W
ith recent passage of an APHA registration rule to allow “cropouts” back into the registry, APHA is opening its doors to more horses in 2013. Racing, however, has its own color rule, of sorts, for horses to become eligible for stakes races, and that’s still a cause of confusion in the industry. Whether you’re breeding or buying your next speedster, here’s how to play by the rules on your way to the winner’s circle.
excluded,” explained Brian Zimmerman, chairman of the Registration Commit- tee when the proposal went to vote. “In other words, there were horses out there that looked like Paint Horses, but with the one-Paint parent rule, we had elimi- nated cropouts from coming in.” The movement to change the rules
A new registration rule permits crop- out Quarter Horses to be registered with APHA, provided they meet more stringent requirements for color.
The “Cropout” Rule Since 2005, Paint Horses have needed at least one registered Paint parent in order to qualify for registration with the APHA—the other parent could be a Paint Horse, Quarter Horse or Thoroughbred. That changed at the 2012 Convention when the majority of directors approved RG-070-1, a proposal including a provision to register “cropouts”—horses with Paint-like color descending only from Quarter Horses or Thoroughbreds—beginning January 2013 if they meet specifi c eligibility requirements: • Both the sire and dam must be regis- tered with American Quarter Horse Association, The Jockey Club or a combination of these two registries;
• The qualifying area must be a mini- mum of four inches of solid white hair visible from a direct side view; and
• Excessive white on the head or lower legs will not qualify the horse, nor will white areas located on the lower portion of the horse’s abdomen. (See illustration.)
In a nutshell, in order to qualify for the
Regular Registry, RG-070 requires crop- outs to sport enough visible chrome to make them clearly identifi able as Paints. “The feeling was there were cropouts that had excessive white that were being
22 JANUARY 2013 PAINT HORSE RACING
didn’t happen overnight. Brian says it was a combination of timing and fi nding the right rule change proposal. “It wasn’t a quick decision,” he said.
“We went to a one-Paint parent rule years ago. Some type of cropout rule has been considered over the years, but not this exact rule that passed. If you look at the rule we passed, the amount of white required for a cropout is more than for a foal with one Paint parent. We believe that this was the best for the Paint breed—to be able to include those horses, not exclude those horses.” Karen Banister was chair of the Breed
Improvement Committee last year when the cropout rule passed. “Its requirements make it obvious the horse is a Paint,” she said. “The stock- ings are much higher than for a foal with Paint parents. The face white and the belly white—you have to be able to see it. The new rule makes it more dif- fi cult to bring a cropout in than it takes to register an APHA foal. But now, we can bring in a horse that has obviously enough color genes to reproduce it. And that’s how we started—embracing the horses AQHA wanted to reject. “I think that’s healthy and provides
progress to the breed. It’s a larger gene pool. For the racers, once again we’ll have the infl ux of the great genetics from the Quarter Horse. And I think fi nancially it will strengthen the APHA which will help with all their programs, whether it’s racing, showing or trail riding.” Racing Committee Vice-Chairman
Steve Wright says the new rule allows breeders to pursue other avenues in their programs because the registered cropout
counts as a Regular Registry parent in meeting APHA stakes-eligibility require- ments (see The “Color” Rule) while inject- ing new genetics into the breed. “I believe the impact will be positive, especially with the AAA and AAAT ratings,” Steve said. “Look at what the infl uences of both Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred have been in the past on the lifetime AAA qualifi ers chart.” However, just because a cropout now
has APHA papers doesn’t mean he’s eligible for Paint racing’s most lucrative events.
The “Color” Rule Intended to increase the amount of
chrome on the track, racing’s “color” rule is still relatively new and somewhat confusing to many. Passed at the 2011 Convention, RA-000.D. applies to foals born in 2013 and beyond. To be eligible for stakes races, those foals must meet these requirements: • For an APHA Regular Registry foal, the sire or the dam must also be in the APHA Regular Registry.
• For an APHA Solid Paint-Bred Registry foal, the sire or the dam must also be in the APHA Regular Registry, and the foal must have at least one APHA Regular Registry grandparent.
Paints that do not meet the require- ments can still compete in non-stakes races. (See fl owchart.)
Racing Committee Chairman Pancho
Villarreal says the rule’s purpose is simple. “Our races run at the same time as
Quarter Horse races,” he said. “When you have a Paint Horse race and they actually look like Quarter Horses, people don’t understand. It’s important to get more color back on the track.” Although it’s too early for any measur- able statistics, Pancho says the new rule has infl uenced breeding trends. “Most of the people who want to run
Paints want to run in the stakes races,” he explained. “The big pots to run at are
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