BY SARAH WELK BAYNUM
Crystal Fernung and her husband Brent, owners of Journeyman Bloodstock Services Inc. and Journeyman Stud, have had a long and impressive history in the Florida Thoroughbred industry.
They’ve owned and managed two Florida Stallions of the Year and have been affiliated with two history-making broodmares. Brent has served many years as a board member and past president for the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.
For Crystal, the love of horses all began because of her childhood next-door neighbor.
“When I was a kid, the small riding stable next door had a few horses. When I got my chores done, he would let me ride them,” Crystal Fernung said.
But her family eventually moved and she lost her connection with horses. That is, until she met Brent as a junior in high school. She has been immersed in the horse world since.
“We got married in 1975. Brent worked for Dan Lasater at his farm in Goshen, Ky., and he started out night watching mares and working with his horses. We would come to Ocala on vacation, and in 1976, we were offered jobs here. So we moved down to Florida and we have been here ever since.”
Brent was hired as a groom at first, then worked his way up the ranks while Crystal worked in the farm’s office
“We worked for Dan [Lasater] until 1984, then we went out on our own in 1989, and that’s where Journeyman started,” she continued. “We rented paddocks and stalls and we had about three mares and a couple of yearlings. That’s all we started out with. Eventually, we found a place to lease on 80 acres and we got a few more horses. The landowner had about five or six mares and the resulting babies, so we didn’t really pay rent, we just took care of his horses.”
Finally, the owner decided to sell that property and the Fernung’s came up with a plan to purchase it.
“We had a longtime client that we bought yearlings for and he raced up in Chicago. We didn’t have the money for the down payment, so he helped us with that. And we took it off his board bill and financed the rest of it. We sold 30 of those acres and from there, we were able to pay off the farm,” Crystal Fernung said.
In 1992, the Fernung’s bought the broodmare Eileen’s Moment. A few months later, her 3-year-old colt, Lil E. Tee, won the Kentucky Derby (Grade 1). This marked their first big Thoroughbred score.
“We re-sold Eileen’s Moment at Keeneland, but we kept the foal. We named the filly My Big Sis, who was sired by El Raggass, and we kept the filly her entire life. We raced her, bred her and got a lot of nice babies out of her,” Fernung said.
In 2000, John Sykes hired Brent as general manager of Cloverleaf Farm, which later became Woodford Thoroughbreds. The Fernungs continued to own their own farm during that time and he held that position until 2007.
While working for Cloverleaf, they selected and purchased I’ll Get Along at the 2001 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
“We went to Kentucky to buy mares for John Sykes and paid $130,000 for one named I’ll Get Along—the dam of 2004 Kentucky Derby-winner Smarty Jones, but he was still a weanling when we purchased her,” Crytal Fernung said.
Consigned by Brent Fernung as agent for Cloverleaf, they eventually sold I’ll Get Along for $5 million at the 2004 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale.
“The media hype on I’ll Get Along was just extraordinary because of Smarty Jones’ success around the time she was going to be sold. She had a foal, Smarty Jones’ full sibling, at her side at that time too. Television stations, newspapers, magazines—everyone was wanting to interview, get pictures, get video, do stories on her, etc. Then, while we were getting her ready for that sale, there were two hurricanes that came through Florida that really made things interesting.”
The Fernung’s shipped I’ll Get Along with her broodmare manager to a farm in Georgia. After the first hurricane left, they returned her to Florida. A second hurricane came through Florida two weeks later, and they shipped her to Georgia a second time.
It was taking I’ll Get Along to the Fasig-Tipton sale that is still a very special memory for Fernung.
“Right before we took I’ll Get Along to Kentucky, Fasig-Tipton did this huge promotional thing for her. They had taken film footage to the song, ‘Don’t Worry About Me, I’ll Get Along.’ They started emailing this footage out to everybody just before the mare came to the sale. When we got to the sale, there were people who were wanting to come to look at her to possibly buy her, but I had to set up times to bring her out. There were so many fans that wanted to see her and get pictures taken with her. The public reacted so strongly to Smarty Jones and to his dam. It was a time where it almost felt like the old days, when everybody came to the races—they were just fans of horse racing and wanted to be around horses,” Crystal Fernung said.
Brent also started a successful Florida stallion operation for Sykes, including the purchase of Congrats. That led to the Fernung’s own involvement and success with stallions at Journeyman.
Among the many successful stallions featured through the years at Journeyman Stud, Wildcat Heir and Khozan have been the standouts.
Wildcat Heir was a four-time leading sire in Florida with eight graded stakes winners, 36 black-type winners from nine crops and total progeny earnings of more $56 million.
They currently stand Khozan, who has been the leading sire in Florida in each of the last four years. With eight crops, Khozan has produced four graded stakes winners, 15 black-type winners with progeny earnings of more than $23 million.
While they have several success stories with notable broodmares and stallions, Crystal is proud to point out their Thoroughbred business model has always been diverse.
“We never really specialized. We did mares, we sold yearlings, we pinhooked, we claimed mares and we had stallions,” she said. “We’ve made our living with all kinds of horses—we just did a little bit of everything. I can’t imagine living any other kind of life, and it’s truly been a blessing to do it together.”
