Finding the right formula EQB's Jeff Seder and Patti Miller hit their stride with two champions and a top 3-year-old. by Don Clippinger

effrey A. Seder and Patrice Zayat, is still regarded as the native majored in psychology "Never once did I make it back M. (Patti) Miller form one best 3-year-old of 2010. and pre-med at Harvard Col- on the horse," he said. J of the oddest partnerships "I tell people it was easy," lege, where he was magna cum Back in the U.S., Seder among the said Seder, EQB's president laude and Phi Beta Kappa. But returned to Harvard to pursue business's many odd couples. and chief executive officer. "It he also was something of a a joint program that yielded a They are east and west, sun and only took 35 years and several tinkerer, possessing the sort of master's of business administra- moon, Mars and Venus, Felix million dollars to be an over- restless intellect that, if handed tion and a law degree in 1976, and Oscar. night success." a Rolex watch, would want to again with high honors. He They are highly intelligent, Indeed, the investment is no disassemble it to see how it would make time in the after- and both possess horseman- exaggeration. The money went worked. noons to take riding lessons ship skills, but they apply into research that explored His tinkering and mechani- and became sufficiently profi- those talents in different pro- countless aspects of the Thor- cal skills extended to things cient to gallop race horses. portions. Seder, the brainiac oughbred race horse, looking larger than watches. At age 13, In June 1976, he went to Harvard-educated tinkerer, is for the characteristics that sep- he built a go-cart complete work for Citibank's interna- always probing at the edges, arate a stakes winner or cham- with an engine and transmis- tional banking division, where looking for new aspects of the pion from the herd. EQB has sion. (His father laughed at him he was working on loans to Thoroughbred race horse to looked at nearly everything imag- when the go-cart was too big African nations. It was a great dump into his computer. Miller inable over those years, includ- to get out of the basement.) opportunity but a bad fit. At is the professional horsewoman ing biopsies of muscle samples While attending Harvard, he noon each day, he walked past with her feet planted firmly on to compare top horses and graduated from the General a glass-encased cafeteria with a the ground. lowly claimers. The conclusion: Motors Institute, where he huge mural of countryside and horses. Seder imagined it was If they were aboard an air- Not much difference there. learned the intricacies of inter- the rolling hills of Pennsylvania plane preparing for takeoff, After the hard disk stops nal-combustion engines. That unlikely specialty led him into and wondered why he was in Miller said, "Jeff would be spinning, Seder said, two char- the canyons of Manhattan looking at the dials and gauges, the horse world. In Africa, of acteristics appear to separate when he wanted to be in the and I'm the one saying, We're the great from the common: all places. pastures of his native state. still on the ground." Heart and stride. But a big After completing his under- He quit Citibank, rented a But their partnership has heart and a long stride are not graduate degree in 1970, Seder complete answers in them- farm in Valley Forge, and sup- endured for more than three worked on a Rotary Inter- ported himself and his first decades, and EQB Inc., the selves. The nuances of heart national project in conjunction and stride are vitally important, horse, Tony, by working as West Grove, Pa.-based com- with the Peace Corps in Africa. director of the Association for pany created by Seder in 1978, and Seder said the epiphany His specialty was truck engines, occurred when EQB bought the Advancement of Sports has hit its stride. but his recreation was horses, Potential (AASP), chartered to Informed Decision at the 2007 specifically an indigenous pony Boy, has it ever. EQB- Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of do sports medicine research that a local veterinarian lent to and consulting to U.S. Olympic selected Informed Decision 2-year-olds in training. and Forever Together earned him. Teams. Eclipse Awards for client Seder learned to ride by That work and Seder's other George Strawbridge Jr.'s RESTLESS INTELLECT reading a book written by an interests led to EQB, or Equine Augustin Stable in each of the Of Jeff Seder, it can be said: Austrian cavalry officer. The Biomechanics and Exercise last two years, and , "He could have been a doctor." book skipped over the intrica- Physiology Inc. But he also selected for client Ahmed Indeed, the Jenkintown, Pa., cies of staying in the saddle. needed a lucky break.

