McMahon Farm: Bred for success

By PAUL POST

Joe and Anne McMahon have redefined the New York family farm.
Almost 40 years ago, they got in on the ground floor of a new racing industry initiative and grew one of the state’s premier breeding farms – McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds LLC – that involves each of their five children with 11 grandchildren waiting in the wings.
Along the way, they’ve sent numerous horses to the winner’s circle, including 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide.
“We’ve been to the mountain,” Joe McMahon says smiling. “When you go to the Kentucky Derby, that’s as good as it gets.”
Until now, at least, because this fall’s opening of Aqueduct Racetrack’s new casino is expected to give New York racing a major financial boost, by dramatically increasing purses — prize money for which horses race — and breeder awards. Many top breeding farms went out of business or drastically cut back operations during the economic crisis of the past few years.
McMahon’s felt the impact, too, but weathered the storm with smart business decisions, well-run efficient operations, a strong reputation and perhaps most important – family bonds.
“Our core people here are family,” Joe says. “When you work in a group like that, everybody’s working toward the same end. You can withstand a lot more adversity. You can adapt and make changes easier with a small group. That’s a huge advantage that we have. Our equity in the farm is the kids’ equity. They realize that.”
The impetus took place in 1973, when enabling legislation was passed creating the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund, set up to encourage interest in the business. The fund distributes awards to breeders of successful horses.
“Gov. (Nelson) Rockefeller had a farm in the lower Hudson Valley,” McMahon says. “He saw that small dairy farms were going by the wayside, getting bought up by larger farms. He wanted to give people a way to stay involved in agriculture. Really, it was done to preserve open space in the Hudson Valley.”
It was the first such program in the country and gave average people, like Anne and Joe, a chance to participate in the “Sport of Kings.”
The McMahons met – quite naturally – at Saratoga Race Course, where Joe did maintenance work while still going to Mechanicville High School. Anne went to Skidmore College and both rode horses as kids, so they had a mutual interest. Married in 1970, they moved to Fitch Road soon after and bought the country home and former Christmas tree farm of Mary Elizabeth “Liz” Whitney Tippett, who had been a premier race horse owner in the 1940s.
The property’s red brick farmhouse pre-dates the American Revolution – symbolic of the couple’s perseverance and endurance.
McMahon bought his first two horses, a pair of fillies with potential to become brood mares, for $700 and $200, respectively. “That was our start,” he says, hardly believing the numbers.
Today, the farm has four million-dollar stallions – Touch Gold, Alphabet Soup, Tiago and Utopia – 120 brood mares, 85 foals and 50 yearlings, each one holding the promise of a Kentucky Derby champion two years from now during their 3-year-old campaign.
“We live on hope,” Joe says. “You really have to be optimistic.”
He and Anne have never been more so, with long-awaited new gaming revenue finally on the horizon. The state’s breeding program alone will get 1.5 percent of the facility’s projected $800 million annual net win. Another 7.5 percent will go to purses that are expected to rise more than $30 million year next year alone.
In short, New York is expecting a sudden influx of both more and higher quality horses that could fuel an expansion of existing farms with more new breeding operations getting under way.
McMahon’s is already feeling the difference. Last fall, right after the new casino was approved, Kentucky-based Adena Springs Farm sent five of its top stallions to McMahon’s led by 1997 Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold and Alphabet Soup, the first Breeders’ Cup champion to stand in New York. Tiago is a multiple Grade 1 stakes winner with $2.3 million in career earnings.
Adena also sent 20 mares to McMahon’s for breeding purposes.
In a separate arrangement, the Saratoga farm got another high-quality stallion – Grade 1 winner Coal Play – that finished second to Big Brown in the 2008 Haskell Invitational. He had $528,000 in career earnings.
“We’ll be hiring more people,” Joe says. “We have 10 now. We’ll probably go back to 20, which we had a few years ago before the big downturn. You have to think we’re on the verge of a huge step forward. We’re very well-positioned.”
