Colonial Farms
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COLONIAL FARMS: THREE GENERATIONS AND COUNTING Fieramosca family farm in Colts Neck, N.J., dates back to 1950, when a dashing young businessman unintentionally landed in Thoroughbred country. Story by Ryan Goldberg. Photographs by Bill Denver. 24 MID-ATLANTIC THOROUGHBRED SEPTEMBER 2009 he late John Fieramosca The following year he received didn’t envision a Thor- a letter from his father with Toughbred dynasty back news from home that surprised in 1950 when he purchased 113 him. acres of farmland in the New “He said did you know we Jersey township of Colts Neck. were in Thoroughbred coun- He was simply looking for a try?” Sam Fieramosca, who will place where he and his son, turn 79 in October, recalls with Sam, could ride their trail horses a hearty laugh. “He said he had and enjoy life on a farm. just bought two broodmares. Fieramosca owned a cloth- He said they were at a sale at ing factory in Elizabeth, N.J. a neighboring farm, nobody He had built a highly success- wanted them, and he bought ful business, bolstered by gov- them. They were both in foal.” ernment contracts he received John Fieramosca knew during World War II. Although nothing about race horses. But still a young man shy of 40, he was intrigued, and his deci- he already had plans to sell his sion turned out to be fateful. business and retire to the quiet “One of them turned out of the property located slight- to be of no importance,” Sam ly more than a dozen miles Fieramosca says of the original from the Thoroughbred racing investment, “but the other one, mecca known as Monmouth Midi’s Mom [a foal of 1945 by Park. Arabs Arrow], turned out to be A year later, Sam volun- a very, very good broodmare.” teered for the Korean War. He Fieramosca paid $600 for was never deployed though, the discarded Midi’s Mom; she being stationed domestically. had been unplaced in five starts. Sam Fieramosca and his son, John, oversee the 100-acre farm that for decades has ranked among the leading breeding facilities in New Jersey. MID-ATLANTIC THOROUGHBRED SEPTEMBER 2009 25 It was the beginning of the Fieramosca family’s Colonial Farms, and she its unlikely matriarch. Father and son dove head- long into horse breeding, assembling from scratch what stands today as the oldest active commercial farm in a state that once had many such opera- tions. Colonial Farms is the gray old lady of New Jersey breeding and racing. FAMILY VALUES Inside the farm’s office on a July morning, as Sam Fiera- mosca tells the story of Midi’s Mom with clarity and humor, as if it happened yesterday, his son, John, 43, enters the office. “This is John – the second John,” Sam says proudly. The third-generation Fieramosca horseman currently manages the farm. “Young” John grew History surrounds John and Sam Fieramosca in the farm office, including photographs such as this one featuring up working alongside his grand- homebred Accordant. Presentation shows patriarch John Fieramosca (left) accepting trophy from Ed Kilroe. At father and father, and left in his right is Fieramosca’s longtime trainer Joe Kulina (father of current Monmouth Park general manager Bob Kulina). early 20s for a nearby farm. He 26 MID-ATLANTIC THOROUGHBRED SEPTEMBER 2009 Barns at Colonial Farms, as viewed from the gardens, were constructed from scratch by founder John Fieramosca, who was closely involved in the day-to-day operation until a few years before his death in 1998 at 87. It was the life of a farmer that he had dreamed of as a boy in his native Sicily. then worked as a manager at He served as president of the City casinos, and along with it In 1999, Fieramosca sold 70 Home Depot for 11 years, but Thoroughbred Breed ers’ Asso- money for the state breeding of his 170 acres to developers in 2001 he wanted to return ciation of New Jersey, and was program, is set to expire after so that 100 acres of it could to Colonial. Sam gladly made a committee member of the next year. be preserved in an agreement room. New Jersey Horsemen’s Benev- In addition, an out-of-state with Colts Neck. He says it “Best thing we ever did,” olent and Protective Associ a- bonus for New Jersey breeders, was the only way he could keep Sam Fieramosca says. tion (NJHBPA) for 35 years. a program Fieramosca helped the farm. The sight of million- Fieramosca and his wife, He also labored on the farm create five years ago, has not dollar homes on Rancho Polo, Inez, raised John and three every day until a few years been renewed