Involved in the Florida Thoroughbred industry for 12 years and counting, Fred and Jane Brei continue to enjoy success in the name of their Jacks Or Better Farm.
Call it a Thoroughbred royal flush.
After establishing their Reddick-based Jacks Or Better Farm in 1997, Fred and Jane Brei began to buy broodmares. At that year's Keeneland November breeding stock sale, they paid $80,000 for Bayou Plans. The stakes-winning daughter of Bayou Hebert had earned $308,959 and was in foal to Mountain Cat. Longtime card players, it was arguably the best $80,000 bet the Breis ever made.
Bayou Plans has since produced Florida-bred graded stakes winners Midas Eyes and Bayou's Lassie, as well as Florida-bred stakes winner Bourbon N Blues. She is also t
he dam of Cup o' Joe, a 2-year-old colt by Medaglia d'Oro who the Breis sold for a sales-topping $1.6 million at the 2009 Fasig-Tipton Calder selected juvenile sale.
“Obviously Bayou Plans has been a great broodmare for us,” said Fred Brei, who hails from the Chicago, Illinois area and was briefly involved in that state's Thoroughbred industry. “She's definitely earned her keep year after year. She's the kind of broodmare that everyone wishes they had.”
But even more impressive is that the Breis' success extends beyond Bayou Plans and her accomplished offspring. In the name of their Jacks Or Better Farm, the Breis have bred and/or raced such outstanding Florida-breds as graded stakes winner Radical Riley and stakes winners Garter Belt, Honey Honey Honey, Hear No Evil, Awesome of Course, Monsieur Cat, Ladyinareddres, My My Mine, Scrubs, Antsinmypants, Friday's A Comin' and Winnie's Pooh Bear. Still owned by Jacks Or Better Farm, Awesome of Course, Hear No Evil and Monsieur Cat stand stud at Jim and Sheila DiMare's Ocala-based Rising Hill Farm.
Jacks Or Better Farm has twice garnered the Needles Award (2001& 2004), which annually honors the most successful small Florida breeding operation. In 2008, horses bred by Jacks Or Better Farm earned $1,045,420. As an owner last season, Jacks Or Better Farm posted earnings of $815,539.
COMING TO THE SUNSHINE
Fred and Jane Brei met at Canterbury Corporation, a long-term retirement facility in Crystal Lake, Illinois, in the mid-80s. Fred, a longtime builder/developer, built and became chief executive officer of Canterbury Corp., where Jane was the director of nursing. Married in 1991, the Breis left Canterbury in 1995 with thoughts of early retirement.
They bought a home in Savannah, Georgia, and the plan was for Jane to renovate the 1910 Southern mansion while Fred played golf and went fishing.
“Basically we got bored,” said Fred. “And when Jane brought up my past involvement in the Thoroughbred business in Illinois, we started thinking about giving it another try. We decided against Lexington because we didn't want to be where it got cold again. We had heard plenty about Ocala but had never been there. We took out a road atlas and planned a trip to Ocala.”
Driving down in the fall of 1996, the Breis knew Ocala was where they wanted to be. By the end of December, they had bought an 88-acre farm on 225A. Previously known as Double R Farm, the the card-playing Breis renamed it Jacks Or Better Farm. Once renovations on the farm were done, the Breis went broodmare shopping.
At the 1997 Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's January mixed sale, the Breis bought the Maudlin mare Winning For Glory in foal to Silver Buck for $7,000. They then bought three mares privately: Vogueing, Tudor Guest and Picnic Basket. Off to Kentucky for the 1997 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, where in addition to buying Bayou Plans for $80,000, the Breis also bought graded stakes winner and millionairess Lottsa Talc for $575,000; stakes winner Mais Oui for $200,000 and multiple stakes producer Nifty Fifty for $170,000. All money well spent.
From that first batch of mares, the 1998 Jacks Or Better Farm Florida-bred foal crop produced graded stakes winner Radical Riley, stakes winners Winnie's Pooh Bear, Antsinmypants, Friday's A Comin' and Monsieur Cat, as well as stakes-placed I Am Nifty.
“Looking back now, it's hard to believe how many years ago that was,” said Brei. “I guess our horses pretty much hit the ground running.”
BAYOU'S BABIES
Bayou Plans' successful offspring may have come a couple of years after those initial stakes winners, but they've definitely made up for lost time. Bayou Plans' third foal was Midas Eyes, a very appropriately named 2000 colt by Touch Gold. He made his first start carrying the Jacks Or Better Farm silks and broke his maiden by eight. Sold privately shortly after to Edmund Gann, Midas Eyes definitely brought home the gold. He won the Forego Handicap (G1), Swale Stakes (G3) and Derby Trial Stakes (G3) on his way to banking $616,528. Midas Eyes was named the 2004 Florida-bred champion sprinter. He currently stands stud at Empire Stud in Hudson, New York.
Bourbon N Blues, who was Bayou Plans' 2001 colt by Lycius, was also raced by Jack Or Better Farm. The stakes winner of $90,590 stands in New Mexico at DeGroot Farm.
