THOROUGHBREDS BOTTOM LINE IS BEYOND FINISH LINE.(Business)

Byline: Cailin Brown Business writer

E ven off the track in the Capital District, thoroughbreds hit paydirt.

And while it takes a bit longer than the slowest mile and an eighth to show a profit, breeders with good horse sense and some luck often can become part of a profitable winner's circle.

In New York state, for example, the thoroughbred breeders and owners who make it to the payoff line had their incomes bolstered by $13 million from the state's Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund.

Financed from racing proceeds in the state, it is a fund that has been growing - and for good reason, according to thoroughbred industry officials and analysts. In the mid-1970s, for instance, the 16-year-old fund provided less than $900,000 a year, according to Harry Snyder, a commissioner of the New York Racing Commission.

"The breeding fund is attracting new operations to the state, and it's happening at a time when nationally the industry is going through a bust cycle," said William H. Lesser, associate professor of agricultural economics at Cornell University.

According to Lesser, who worked on an as-yet unreleased equine survey for the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, thoroughbred farms statewide …