Lexington, Kentucky - The American Saddlebred Registry (ASR) announced today that newly formatted and produced Certificates of Registration are now in use. The updated certificates are being mailed to owners beginning this week for all Registry transactions requiring new registration papers to be used, including new foal and other registrations, transfers, duplicate certificates, name changes, and the like.
"This is the first significant upgrade in the production of our Certificates of Registration in 20 years or more," said Alan F. Balch, Registrar. "We were able to innovate and more efficiently produce new Certificates because of our board’s decision a year ago to invest in the most modern technology available, including new IBM AS400 database hardware, continual software upgrading, and integration of our Registry database with a state-of-the-art Canon color printer. Our improved ability to design and produce certificates and other printed material on demand, combined with upgrading of our Internet website to provide more services to breeders, owners, professional horsemen, competition management, and general members, will lead to greater convenience for everyone. In addition, this investment will result in ongoing cost-savings in processing, printing and production for the foreseeable future."
Each certificate mailed is accompanied by an explanatory transmittal memorandum to the owner. According to Balch, this is a further improvement. "In the past, owners and horsemen had to wrestle with copying the cumbersome, large official certificates to comply with United States Equestrian Federation rules requiring copies of registration papers to accompany entries. Now, in order to comply with the rules requiring evidence of registration and recorded ownership, just copying the standard-sized transmittal memorandum which also serves as a ‘Statement of Registration and Recorded Ownership’ will be acceptable, saving everyone involved time and effort. We very much appreciate the Federation’s cooperation with us in taking this important step to make entering more exhibitor-friendly."
In the near future, the smaller Statement of Registration and Recorded Ownership, certifying the horse’s exact official name, pedigree information, registration number, official description, breeder and recorded owner, for each American Saddlebred already registered, will be available for downloading at www.saddlebred.com
for use with submitting entries.