Triple Crown winner to breed at local farm

BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

PHOTOSBY FARRAH MAFFAI staff Windsong’s Legacy, the first horse to win harness racing’s Triple Crown in 32 years, has retired and is now standing stud at Perretti Farm in Upper Freehold. UPPER FREEHOLD — Two of the top standardbreds in the world will be joining the roster of stallions at Perretti Farms, including the first winner of the Triple Crown for trotting horses in 32 years.

Windsong’s Legacy, who won the Hambletonian, the Yonkers Trot and the Kentucky Futurity this year to become the first Triple Crown winner since Super Bowl in 1972, only had to move a few miles down the road to his new home at Perretti Farms.

During his racing career, the horse was based at White Birch Farm, where his trainer/driver Trond Smedshammer has his stable.

The other stallion, Revenue, was from much farther away. He is a European horse, with French and American racing blood, who is owned by Stall Revenue of Malmo, Sweden.

According to Ken Weingartner of Harness Racing Communications, “Revenue raced only four times in North America, all this year.”

His North American record was 4-3-0-1 with $354,731 in earnings. He won the $300,000 Nat Ray at the Meadowlands, and the $208,000 Allerage at the Red Mile in Lexington, Ky.

He also won an elimination of the $662,970 Maple Leaf Trot at Mohawk. He was third in the Maple Leaf Trot final, he said.

“For his career, the 8-year-old won 47 of 110 starts and $1.99 million,” Weingartner said.

Bob Marks, general manager of Perretti Farms, called Revenue “one of the greatest horses Europe has ever produced.” The stallion should be arriving in Cream Ridge within the next couple of weeks, after going through standard quarantine procedures in upstate New York.

Marks said that the farm now has an international breeding clientele. According to Marks, Castleton Farm in Kentucky used to be considered the preeminent standardbred breeding farm in the country by Europeans. Now that Castleton is no longer in operation, that mantle has been bestowed on Perretti Farms.

“Perretti has supplanted it. We get a lot of patronage from Europe,” Marks said.

Marks said that the foreign horsemen visiting the farm patronize local restaurants and tourist attractions such as Six Flags Great Adventure, generating a spillover effect for the local economy.

Windsong’s Legacy, owned by Ted Gewertz of New York City, Patricia Spinelli of New Jersey and Fredrik Lindegaard of Norway, will command a stud fee of $12,500, and next season will service between 150-170 mares.

Revenue will be bred to approximately the same amount of mares, and his stud fee is $7,500.

Marks said that horsemen are generally positive about acting Gov. Richard Codey’s administration when it comes to the horse-racing business.

“He seems to have an understanding that we have to be competitive with other states,” he said. “If that means slots [at racetracks], he’s forward-thinking enough to recognize that.”

Marks said that Codey appeared to be very supportive of the Meadowlands, the No. 1 harness track in the world.

“As the Meadowlands goes, so goes New Jersey [racing],” said Marks, noting that Freehold Raceway would benefit as well from a more horse racing-friendly administration.

Marks observed that the Breeder’s Cup races for thoroughbreds, which will be held at Monmouth Park in 2007, will be a great honor for the state, though few if any of those horses will have been bred, foaled or raised in New Jersey.

On the other hand, the Breeder’s Crown for Standardbreds, an annual fixture at the Meadowlands, always includes a substantial percentage of equine competitors born, bred and raised here.

With the addition of Windsong’s Legacy and Revenue to the breeding roster at Perretti — which already includes Muscles Yankee, McArdle, Matt’s Scooter, Dream Vacation and Artiscape — Perretti Farms has solidified its reputation as an international breeding facility.