The Blood-Horse Regionals (PDF)

02/04/12 Northeast/MidAtlantic: Branching Out

Blood-Horse Staff — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:20:57 GMT

By Jason Shandler

Vinery jumps into New York breeding, stallion businesses

Tom Ludt does not consider himself a visionary, but he does understand the horse racing industry very well, and that is why in late 2010—just a few months after the drawn out process to build a casino at Aqueduct Racetrack finally came to a happy conclusion when it was green-lighted by lawmakers—Ludt made a major decision to expand Vinery operations to New York.

Along with Adena Springs, which had moved stallions to New York a year earlier, Vinery became one of the first major Kentucky-based farms to make a major commitment in New York (Spendthrift Farm has followed). As president of Vinery, Ludt thought bringing stallions to New York was the right move at the right time. His thinking was simple: With 5,000 slot machines projected to generate $44.8 million per year in additional purse monies for the New York Racing Association, and another $6.9 million per year slotted for the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund, racing was about to get a big boost in the Empire State.

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02/04/12 Midwest/Canada: Catching a Break

Blood-Horse Staff — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:08:01 GMT

By Lenny Shulman

Janice and Scott Jordan's Breakaway Farm Grows With Indiana

While New York is getting plenty of attention as a destination for breeders looking to take advantage of casino-enhanced purses and awards, mare owners in Kentucky and from other regions have for the past several years also circled Indiana as a locale with lucrative awards and a widening pool of stallions that stand for a reasonable fee.

With Indiana-breds eligible to run for generous stallion, breeder, and owner awards over the past couple of seasons, the state has rivaled Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New York, and other casino-enhanced racing jurisdictions for the business of horsemen who realize that any extra benefit can mean the difference in earning enough to be able to stay in the game.

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01/21/12 Southeast: Blockbuster

Blood-Horse Staff — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:46:26 GMT

By Bill Giauque

Ocala Stud roars back among top breeders.

Ocala Stud is the setting for the longest-running Thoroughbred epic in Florida, which features tragedy and triumph, struggle and success. The story began in 1956 with the founding of the farm by Joe O' Farrell, followed quickly by the hosting of the world’s first 2-year-old in training sale, and the emergence of Rough’n Tumble as a leading sire and the sire of champions My Dear Girl and Dr. Fager.

Next came the Ocala Stud-bred Horse of the Year Roman Brother. Eventually, though, Florida’s keystone farm fell on hard times and bankruptcy in the 1970s, followed by the long struggle to return to national
prominence.

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01/21/12 Southwest: Open Company

Blood-Horse Staff — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:35:11 GMT

By Gary McMillen

Coteau Grove Farm set to compete with the best.

Keith Myers is tired of talk that comes to nothing. Myers is one of those rare individuals who insists on getting ahead of the curve and doesn’t waste any time getting there. Along with his wife, Ginger, the 52-year-old Myers is about to thrust Coteau Grove Farm to the top of Louisiana’s pecking order of Thoroughbred breeding operations. Be advised that if you tell Keith Myers that he can’t do something, it will just happen faster.

Think of a bulldog off its leash. With an emphasis on quality and breeding to race, Coteau Grove Farm has produced 11 stakes winners in the span of only three years.

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01/14/12 West Coast: Bounce-Back Year

aspradling — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:43:54 GMT

Vessels Stallion Farm enjoys resurgence after tragic 2010

Kash Vessels held his 25-day-old daughter while sitting in the office of Vessels Stallion Farm shortly before Christmas.

“Her name is Kendall Grace Vessels,” Kash said. He then explained how his daughter received her middle name, pointing to a black and white photo of Frank Sr. and Grace Vessels on the office wall.

Frank Sr. and Grace were Kash’s great-grandparents and founded the Vessels program, which began as a Quarter Horse farm near Long Beach, Calif. They expanded to include Los Alamitos, a major Quarter Horse racetrack that flourished under the next generation, Frank Jr. and Millie Vessels.