since distribut- an “estate development” at the daughters – Linda, Diana and before he died. ing money in 2005 and 2006. edge of his farm, breaks his Joanne – in a house adjacent to Sam Fieramosca has run the With five months of racing in heart. that of the elder John. The farm since his father died. He New Jersey, the opportunities Says John Forbes, the long- younger John and his wife and was employed as the executive for state-bred horses have nar- time conditioner who has their two daughters still live on director of the NJHBPA (the rowed. trained for Colonial over the the farm, as does Joanne. Sam group succeeded by the New “I’ve seen it shrivel to noth- years, “Sam could sell the farm and Inez live in the stately main Jersey Thoroughbred Horse- ing,” Sam says bluntly of the and live comfortably the rest of house where his father once men’s Association) from 1968 state breeding industry. his life. But he wants to keep lived, which, with its white to 1999, all the while help- Only a few farms on the the legacy of Colonial alive.” columns and yellow shutters, ing his father with the farm’s scale of Colonial remain, The legacy is tangible inside looks like it came from the set operations, his second job. which itself is smaller than in the cluttered office where Sam of Gone With the Wind. its prime. Sixty-five horses are and John are sitting this July John Fieramosca died in there now, of which Colonial morning. Nearly every inch of 1998 at the age of 87. In the UNCERTAIN FUTURE owns 20. At one time in the the wood-paneled walls is cov- golden age of New Jersey rac- Colonial is nearing its 60th 1980s there were 100. Thirty ered with photographs, articles ing and breeding, there was no year, but the next few years may foals were born on the farm and memorabilia. Dust covers one more prominent within the be its most critical. Uncertainty this year. Colonial has only four the frames of old winner’s cir- industry. John Fieramosca was hangs over the heads of New horses in training, and by late cle pictures, lending the office named to receive the state’s Jersey horsemen because the July, only two wins in 2009. the smell of an old attic. first Thoroughbred Owners purse supplement provided by Sam Fieramosca says the farm Sam is straightforward and, and Breeders Award in 1985. an agreement from the Atlantic does not make money. perhaps as a result of vigor- MID-ATLANTIC THOROUGHBRED SEPTEMBER 2009 27 John Fieramosca looks debo- $29,233 from a record of nair and handsome, a man with 14-10-14 in 83 starts. movie star looks. (“He was a But the best was yet to good-looking son of a bitch,” come. Midi’s Mom’s next foal, Sam says, pointing to another by Scobeyville, was Mom’s Pal, photo of John located under who finished second in the the glass top of his desk.) 1957 edition of the New Jersey Colts Neck was all open Futurity. fields and farms when the A few years later came Fieramoscas shifted their tack Decade. A fast sprinter by from Elizabeth. The property Decath lon, he won the Home was an old chicken farm, and Bred Handicap and New Jersey the only structure standing was Breeders Stakes as a juvenile an old barn. Nearby there were in 1961. The band leader and renowned horse farms like television host Lawrence Welk Greentree, Brookdale, Berna- purchased Decade the follow- dotte and Lincroft, as John ing year for $60,000 – then an Fieramosca soon discovered. impressive sum. Fieramosca’s first brood- Midi’s Mom’s foal of 1960, mares were part of a Lincroft a chestnut son of Travers dispersal. He met his longtime Stakes winner Ace Admiral trainer, Joe Kulina, through a named Accordant, turned out mutual friend about a year later. to be her best. Sam Fieramosca Kulina was then in his early chose Ace Admiral for the mat- 30s. Bob Kulina, Monmouth ing when the stallion relocated Park’s current general manager, from Kentucky to New Jersey recalls how his father told John at the tail end of his career. The Fieramosca that Midi’s Mom’s Fieramoscas were in the breed- first foal born at Colonial, by ing shed when Ace Admiral then old enough to train, had arrived to service their mare. some talent. As Sam recalls, six men were needed to hold him down. As Kulina remembers it, Fiera mosca did not want any- “The noise that he made, Yearlings (top) are part of Colonial Farms’s stock in the future. Horses thing to do with race horses, that son of a bitch,” Sam says, graze next to Rancho Polo, the upscale housing development constructed but he reluctantly gave the guffawing.