McMahon’s is the best, but at the same time just one example of the contribution breeders make to New York’s agricultural economy. “The equine industry has a $4.8 billion annual impact on New York’s economy with related goods and services (feed, fuel, veterinary) valued at nearly $2.4 billion,” said Jeff Cannizzo, of the 850-member New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. “The state is home to over 400 diversified thoroughbred breeding farms utilizing 43,000 acres of working landscape or ‘green space.’ Together they are home to 44,000 thoroughbreds.”
The thoroughbred breeding industry alone has 30,000 jobs and related spending by suppliers and employees also creates jobs for a total employment impact of more than 49,500 New York agribusiness jobs, he said.
For the McMahons, however, horses aren’t a job. They’re a way of life.
“We started this place and did everything together, from painting fences to transporting horses,” Joe says. “We did it for years and years.”
“I want total equality, but when the septic tank plugged up or there were dangerous horses to handle, that was Joe’s job,” Anne says, with a laugh.
In reality, they are partners – personally and professionally – sharing together in family and business decision-making.
John, the second eldest son, and his wife, Kate, co-manage the farm while the McMahons’ youngest daughter, Tara Letzring, is office manager. Mike, the oldest son, based in Lexington, Ky., represents the farm as an agent at sales – selling stallion seasons.
Jane, of Malta, and her husband, Rodrigo Ubillo, train the farm’s racehorse stock at Saratoga, Belmont Park and Aqueduct, depending on the time of year.
Kate, who works for Darley in Kentucky, does consulting work, especially during the breeding season.
Joe started out wanting to be a trainer. But with a young family on the way, the travel demands became too much, so the couple shifted gears to the breeding side of racing.
“We wanted to be on the farm more,” Anne says. “We didn’t want to be running to the track all the time.”
“Our roots were here,” Joe adds. “We wanted to be in Saratoga.”
Two people, financial backers Jack Pompay of Saratoga Springs and Jim Patrick of Troy, gave the business a huge lift by allowing the McMahons to acquire better horses. One of several big turning points came when a McMahon’s-bred filly, named Change of Motion, sold for $60,000 in Fasig-Tipton Co.’s Selected Yearling Sale.
“That was a milestone,” Anne says. “Nobody did that. New York-breds didn’t get into the main sale at Saratoga. That gave us credibility. Big people in the business started to take notice.”
Then in 1996, McMahon’s got its first million-dollar stallion, a horse called Personal Flag, from Kentucky that brought more mares because their offspring would be eligible for the New York-bred program. One of those mares, Belle’s Good Cide, was bred to the stallion Distorted Humor – producing Funny Cide.
Talk about a game changer.
“In racing, there’s a term called ‘in the purple,’ ” Joe says. “Funny Cide didn’t come from a real distinguished line. He wasn’t a real blueblood.”
He was an “every man’s” horse, an example of how every once in a while the little guy can take on the high and mighty.
Already well-established, McMahon’s was now on the map, a household name among racing’s elite. Joe and Anne have entertained big-money offers in the years since then. But that’s not what they’re about.
Obviously the farm has grown. In addition to their 100 acres on Fitch Road, where stallions are housed, they also own 285-acre Meadow View Farm in Quaker Springs for yearlings and mares.
While anticipating the benefits of new casino revenue, bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.
“I’d like to have fewer horses that are worth more,” Anne says.
At 64, her husband has goals, too.
“Hopefully Joe and Anne retire,” he says. “It becomes John and Kate, Tara, Mike and all the kids. There’s a lot of opportunities here. Anne and I want to have less to do with the day-to-day operation of the farm.”
From a kid who started out mucking stalls to a leader in the thoroughbred breeding business, Joe McMahon can’t help marveling at his family’s good fortune, kind of like Funny Cide’s unexpected rise to stardom.
“Divine intervention,” he says, grinning. “Maybe our sign out front should have a shamrock on it because you’ve got to have the luck of the Irish in this business.”
“And that good grass on Fitch Road,” Anne says.

NYS thoroughbred breeding industry:
— Farms – 400
— Horses – 44,000
— Open space – 43,000 acres
— Jobs 49,500 (Direct-30,000, Related-19,500)
— Total equine economic impact – $4.8 billion