14 MID-ATLANTIC THOROUGHBRED AUGUST 2010

Patti Miller, a former trainer, and Jeff Seder a -larvard-educated brainiac, bring together a rare blend of talents.

SUCCESSFUL TRAINER the Thoroughbred profession- Seder soon realized that • riding and galloping horses, Miller observed that "they Patti Miller was practically al, the ability to discriminate Miller had skills that he did lengthen. They don't quicken." born on the back of a horse. between the imperfection that not possess. "We're very dif- Thus, the emphasis on stride Her father, a Scott Paper Co. you can live with and the flaw ferent personalities, and that executive and avid foxhunter in that means sure disaster. makes for conflicts," he said. length. "But sand and an oyster make the countryside to the west of She did some freelance work Together, Seder and Miller a pearl, and we've really come Philadelphia, taught her how to supplement her income, and embarked on a journey that to respect each other." Miller to read the Daily Racing Form a friend referred her to this sought to find the characteris- added diplomatically: "The before she could handle Dr. guy in Valley Forge who need- tics that differentiate the great early days were interesting." Seuss. She grew up competing ed someone to break a young from the ordinary. In the pro- in just about anything involv- horse for him. Seder had tried Indeed, Miller's insights have cess, EQB developed a data- ing a horse and was an accom- to break the horse himself and been crucial to EQB's success, base encompassing more than plished point-to-point rider ended up on the ground with a helping to make it a successful 50,000 , each by the time she was 16. She broken wrist. business enterprise rather than of them measured and evalu- trained at the Fair Hill Training a money-losing operation with ated to find that special charac- Center in its early years and Miller broke his youngster, lots of data and little else. As teristic that defines the perfect became a highly successful but it was a very peculiar exer- much as anything, she instilled horse. trainer with what she described cise. Seder, ever the mad scien- a respect for the training pro- In truth, the beast does not as her "limpers and bleeders." tist, would ask her to stop fre- cess. "You have to realize that exist. She was a leading trainer at quently during the process so people have been training these "There's no one great that he could take the horse's Delaware Park in the 1980s horses in a certain way for a horse," Seder said. "The perfect temperature. with the imperfect specimens reason," she said. horse is one that knows where that she turned into runners. "I thought he was crazy," She also imparted an insight the finish line is and speaks Along the way, she devel- Miller said, and she wasn't that remains a cornerstone of Spanish." They also found that oped the skills and instincts of referring to the horse. EQB's approach. From race the bad points are more impor-

