Incentive Fund

AQHA Incentive Fund gets a facelift.

The American Quarter Horse Journal
October 7, 2011

A couple of years ago, it was decided that the AQHA show program needed a makeover to offer more levels of competition based on the skills of the exhibitors and their horses. That included a restructuring of the AQHA Incentive Fund by the AQHA Incentive Fund Task Force. 

“The goal is to get the Incentive Fund up to a minimum of $50 per point, which is double what it has been averaging,” said Tom Persechino, AQHA executive director of competition and breed integrity.

Developed in 1985, the Incentive Fund is a multimillion-dollar program that pays stallion nominators, foal nominators and owners of the competing horses, based on points earned at AQHA-approved shows. The program is owned, managed and operated by AQHA.

Here’s how it works: Each point earned at an AQHA-approved show in the open and/or amateur division by an Incentive Fund-nominated horse will be worth a specific amount. The exact amount will depend on total money in the Fund for that show year and the total number of points earned that year by Incentive Fund-nominated horses. For the 2010 show season, $3,017,927.14 was paid out at $21.29 per point.

Nearly 1,600 stallions are nominated for the 2011 show season. The stallion nomination deadline for the 2012 breeding season is November 30, 2011. Foals are nominated when they’re registered with AQHA.

The AQHA Incentive Fund Task Force is made up of a cross-section of stallion owners, breeders, AQHA professional horsemen and American Quarter Horse owners, who met several times and hashed out the ideas for giving the program a facelift and making it more beneficial. The task force’s recommendations were reviewed and approved at the AQHA Executive Committee’s last meeting.

Changes for the 2012 show season include:

1. Increase the percentage paid to both the stallion nominator and the foal nominator to 15 percent each. The owner of the horse at the time the points are earned will be paid 70 percent. (The change will take effect for the 2012 show season that’s paid out in February 2013.)
2. Increase the 2013 foal nomination fee to $125.
3. Enforce a point cap of 200 points per year. Any points earned up to 200 will be paid out at 100 percent of the point value per point. Any points beyond that will be paid at 80 percent of the point value per point.
4. Establish a $50 licensing fee per division for amateur and open that is due annually in January. If the license is not remitted for a particular year, any points the horse earns will not be eligible for Incentive Fund money.
5. Establish a transfer of license fee to be assessed when an Incentive Fund-nominated horse changes ownership. The new owner will pay $50 to continue the horse’s annual license in the Incentive Fund. The new owner will have 30 days to transfer the license, and will earn Incentive Fund money on show points from the date of sale. If a horse is licensed in 2012 and earns points all year, but is transferred in June and the new owner does not transfer the license, the points will be paid to the owner during the first half of the year when the horse was licensed, but not for the points earned while the second owner showed the horse.
6. Offer Incentive Fund nomination for second-career racehorses enrolled in the Bank of America Racing Challenge. An Incentive Fund nomination fee of $500 will be assessed. The nomination fee is in addition to the $50 annual licensing fee.

Below is an overview of what the Incentive Fund looks like currently as well as a comparison should point values be near the $50 mark:

	2010 point value	Estimated future point value w/ new percentages
	$21.29 per point	$48.10 per point
	86 points earned	86 points earned
Foal nominator:	10% - $183.09	15% - $620.49
Sire nominator:	10% - $183.09	15% - $620.49
Foal owner:	80% - $1,464.74	70% - $2,895.62