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01/14/12 Northeast/MidAtlantic: The Original Havre de Grace

aspradling — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:40:56 GMT

Superstars raced at Maryland oval

When old-timers in the waterfront village of Havre de Grace get to reminiscing about the “good old days,” they start swapping tales about
the local racetrack of the same name that first opened in 1912. Perched on the bluffs above the Susquehanna River and on the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay, the Maryland track attracted legendary horses, fabulously rich owners, and top-tier trainers and jockeys. Affectionately dubbed “The Graw” by locals, it was one of racing’s gems. Racing history was minted here.

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01/07/12 Midwest/Canada: Still the One

Blood-Horse Staff — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:21:22 GMT

Still Creek gains a fine reputation in Hoosier State

Mud-splattered weanlings kick up their heels in a paddock on a frigid morning in early December at Still Creek Farm, playfully nudging one another in the growing sunlight.

Located off Indiana Highway 1 a short distance outside the quaint town of Brookville, Still Creek’s quiet pastures and simple fencing wind across the bleak late autumn landscape. The 31-acre property, nestled in the Southeast corner of the Hoosier State, represents the hard work of a pair of veterans whose lives revolve around the industry in which they were raised.

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12/17/11 Northeast/MidAtlantic:Northview Times Two

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:01:40 GMT

Stallion operation covers all the bases in Maryland, Pennsylvania

Northview Stallion Station first opened its doors in 1989 with plenty of history behind it and seemingly blue skies ahead. The stallion operation has faced plenty of adversity in its first two decades with the erosion of the Thoroughbred industry in Maryland, but with its original facility and a new post in the growth state of Pennsylvania that opened in 2009, Northview now boasts the deepest stallion roster in the Midlantic region.

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12/17/11 West Coast: Heavy Lifting

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:25:10 GMT

Dana and Jimmy Barnes make Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert's barn run smoothly.

Jimmy and Dana Barnes’ road to Bob Baffert’s employ began on horseback at Golden Gate Fields in 1983. The couple met while exercising Thoroughbreds in the mornings, which led to marriage, two daughters, and major roles on the Baffert team as the Hall of Famer’s assistant trainer and one of his go-to exercise riders.

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12/10/11 Southwest Regional: Dobson Dials Up Success

aspradling — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:17:02 GMT

Oklahoma telecom mogul hits with Caleb’s Posse, takes equity interest in Three Chimneys Stallions

Everett Dobson became a leader in the telecommunications industry by learning every aspect of the business, making the right acquisitions, and understanding capital markets.

He brings the same intellectual discipline to Thoroughbred racing and breeding that until 2007 was more of a pastime than a passion. That’s the year he sold Dobson Communications to AT&T for $2.8 billion and started to up his ante in the horse business.

“I had a little more time on my hands, and I was looking for something to do that was exciting, competitive,” the soft-spoken 52-year-old said. “I increased my involvement in the sport.”

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11/19/11 West Coast: English Lessons

aspradling — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:30:36 GMT

Generations of the Johnston family rewarded with Acclamation

Kentucky is far more likely than California to have multi-generational Thoroughbred farms. However, the Johnston family of California bucks the odds, with four generations involved in Old English Rancho, one of the most prolific producers of stakes winners ever in the Golden State.

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11/12/11 Northeast/Mid-Atlantic: Big Ups Upstate

aspradling — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:38:36 GMT

McMahon of Saratoga turns 40 in style

Forty years ago when Joe and Anne McMahon bought a 100-acre farm on Fitch Road a few miles east of Saratoga’s famed track, they could have decided to raise reindeer instead of racehorses. The land was covered by Christmas trees. Making lemonade from what they had purchased, the McMahons sold the holiday favorites for a few years while gradually clearing the land to accommodate the horses that for four decades have called McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds home.

“When we bought this farm in 1971, there wasn’t a fence on it; there wasn’t a usable barn on the place,” said Joe McMahon, who celebrated
his 64th birthday in mid-October by taking few lake trout out of Lake George. “Everything was piecemeal—done a little at a time, and we’ve
worked hard on this place.”

