Joseph Appelbaum

Joseph Appelbaum is President of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (NYTHA), which represents interests of owners and trainers at Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course, and also serves as President of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (THA).

Mr. Appelbaum is also a co-founder with Carlos Morales of Off the Hook, a breeding, racing and sales company with a farm and training center in Ocala, FL and offices in New York City, which is dedicated to the proper breeding, development and training of thoroughbred racehorses.

With Off the Hook, Mr. Appelbaum has worked with a wide variety of leading trainers including Tom Bush, Chad Brown, Jim Bond, Mike Hushion, Leah Gyarmati, Andrew Lakeman, Jorge Abreu and Todd Pletcher. Founded in 2002, Off The Hook has developed dozens of stakes winners, most notably Breeders Cup Champion Informed Decision; Grade I winners El Deal, Turbo Compressor, Zipessa and Paola Queen; and New York-bred Zivo.

Prior to entering the thoroughbred business, Mr. Appelbaum, who played football for Yale University, was a college football coach, and spent seven years coaching at five different universities, and working with future NFL stars such as Wayne Chrebet and Victor Cruz. He also served as President of Kids Interest Development Services, Inc. and co-founded Oasis Children’s Services LLC, which provides school, camp and after-school programming for thousands of children throughout the Northeast.

Mr. Appelbaum is a 1990 graduate of Yale. He served on the NYTHA Board of Directors from 2014 to 2017 and was named NYTHA President in 2017. He joined the NYRA Board of Directors in 2018.