BY SARAH WELK BAYNUM
Joe Imbesi, owner of Briardale Farm, a full-service training facility in Belleview, Fla., is a longtime Thoroughbred owner and breeder who traces his success in the business to his father’s fortuitous start.
“My dad got involved in racehorses back in the 1950s. The first horse he ever bought was a horse called Rico Tesio—he ended up running in the Kentucky Derby,” Imbesi said.
Rico Tesio finished 10th in the 1959 Derby won by Tomy Lee. His father began breeding Thoroughbreds shortly after that. Imbesi started working on his family farm at 15-years-old after school and on weekends and continued working there through college.
“I found that I really liked the horse business, too,” he said. “Whenever my father terminated the farm manager, I would become the temporary farm manager—whether that lasted six months, a year or longer. Those times spurred my interest in the business even more.”
In 1976, Imbesi became his father’s official trainer and spent many years in that position until his father’s passing. According to Equibase, Imbesi trained 305 winners from 2,439 starters with earnings of more than $3.8 million.
“I sold a lot of the horses for my mother and I kept the ones that I thought had a future in breeding or racing,” Imbesi said. “Eventually, with money that I had made in the stock market, I bought more horses from my mother when she said she just didn’t want to continue in the business without my father. In 1982 I became the sole proprietor of the Briardale horses and I continued to breed, raise, break and train them.”
However, in 1995, Imbesi realized his business model needed to change.
“I concluded that if I didn’t find another way to earn money, I wasn’t going to be able to even educate my children. So, I hired a trainer to train the horses. I also went into the real estate business and I was able to make good money there too. It allowed me to enjoy both worlds.”
Over the years, many special horses have come and gone from Imbesi’s farm. But one that stood out to him over the years is Florida-bred Score a Birdie. Ironically, he purchased the son of Proud Birdie on a whim.
“I bought the horse from a friend in 1996. My friend had kind of given up on this older horse and I figured I’d make him a stud horse. We tried racing him first though, and he just got better and better somehow. A little over a year later, he won the $200,000 Forego Handicap [at Saratoga Race Course in 1997] and was one of the biggest upsets of the meet,” Imbesi said.
Scoring by three-quarters of a length ahead of runner-up Victor Cooley, Score a Birdie won at odds of 27-1 and paid $56.60 with jockey Herb McCauley aboard. Score a Birdie retired with nine wins, seven seconds and five thirds from 46 starts with earnings of $473,060.
In recent years, Imbesi had his eye on a certain stallion, Social Inclusion, that he intended to purchase. But even after making several offers on the horse, the owners refused to sell.
“Social Inclusion was a tremendous talent and very fast,” Imbesi said of the son of Pioneerof the Nile.
After three years, Social Inclusion finally became available. Imbesi purchased him and sent him to Pennsylvania, where Imbesi was racing at the time and later to Florida.
“I really thought I could breed a better horse in Florida because of the climate, and everything this area has to offer. The first of his Florida-bred’s dropped in 2022 and they’re racing this year. A filly he sired named Social Fortress, who is trained by Jamie Ness, recently won the Sorority Stakes, which is a nice way to get started.” Imbesi said.
Social Inclusion currently ranks fifth on the list of leading Florida sires with progeny earnings of more than $1.7 million. He has 28 winners, including a leading three black-typer winners, from 54 runners.
Today, Imbesi has about 80 horses at Briardale. This year alone, he had 26 foals, all sired by Social Inclusion.
