NEWS
Longtime New Jersey owner, breeder Hesse dies
Posted: Monday, November 13, 2006
Owner and breeder Charles Hesse III, a longtime supporter of the New Jersey Thoroughbred industry who campaigned multiple graded stakes winners Park Avenue Ball and Storm Tower, died Monday in New York after a brief illness.
Hesse campaigned horses with his wife, Marianne, under their Char-Mari Stable banner. He worked as a paving contractor, lived in Leonardo, New Jersey, and enjoyed a nearly three-decade long association with New Jersey-based bloodstock agent Buzz Chace.
The Hesses won Monmouth Park's Virgil "Buddy" Raines Distinguished Achievement Award in 2003, and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association honored the couple as the New Jersey breeders of the year in '05.
"He was just a great sportsman, a first-class guy," Chace said on Monday. "He just loved the horse business and did a lot for New Jersey-bred racing. He and his wife are just the kind of people you want in this game."
Hesse bred Park Avenue Ball in New Jersey in the name of his C. J. Hesse Inc. Trained by Jim Ryerson, the four-year-old by Citidancer won the 2004 Futurity Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park and the '05 Long Branch Breeders' Cup Stakes (G2) and '06 Philip H. Iselin Breeders' Cup Handicap (G3) at Monmouth Park. Park Avenue Ball has won six stakes overall, won seven of 18 career starts, and earned $946,600.
Storm Tower, who was campaigned in partnership with the late Anthony Tornetta, was one of the leading Triple Crown contenders in 1993 when he started the season with four wins in five starts, including the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park and Wood Memorial Invitational Stakes (G1) at Aqueduct. He finished 16th and 19 1/2 lengths behind Sea Hero in the Kentucky Derby (G1) but came back as a four-year-old to win the Salvator Mile Handicap (G3) at Monmouth in a memorable win for Hesse.
"That was one of my greatest thrills, when Storm Tower won here," Hesse said in 2005.
Other stakes winners campaigned by Hesse, either solely or in partnership, included C. J.'s Boy, First Class Guy, Hoya, Keep It S. S., Magick Top, Navesink River, Palance, Special Mah, Special Vice, and Twilight Time.—Tom Law
