NEWS
New Jersey couple enjoys racing Garden State homebreds
Posted: Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Husband-wife team specialize in foaling and lay-up services
For 35 years, Jeanne Vuyosevich and her husband, Ken Kehoe, have quietly operated Sunset Meadow Farm in Farmingdale, New Jersey, which specializes in foaling and lay-up services for horsemen with ties to the Garden State.
The couple derive the bulk of their income from that business, but their enjoyment comes mostly from racing a small stable of New Jersey homebreds at nearby Monmouth Park.
"We built it up from scratch with 90% of Ken's hard labor," Vuyosevich said. "We have a large clientele. The mainstay of our living is foaling for other people, and we do a lot of lay-up work. Plus, we do all the work ourselves.
"[Racing] is a side business for us," she said. "We breed our own, and I used to break them myself. Once you do that, you don't want to turn them over to someone else. We've had limited success, because these horses are like our kids, so you don't put them where they belong. That's a bad habit."
One of Vuyosevich's four "kids" in training at Monmouth is Can't You See, an eight-year old My Prince Charming mare out of the winning Jolly Jake (NZ) mare Got My Eyes On You, whom Kehoe also bred.
The mare sports a modest record of three wins, three seconds, and two thirds in 65 starts over six years with average earnings of less than $1,000 per start, but her victory in a $20,000 claiming race on August 4 at Monmouth marked a couple of significant milestones.
Besides winning her first race since September 19, 2004, and having jockey Navin Mangalee aboard for his first Monmouth victory, Can't You See won the race while in foal to Private Interview. Of course, that was not the Vuyosevich's initial plan for the mare.
"I wasn't going to bring her back this year," said Vuyosevich, who started Can't You See seven times as an eight-year-old through August 31. "I was going to make a show horse out of her. I was going to breed her [and] show her until she was seven months in foal because she jumps beautifully. We brought Billy [Wilson] back on her to get [him] fit, and I figured if we get lucky, we get lucky."
The 50-year-old Wilson suffered a stroke in August 2005 during a morning gallop at Louisiana Downs. A good portion of Wilson's physical therapy was galloping Can't You See every day since March. Wilson is now about 90% recovered.
Can't You See has overcome adversity throughout her career, including surgery to repair a bone chip she sustained in her third career start in August 2001. The mare also broke her nose in an accident the following year.
"The spill took a lot out of her, and she lost her confidence," Vuyosevich said. "I remembered that [legendary trainer] Buddy Raines told me once that back in the 1970s, he had a mare with a lot of talent that wouldn't win. He bred her and won three races while she was in foal. [Can't You See] only wins once every two years, so after she foals this baby, I'm going to bring her back as a ten-year-old and see what happens."
Can't You See returned to the races on August 18 in an open allowance race and finished ninth at odds of 92.60-to-1.
"She's a smart mare," Vuyosevich said. "If she doesn't have everything her own way and the jockey doesn't ask her, she won't run well."
For now, Vuyosevich plans to enter Can't You See in the mare and foal show in September at the Horse Park of New Jersey, and the couple plans to continue breeding and racing New Jersey breds at their own pace.
"We have three weanlings on the farm that will hopefully race here," Vuyosevich said. "Financially, you have to stay within a budget, so we foal between two and four per year, and every one of our horses buys something when they win a race: a truck, a trailer, a barn, or new fencing. It supplements the farm."--Tom De Martini
