EQB's Jeff Seder and Patti Miller Hit Their Stride with Two Champions and a Top 3-Year-Old. by Don Clippinger
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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 Thoroughbred 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 Eskendereya, "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 Thoroughbreds, 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 horse racing 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.