MID-ATLANTIC THOROUGHBRED AUGUST 2010 15 --

because I didn't know enough Veteran horsemen know AUCTION MARKET FEELS about and race what a good stride looks like, horses." but Seder suggests they are EQB'S IMPACT He also did not receive not seeing everything that they much help or encouragement need to observe in a stride, QB's buying power Charlie colt for $200,000 and from the academic community even when they slow down a was conspicuous at a Stormy Atlantic filly for and thus could not defray those standard video image of a pre- this year's late-season $180,000. E costs with grants or research sale workout. 2-year-olds in training auc- The EQB team sub- assistance. tions. sequently was the leading He pushes away from his With Miller signing the buyer at the Ocala Breeders' "I was always branded as desk at EQB's office, where tickets, EQB was the lead- Sales Company's June sale commercial, but I was losing a computer monitor perches ing buyer by gross at the of 2-year-olds and horses my ass," Seder said. EQB's precariously atop a pile of Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale in training with three pur- research papers on echocardio- books, and moves a few feet of 2-year-olds in training, chases for $255,000, includ- graphic measurements and gait to a DVD player attached to purchasing seven 2-year-olds ing a Sharp Humor filly who variables were published in another monitor. for $756,000, a $108,000 worked the sale's fastest fur- May 2003 in a 112-page supple- He runs a tape of a pre-sale average, topped by an Indian long and sold for $170,000. ment to the Journal of Equine workout of a highly regarded Veterinaiy Science. youngster. The stride looks Then things changed. "The great, surely money in the bank science got good," he said. for the consignor. But Seder tant than the good points. "It's management buyout. In 2002, "Patti Miller was another turn- then plays the output of his more important to know where he became chief executive of ing point. She got interested high-speed camera, and the the hole was rather than what bankrupt Boston Stores and in the technology, and we sup- youngster's near foreleg slaps was terrific," he said. was instrumental in turning ported her." at the ground, causing the knee around the California-based Miller recalls with a laugh to arc inward. "This horse will PURSUIT OF retail chain. He also serves as some of the early technology. never stay sound," he said. The UNKNOWABLE an investment adviser. She ias sent out to gallop a horse sold for big money, but Why race horses? For The business successes horse with a bulky telemetric EQB was not in the bidding. Miller, EQB's vice-president, allowed Seder to sink every backpack, complete with an The Green Monkey, who the answer is relatively straight- available dollar into EQB, antenna, to measure heart rate sold for a world-record $16 mil- forward, but less so with Seder. which hired well-known scien- and other data. When a horse lion at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton He always loved animals and tists from prestigious univer- once dumped her, she was not Calder sale of selected 2-year- speed; he once held a motor- sities, such as George Pratt, certain whether the science olds in training, was another cycle racing license, and his Ph.D., of the Massachusetts folks who rushed over to her example, Seder said. "He had Porsche sits in the driveway of Institute of Technology, to were more interested in her a beautiful gallop, but he was EQB's West Grove office. But conduct scientific research well-being or the condition of -using too much energy, and it the intellectual challenge also for the company. EQB also the data pack. wasn't a racing gait." developed computer systems was a part of the calculus that Another important break- Stride length has been mea- to massage the mountains of led to EQB. through occurred when major sured for a century or more, but Seder is driven to know the data, and it pioneered a device clients such as Strawbridge a long stride does not always unknowable, to fathom the to measure bone density. The and Zayat came to trust EQB's translate into high speed. amodal-ultrasound instrument approach and allowed the com- unfathomable, to comprehend "Stride length is important had little acceptance in the pany to apply its principles to a being with so many complexi- if you know at what veloc- horse industry, but EQB part- the sales arena. ties and understand what makes ity the horse is running. You it tick. His efforts also were nered with Johnson & Johnson The science improved in and other companies to apply it have to know precisely," Seder guided by a rigorous—some large part because it concen- said. "Some horses race exactly would say compulsive—adher- to human medicine for evaluat- trated on the current keystones ing and treating osteoporosis. like . But they are ence to the scientific method, of EQB's analysis, stride length not going as fast as Secretariat. an orderly search for revealed The company developed the and heart size. For all of its first accurate heart rate monitor If it has the same velocity as truth through experimentation, expenditures on the latest tech- Secretariat, I may be interested. data-gathering and observa- for horses, which showed that nologies, the principal piece of their heart rates could top 200 You always have to be in con- tion. equipment for its stride analysis text." Any search for order from beats per minute at full exer- was bought off the shelf. Of Heart size is the variable chaos is bound to run into brick tion. It also looked at a bunch course, only Seder knew where walls at every turn, and EQB of other factors, including nos- to find the shelf. that Miller has measured over and over again. As with stride certainly endured its setbacks. tril size, and found few that The instrument is a high- length, the context is impor- To support the pursuit of the meant much to performance. speed camera, and it is widely tant. impossible dream, Seder always "Things that were important used in the textile industry to worked at least two jobs, begin- in humans weren't important in capture the actions of needles "Some people think a big ning with the two-year stint horses," Seder said. piercing cloth thousands of heart is a big heart," she said. with AASP. His M.B.A. and law But good science, if indeed times per minute. Craftex was "But it's relative to the size of degree lent themselves to cor- it was good science, certainly in that business, and Seder the horse." porate turnarounds, first with was not good business. "The made some minor adaptations This heart-size metric also Craftex Mills Inc., where he first 20 years were a mess," to convert the camera for use was one where the science was chief executive from 1984 Seder said. "In the early days at 2-year-olds in training sales improved as more and more until he cashed out in 2000 in a it didn't go very well, probably or on farms. measurements—in excess of

16 MID-ATLANTIC THOROUGHBRED AUGUST 2010 30,000 and counting—were taken. "The noise starts to come out of the data," Miller said. "If you know nothing else about a horse, heart size is the one variable I'd pick," Seder said, but again the great heart has to be considered in context. "If it has crooked legs and a big heart, so what?" Also, a head case or a lackadaisical horse will not live up to the promise of his heart size.

