Anthony Perretti, proprietor of Perretti Farms, the largest commercial breeding farm in New Jersey, and Seth Rosenfeld, a second generation breeder and owner were named to the Board of Directors of the Hambletonian Society at its annual meeting on August 7
.
edit1.jpg)
Perretti, 49, of Cream Ridge, New Jersey, is the son of leading breeder and owner Bill Perretti, who started Perretti farms in the early ‘80s on the site of a former potato farm. It is now the largest standardbred breeding farm in the Garden State, consisting of over 900 acres (many preserved in the state’s Green Acres program). Perretti, formerly in the movie industry, has been at the helm of the family-owned operation for seven years, and oversees the raising and selling of more than 120 yearlings annually at public auction. Their royally-bred broodmare band numbers 180, and the farm stands Matts Scooter, Rocknroll Hanover and Revenue S in New Jersey, McArdle in Pennsylvania and Red River Hanover and Touchdown Town in Indiana. Perretti Farm was recently named Standardbred Breeders of the Year by the NJ Sportswriters.
Anthony Perretti is also a trustee of the New Jersey Sire Stakes and has helped craft a beneficial structure for the program despite no funding from VLT revenue. The NJSS remains in the top three state-bred programs in the U.S.
Rosenfeld, 41, of Los Angeles, California, was born into the harness racing business, showed yearlings at age 10 and spent summer vacations working at the family-owned Lana Lobell breeding farm. He won his first Breeders Crown at age 20, with pacing filly Halcyon, who he owned his partnership with his mother, Lana. A Cornell graduate with distinguished honours in government and American studies, Rosenfeld selected, owned and managed 1990 Horse of the Year Beach Towel. He also privately syndicated and managed Beach Towel’s stallion career.
Beach Towel went on to sire Jennas Beach Boy, a three-time Breeders Crown champ and Horse of the Year, and is the broodmare sire of Somebeachsomewhere, 2008 Horse of the Year and the fastest harness horse in history.
Aside from being an active market breeder with 20 broodmares, Rosenfeld has been an avid handicapper for more than 20 years and is well versed in pari-mutuel matters in both harness and thoroughbred racing. Under his own name and stable names Uptown Stable and Birnam Wood Stable, he has bred or owned the winners of millions of dollars, including recent world recorder holder Bettor Sweet, who paced in 1:47.2 to become the fastest racing four-year-old ever.
In other business, past president Hugh A. Grant, Jr. and long-time director Paul Spears were elected directors emeriti. Grant was elected to the board in 1975 and Spears has served on the board since 1985. The Society expressed its gratitude for their decades of conscientious and devoted service.
The Hambletonian Society is a non-profit organization formed in 1924 to sponsor the race for which it was named, the Hambletonian Stake. The Society’s mission is to encourage and support the breeding of standardbred horses through the development, administration and promotion of harness racing stakes, early-closing races and other special events. These include 135 of harness racing’s most prominent races at tracks across North America.
(The Hambletonian Society)