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04/30/11 Southwest: The Gift of Harmony

aspradling — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:44:36 GMT

What started as a couple of extravagant gifts has prompted a lifelong passion for horses for Harmony Training Center owner Theresa Moore, who became involved in Thoroughbred racing and breeding through the most unlikely of connections—her dentist.

It’s not every day that the man who works on your smile buys you a horse. But such was the case with Moore’s daughter Stacey, whose wedding gift from Dr. Warren Center was a weanling filly from the first crop of his stallion, Kipling.

“We thought it was a joke,” remembered Moore, a former schoolteacher, who now operates Harmony near Inola, Okla., and races horses with her husband, Joe, a retired auditor for WalMart. “We knew (Center) had gotten into horses, but when he gave my daughter the (foal registration) papers, I said, ‘Warren, don’t you think that’s a tad over the top? I have a house with a backyard that won’t accommodate a horse.' He said we could sell her or just see what happens.”

At her daughter’s urging, however, Moore wound up racing the horse with her in partnership, and as the cliché goes, the rest is history.

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04/16/2011 Northeast/Mid-Atlantic: Empire State Strikes Back

aspradling — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:57:42 GMT

Developments over Independence Day weekend in 2010, though not unexpected for those who follow the New York Thoroughbred breeding industry,
drove home the point: The New York-bred program can produce quality racehorses.

In a span of three days at Belmont Park, state-bred runners won three graded stakes: Turtle Bird Stable’s Haynesfield took the Suburban Handicap (gr. II) July 3; Paul Pompa Jr., Stephen Yarbrough, and Winter Park Partners’ Franny Freud won the Prioress Stakes (gr. I) July 4; and Zayat Stables’ Rightly So triumphed in the Bed o’ Roses Handicap (gr. III) July 5.

According to information compiled by the New York Thoroughbred Breeders, New York-bred horses accounted for 15 graded-stakes victories in 2010. Haynesfield and Rightly So returned later in the season to win grade I events in New York.

Despite such success the program has had its ups and downs, a product of the horse industry’s volatility in New York and across the country. In the past decade there have been questions about the future of the New York Racing Association, declines in the Thoroughbred foal crop in state and out; and the shuttering of New York City Off-Track Betting Corp., a revenue source for the New York Thoroughbred Breeding & Development Fund.

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04/09/2011 Midwest/Canada: Friends and Family

aspradling — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:05:53 GMT

A year ago, in April 2010, a fire swept through a broodmare barn at Indiana Stallion Station, and despite the valiant efforts of the farm’s staff, more than a dozen horse perished, including some broodmares with their newborn foals. In the tragedy’s aftermath, owner Joyce Baker was uncertain if the operation could recover from the physical damage or, more importantly, the emotional trauma that results from such a horrific event.

The answer began to appear the following day in the Anderson Herald Bulletin, a daily newspaper serving the community of 60,000 just northeast of Indianapolis. Reader after reader penned notes of sympathy to the farm, many in the form of personal notes to Joyce and her staff, who are well-known in the community not just for the horse farm, but for their involvement in the local 4-H chapter and for giving riding lessons and a variety of other community-based activities.

A few months after the fire Maria Vorhauer, farm manager at Gayle Gerth’s Dana Point Farm in Pennsylvania, added an unexpected helping hand to the Indiana farm’s recovery process. Perusing websites as she researched the Hoosier State’s new owners and breeders incentive programs that had sprung up from Indiana’s approval of alternative gaming at racetracks, something about Indiana Stallion Station caught Vorhauer’s eye. She and Gerth decided that was the place for two prominent stallions owned by Dana Point—Action This Day and Domestic Dispute—who now stand at Baker’s refurbished facility near Anderson and are leading a renaissance for Indiana Stallion Station that seemed out of reach in the charred rubble of a year ago.

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