Also bred and raced by Jacks Or Better Farm was graded stakes winner Bayou's Lassie, a 2003 mare by Outflanker. Racing three seasons, Bayou's Lassie won six stakes, including three graded, and was stakes-placed four times in 21 starts to earn $707,207. She won a graded stakes as a three, four and five-year-old: 2006 Frances A. Genter Stakes (G3), 2007 Stage Door Betty Handicap (G3) and 2008 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes (G3). Consigned by Hidden Brook, agent for the Breis, to the 2008 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale, Bayou's Lassie sold for $450,000 to Haruya Yoshida.
“Since Bayou Plans is still going strong at 18 and her 2008 foal was a filly by Lemon Drop Kid, we decided to sell Bayou's Lassie,” explained Brei. “She was a super racehorse and I'm sure she'll be a good broodmare.”
And it was with Bayou Plans' 2007 Medaglia d'Oro colt that Brei hit an even bigger jackpot in the sales ring.
“We really breed to race,” said Brei. “We like racing and just don't sell that many at the public auctions. But this Medaglia d'Oro colt was something special from day one. He was the most gorgeous horse ever born on our farm and he was always an extraordinary mover even as a baby. He would just glide across the paddock with no effort. We thought he'd be a nice yearling to sell.”
The Breis entered the dark bay, nearly black colt now named Cup o' Joe in the 2008 Keeneland September yearling sale. But when he failed to meet his reserve on a final bid of $325,000, Brei had no qualms about bringing the colt home.
“I've never believed in giving our horses away. I've always said that we breed better racehorses than we do sale horses,” said Brei. “I knew this colt was special. I decided I'd break and train him then see where to go with him from there.”
Where Cup o' Joe eventually went was the 2009 Fasig-Tipton Calder selected juvenile sale. Consigned by Wavertree Stables, agent for the Breis, the colt was the sales topper when he sold for $1.6 million to John Ferguson Bloodstock. The latter representing Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.
“Once the bidding on the colt got to a million and then past that, I was very happy,” said Brei. “It validated what I knew about this colt. I would've been happy to race him, but I'm also happy he sold for what he did. For someone who doesn't breed to sell, that was something special.”
Bayou Plans has a 2008 Lemon Drop Kid filly named Shesnolemon and a 2009 Awesome of Course filly. At this writing, Bayou Plans was scheduled to be bred to Candy Ride (Arg).
BREEDING TO RACE
The Breis maintain a broodmare band of 20-25. In addition to Bayou Plans, the current 22-member group also includes stakes producer Sexy Stockings, dam of 2009 Florida-bred stakes winner Garter Belt; stakes winner Ladyinareddress; stakes-placed I Am Nifty; and stakes winner Precious Feather. The Breis privately bought Precious Feather, a 1997 mare by Gone West out of the *Vaguely Noble mare Last Feather, following the 1998 Keeneland September yearling sale. Racing for Jacks Or Better Farm, Precious Feather won four stakes and was stakes-placed three times on her way to earning $257,441. She is the dam of stakes-placed Brooks'n Down, by Montbrook, has a 2006 Medaglia d'Oro colt named Precious Beans, a 2007 Congaree filly named Diary, a 2008 Awesome of Course filly and is in foal again to the latter.
“We're very hands-on with our horses,” said Brei, who in addition to being a breeder/ owner/ trainer, is also a director on the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association's board. “I'm there when every one of our mares foal. We don't feed in the paddocks so our horses are brought in twice a day to be fed and handled. We always know what's going on with our horses.”
After leasing stalls at various training facilities, the Breis bought 13-acres at Nelson Jones Farms and Training Center. The farm's training operation includes a 24-stall training barn, six-stall isolation barn, turn-out paddocks and use of the facility's training track. In addition to the horses in training at the farm, there are another 21 with Louisiana-based trainer Kenny Decker and nine with Calder-based trainer Stanley Gold.
“We break and train all our horses here at our training center,” said Brei. “And because they're handled so much early and often, most of our horses are easy to bring along. We can usually put a bridle and a saddle on them in the stall on the first day. On the second day, we'll get someone up on their backs while they're still in the stall. By the fourth day, they're being hand walked in the shedrow with a rider on their back. Then we progress to jogging in the shedrow, usually for about two weeks. By then they're ready to go the training track.”
Brei likes to ship the more advanced group of two year olds to the track by early April. By that time, they've been to the gates once a week for a month and posted a couple of half-mile works.
“Our horses are fit when they go to the racetrack,” said Brei. “The next step in their education is acclimating to the racetrack environment, which depends on the horse's personality. But if all goes well, most of our two years old are ready to make their first start on average 28 days after they got to the racetrack.”
Not surprisingly, Brei is a strong supporter of 2-year-old racing.
“The FTBOA has been working with Calder to emphasize 2-year-old racing again,” said Brei. “The purses for 2-year-old races, especially the Florida Stallion Stakes, need to come up to attract owners and trainers. There has to be purse incentives to encourage people to buy two year olds and race them. My theory is, and I could be wrong, is that if people come in as owners of two year olds and can make some money, they'll stay in the game. And if they do that, it impacts not only racing, but the breeding and sales markets as well.”
