by Gerry Connors, for the PA Harness Racing Commission

Harrisburg, PA — The Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission has announced that the deadline for registering mares due to foal in 2012 and qualifying for the “PA-sired and –bred” category in the PA Breeders Award program has been extended until February 15, for this one year only.

Last year the registration deadline for these mares was extended to March 30, 2011, because the conditions for the Breeders Fund were amended at the end of 2010, and then re-amended early in 2011. Some breeders thought, apparently in good faith, that the new yearly deadline had been permanently changed to March 30, whereas the deadline deviation from the end of the breeding year was meant only to cover the extraordinary circumstances of the regulation shifts mentioned.

Also, broodmare owners not shipping their mares to Pennsylvania until after Jan. 1, 2012, but still wanting to get in the required 180-day residency for their mares have notified the Commission that they were going to send in the paperwork when the mare and her actual farm location was decided and accomplished. This argument also appears to have been offered in good faith, although the actual form states that any mare wanting to qualify for Breeders Awards had to have paperwork to the Commission by the end of the breeding year — with quite a few other breeders doing this and noting that the exact date and location of shipping was still to be determined, and the breeder following up with the Commission that this paperwork was received or else the mare would not be registered.

“We have listened to these requests, and have decided to extend the registration deadline for Pennsylvania mares to February 15 of this year — again, for this year only,” said George Crawford, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission. “We are widely distributing this news, and the forms already indicate the end of the breeding year deadline, so there will be no further exceptions allowed in future years.”