EARLY SUCCESS Seder identifies Informed Decision as the breakthrough horse for EQB, but in fact the ow- company began having success in identifying top horses in the mid-1990s. Its public shortlists of sales prospects included Derby-Gi winners Thunder (1995), Silver Charm ('97), ('00), ('01) and ('03). Of course, EQB purchased none of those classic win- ners, but it was becoming a player at the top level, starting with Madcap Escapade. For client Bruce Luns ford, EQB selected Madcap Escapade out of the 2002 September Yearling sale, where agent/trainer Frank Brothers signed the $160,000 sales ticket. The Hennessy filly won the 2004 Ashland Stakes-Gi and retired with career earnings of $1,052,852. In 2006, she was sold for $6 million at the Keenelancl November sale. EQB also picked out Bow- man's Band, a $260,000 pur- chase at the 2000 Keeneland April sale of 2-year-olds in training who earned $1.3 mil- Trio of champions belonging to George Strawbridge: Ranking homebred Rainbow View (center) are lion for Martin Schwartz and Informed Decision and Forever Together, auction buys purchased upon the recommendation of EQB. launched a promising stud career before his premature death at age 10. Relaunch gelding who won five bor was Forever Together, a I was going to like her," she EQB rightly can be Grade 1 races and $2,660,543. Belong to Me filly who sold for said. "But her cardiac was spec- described as the company that Seder and Miller both $240,000 at the Ocala Breeders' tacular." got George Strawbridge into describe Strawbridge as the Sales Co.'s 2006 sale of selected A three-time Grade 1 the sales arena. Previously, most ideal client. After initially 2-year-olds in training, winner in 2008, including of Strawbridge's runners had spending several days at their Miller conducts most of the Breeders' Cup Filly and been homebreds, largely out of offices to learn about their EQB's pre-sale inspections, Mare Turf, Forever Together mares he bred or bought as rac- technology and philosophy, he and she was not impressed was voted an Eclipse Award ing and breeding prospects. now gives them a budget and with Forever Together at first as champion turf female that EQB had advised the Augustin tells them to find the best horse glance. year. Trained by Racing Hall Stable owner on the career of in the sale. Their first home run "She was a smaller filly of Fame member Jonathan With Anticipation, a homebred for their Chester County neigh- when I saw her. I didn't think Sheppard, she returned in 2009

