shows.

More than 3,000 Thoroughbreds have participated in TAKE2 Hunter and Jumper classes.

Click here for more information about TAKE THE LEAD and TAKE2.

New York Horsemen Support
Thoroughbred Aftercare

• The TAKE THE LEAD Thoroughbred Retirement Program was started in 2013. The program finds rehabilitation and retraining placements for more than 180 horses retiring from the NYRA tracks each year and reached the milestone of 1,000 retirees in 2022.
• New York’s TAA-accredited organizations supported by TAKE THE LEAD include ACTT Naturally in Greenwich; Akindale Thoroughbred Rescue in Pawling; Equine Advocates in Chatham; Lucky Orphans in Dover Plains; New Vocations in Gansevoort; ReRun in East Greenbush; Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga and Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation in Saratoga Springs; and Second Chance Thoroughbreds in Spencer.
• Nearly 98 percent of TAKE THE LEAD’s funding comes from NYTHA and New York’s owners, trainers, and jockeys. Of that funding, more than 99% goes to fund the aftercare, transportation and vet bills of the retired horses.
• NYTHA contributes more than $300,000 to TAKE THE LEAD and TAKE2 every year.
• In addition, the owners and trainers racing at the NYRA tracks also make hundreds of thousands of dollars in private donations annually on behalf of Thoroughbred aftercare.

THOROUGHBRED AFTERCARE ALLIANCE

• Every owner competing at the New York Racing Association (NYRA) racetracks donates $10 per start to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA), which accredits and funds the aftercare organizations that provide homes for the horses retiring from the racetrack.
• New York’s horsemen also donate 1.5% of the purchase price of every horse claimed at a NYRA track to TAKE THE LEAD and the TAA.
• These two programs generate nearly $400,000 for equine aftercare every year.

NYRA ANTI-SLAUGHTER POLICY

Any owner or trainer stabled at a New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) track found to have knowingly sold a horse for slaughter will have his or her stalls permanently revoked from all NYRA tracks. NYRA requires its horsemen to conduct due diligence on those buying horses and encourages them to support rescue and adoption efforts and to find humane ways of dealing with horses unable to continue racing.