Five Questions
Five Questions with Kelly Young: Young was recently named the executive director of the Agriculture and New York State Horse Breeding Development Fund, which administers the prestigious New York Sire Stakes. 1 For those who may not know, can you explain the New York Sire Stakes? The New York Sire Stakes is the state’s premier harness racing program for two- and three-year-old Standardbreds. It’s the nation’s oldest racing program of its kind and is designed to stimulate the breeding, buying and racing of Standardbred horses in New York. There are three tiers of racing, the New York Sire Stakes, the Excelsior Series and the County Fair Series. This setup gives horses of all different abilities the opportunity to race for large purses. Our season runs from May through September and we travel to all eight harness tracks across the state: Saratoga, Monticello, Goshen, Yonkers, Vernon, Tioga, Batavia and Buffalo. 2 One of your trustees said you were born into this job. How has your upbringing prepared you to take on this role? I grew up on a horse breeding farm in Goshen in Orange County so there has never been a time that I can remember that I wasn’t conscious of the Sire Stakes program. I have always cared about it and have been deeply invested in it. As a kid, we went to the racetrack and followed the horses that were the offspring of the stallions that we had at the farm. We had to keep tallies of how all of them did at the races, so it’s something I have been passionate about from a very young age. 3 What changes or improvements would you like to see that would grow the sport of harness racing and reach new audiences? I think the first thing we need to do is make sure we are always paying attention to our breeders, trainers, and horsemen and women. They are the ones who keep this program going. But we also need to pay attention to the racing fan when we are deciding how we are going to present events. There are a lot of people
who are occasional fans, and we need to make sure we are engaging them as much as possible so that they become more than just occasional fans. Making sure that we are always conscious of them when we make plans is the number one thing I think we need to do. Harness racing is an exciting sport with great horses and people to follow, so I think it has a lot to offer the fan. 4 You’re an award winning harness racing writer. What are your favorite stories to tell? I just love long format magazine stories and being able to get in-depth and tell the stories of the people and horses in harness racing. Everybody that participates in this sport has an interesting story and it’s just finding that angle, finding that story. When these people open up their life to you and tell you their stories, often with intimate details, it’s really exciting to be able to share that with people. I always feel privileged when people give me that kind of access. 5 What are you looking forward to about this new position? The folks who created this program many decades ago had an amazing vision of what we need to do to expand breeding and support the people who breed in this state. So I hope I can be one of the people to help usher that through and continue the tradition. It’s exciting to see how committed the Trustees of the Agriculture and New York State Horse Breeding Development Fund are to their mission. Working again with the many horsemen, owners, and the breeders who I have a history with, I’m excited to reacquaint myself with them and really get rolling.