BY SARAH WELK BAYNUM
Catherine Jager descends from several generations of matriarch racehorse owners and breeders, including her grandmother. Mary Haire, the breeder of Florida-bred Exclusive Rosette, the granddam of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, is her grandmother; and her mother, Maria Haire, are the reasons she is in business today.
“I was born into the racing world, and my mom, grandma and dad were all involved in the business. My first birthday party was even held in a barn 13 stall at [Ocala Breeders’ Sales] during the two-year-old training sale,” Jager said.
While Jager briefly veered away from the business in her teens, she found her way back in her 20s.
“After high school, I worked in retail full-time for seven years. I started to get back into the family business when my mom and grandma needed a little help at the farm. I started doing the billing, paperwork and administrative type stuff at the farm. Then my grandma fell ill with stage four cancer. After that, I was heavily involved. I left my retail job, I got my real estate license and since then I’ve been full time at the farm. It’s just been me, my mom, and our awesome group of grooms ever since.” She said.
Despite the fact that Jager and her mother run the farm together today, Maria Haire made an impressive comeback from a stroke that could have ended the family racehorse business before Catherine became a part of it.
“My mom had a major stroke in 1999 that took away her ability to walk, talk and she’s paralyzed in her right hand. They had to get out of the business because of that for a while.
When I was about eight, in around 2004, they started talking about getting back into business full-time and leaving Tampa to buy a farm in Ocala. My mom had always kept one or two horses in training but didn’t have any of them at the farm anymore because of how sick she had become. The doctors told my grandma that Maria’s not happy without her horses. It’s either going to kill her being away from them, or they’re going to kill her because something happens. So, you might as well let her be happy. Then in 2015, my mom was even the small breeder of the year for a horse named Stallwalkin’ Dude,” Jager said.
Maria Haire was presented the 2015 Needles Award by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association as the small breeder of the year. That year, Stallwalkin’ Dude earned $567,750 from seven wins in 18 starts, including the $100,000 Diablo Stakes at Belmont Park and the $106,700 Claiming Crown Rapid Transit at Gulfstream Park.
“My grandma loved pedigrees and instilled that in us,” Jager said. “My mom and I also stood a stallion named Ecliptical (Ire). They went to a sale at OBS intending to buy mares but they ended up buying [Ecliptical]. My grandma bought a Fred Hooper mare, Zetta Jet, and bred Zetta Jet to Ecliptical, producing Exclusive Rosette.”
Years ago, the family farm business model mainly focused on the selling of 2-year-olds at auction and was heavily into the breeding side of the business. Today, however, they have about 84 horses and primarily focus on breeding.
“We have about 30 mares and we breed anywhere from 15 to 25 mares a year,” Jager said. “We sell short yearlings and yearlings, and very rarely do we go to the 2-year-old sale now, unless we have something that really stands out for us. I also run my mom’s consignment, Hare Hill Farm, and we go to the sales in January and October here in Ocala.”
They also keep a string of approximately 15 horses in training and racing.
Jager is also excited about a mare they purchased at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Mixed Sale in 2019 whose granddam is Exclusive Rosette.
“Motif is a mare that is out of the Exclusive Rosette line. We bought this mare out of New York a couple of years ago, and she’s a horse that we’ve always thought was going to be kind of special.”
Her second foal, is Wiffletree Serry, a 3-year-old filly by Hoppertunity waiting to make her first.
“She has [Wiffletree Serry] we’re really excited about. She’ll be making her start in Miami sometime hopefully soon. She’s named after one of my mom’s old show horses, and my mom renames a lot of her Thoroughbreds after old show horses,” Jager said.
But for Jager, besides watching American Pharoah win the Triple Crown, one of the most unforgettable moments was when her first homebred ran under her name for the first time.
“The first horse I personally bred [Boys Go To Jupiter], I kept an ownership piece of her. The most special thing is just getting to watch them make their first start. It doesn’t matter what happens—just getting to watch her in the paddock, go to the starting gate, and then watching her successfully make it around the track was pretty cool. It was very special and took me a long time to get there personally. To have my name listed as the breeder and my name listed as part owner—that was a really cool moment, and I’ll probably never forget it,” Jager said.
“Florida’s home. The weather is great and the babies just grow up so much nicer here. Mom mainly picked Ocala because of Peterson Smith—she’s been a Peterson Smith client for over 30 years. There’s also a great network of people and you’ve got a good support system. There are old timers here that have been around forever, and they’re really good to lean on too,” Jager said.
