News Releases

Wednesday, March 12, 2008Contact: Bob Curran Jr. (212) 521-5326
The Jockey Club Now Offering Microchips for Thoroughbreds

The Jockey Club has begun offering microchips for sale to interested owners and breeders for use in Thoroughbreds residing within the United States and all U.S. territories, the organization announced today.

Microchips are not currently a requirement for Thoroughbred registration and participation is voluntary.

“In the U.S., a number of industry groups and trade associations are realizing the value of microchips as a means to support genetic testing and traditional markings-based procedures and provide an additional layer of confidence in identification at horse farms, veterinary clinics, transportation centers, horse sales and racetracks,” explained Matt Iuliano, The Jockey Club’s vice president of registration services. “After a careful and comprehensive study, we thought the time had come to offer microchips to owners and breeders.”

The Jockey Club offers LifeChip® microchips, which are ISO 11784-compliant and manufactured by Digital Angel Corporation. Each microchip contains a unique 15-number sequence beginning with 840 (the country code for the United States). These microchips comply with the USDA’s National Animal Identification System and are consistent with those utilized by international Thoroughbred stud book authorities.

Microchips are available for $20 each (Kentucky and New York residents should add applicable sales tax). Microchips can be ordered by logging on to The Jockey Club’s Interactive RegistrationTM (IR) website at http://www.registry.jockeyclub.com.

The Jockey Club will ship microchips only to addresses associated with a premises identification number (PIN) issued by the appropriate state or tribal animal health authority.

To receive a PIN, Thoroughbred farm owners and/or operators may visit http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/premises_id/index.shtml.

The American Association of Equine Practitioners has determined that the implantation of a microchip is a veterinary procedure. An instructional video on microchip implantation is available at http://www.aaep.org/microchip_video.htm.

In order to be an effective identification tool, once the microchip is implanted the microchip number must be reported to The Jockey Club through the Microchip Requesting, Reporting and Lookup area of IR. Microchip reporting and lookup are provided at no charge.

Additional information about microchipping, including a fact sheet and Q&A, is available on the Registry’s website at http://www.registry.jockeyclub.com.

The Jockey Club, founded in 1894 and dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing, is the breed registry for North American Thoroughbreds. The Jockey Club fulfills that longstanding commitment by serving the industry through its family of companies and by providing support and leadership on a wide range of important industry initiatives.