MID-ATLANTIC THOROUGHBRED AUGUST 2010 17 -G2 its current office five years ago; by eight and a half lengths and Miller and her constant canine widened to a nine and three- companion, Sallie, live in the quarter-length victory in the classic Chester County stone -GI at farmhouse. Seder, who shares Aqueduct. A soft-tissue injury the office with an affection- ended his racing career shortly ate foundling pit bull named before the , Herbie, resides two miles away and he will stand at stud in on his 150-acre Houyhnhnm 2011. Farm, named for the perfectly Patti Miller was struck by the reasonable horses in Jonathan athlete lurking under a bit too Swift's Gulliver's Travels. much flesh when she first saw But Seder has no illusions Eskendereya, who ultimately that he and Miller have arrived was named for Zayat's home- at a perfectly reasonable under- town, known in the English- standing of the horse, even speaking world as Alexandria. though their harmonizing skills "He was turned out by him- now have yielded two champi- "He didn't look like a champion, but he had a champion's heart," Seder self, and he caught my eye," she ons and a few near-champions. said of Eskendereya, shown winning the Grade 1 Wood Memorial Stakes. said. "He was a leggy, immature The search for the unknowable colt when we looked at him." is a lifelong journey and ulti- to win the -Gi "That one brought it all His looks may have turned mately is destined to fall short for a second time and remains together," Seder said. off some buyers at the 2008 of its goal. active this year at the highest is a very dif- Keeneland September Yearling "We try to improve the odds level with a second-place fin- ferent type of client for EQB. sale, but Seder was hoping that for our clients," Seder said. "No ish in the -GI Unlike Strawbridge, he is heav- no one with a fat wallet was one system is going to pick out at Hollywood Park on May 29. ily involved in the selection intersted in him. every top horse." She has nearly $2.9 million in process and signs his own sales "His heart was off the scale. Also confounding the search earnings. tickets. We hoped he wouldn't go for for certainty is the very nature Forever Together excels "I have to watch what I a million dollars," he said. of the champion race horse. at longer distances, while say around him," Seder said. "He didn't look like a cham- "A great horse is rarely pre- Informed Decision is pure "He's a very smart guy, and pion, but he had a champion's dictable. There's something off speed. Miller joked that Shep- he remembers everything that heart." Zayat bought him for the scale about them," he said. pard asked her not to send him you say. He understood what $250,000. "You're going to miss a lot of any more horses that are quite we were doing, and we did it After the lean years, EQB great horses because they are so fast. together." has hit its stride. It moved into off the scale." 0 "I never had a trainer com- Of the purchases for Zayat, plain about that before," she 21.5 percent have become said. stakes winners and 5.9 percent Informed Decision's work- are graded stakes winners, far BIDDING FOR MARYLAND out before the 2007 Fasig-Tip- above the respective industry ton Midlantic sale of 2-year- norms of 3.1 percent for stakes RACE TRACKS olds in training was not espe- winners and 0.6 percent for cially fast, "but the gait analysis graded winners. Seder said the QB Inc.'s Jeffrey Seder Inc., although Stronach still nabbed her anyway," Seder said. percentage of Zayat's graded savors a challenge, will be making many of the "I had trained myself to watch winners that passed all of Eand he went looking decisions. horses' workouts, and it was EQB's tests was much higher, for a huge one when he bid "I had raised the money," perfect. Patti said, We have to above 20 percent. With horses late last year to purchase the Seder said. 'We didn't get a have this horse." It would not such as Zensational and Z Maryland Club race shot." be easy. The EQB team had to Humor earning in the high six tracks through his Blow Horn Seder had assembled a ask Strawbridge to increase his figures, the Egyptian-born New Equity LLC. team to manage the money- budget and then went over that Jersey businessman became The bid was for naught losing operation, and he felt amount before getting her for one of the sport's leading own- when Frank Stronach-con- that his legal and business $320,000. ers within a few years. trolled Magna Entertainment backgrounds would have been It was a lot of money, but Zensational was a sensation- Corp. transferred Laurel well suited to turning around well worth it. To date, Informed al sprinter last year, when the Park, Pimlico Race Course Maryland racing. Decision has earned $1,892,759. 3-year-old won three consecu- and the Bowie training cen- "I've spent a lot of time Her 2009 campaign included tive Grade 1 races against older ter to Stronach-controlled studying the management of three Grade 1 victories, culmi- competitors, but Eskendereya MI Developments Inc. in race tracks," he said, "and nating with a victory in the looked to be headed toward March as part of Magna I've benchmarked successful Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare classic glory. Entertainment's Chapter 11 race tracks." He also would Sprint at Santa Anita Park. In After a disappointing effort bankruptcy proceedings. MT have added a healthy dose of January, Strawbridge collected in the 2009 Breeders' Cup Developments subsequently technology to the Maryland his second Eclipse Award in Juvenile-GI, the Giant's Cause- reached an operational agree- operation, he said. two years after the Monarchos way colt matured over the win- ment with Pennsylvania- /Don C4pinger filly was voted champion female ter into a dominant Grade I based Penn National Gaming sprinter. winner. He blew away the

18 MID-ATLANTIC THOROUGHBRED AUGUST 2010