HORSE RACING: PILOT POINT OUTFIT BREEDS A WINNING TRADITION
PILOT POINT — Leaving Memories has become quite a symbol of the longevity of Jim Helzer's quarter horse stallion operation.
It was 1991 when the colt had the fastest qualifying time for the All-American Futurity, the most prestigious of quarter horse races held each September in Ruidoso, N.M.
Helzer, who by then had owned racehorses for more than two decades, saw the performance of Leaving Memories on the track, where it earned more than $112,000, but was even more intrigued by his potential off it.
So the following year, Helzer and his wife, Marilyn, retired the colt to stud and used it to launch what eventually became JEH Stallion Station, the Pilot Point breeding facility that has since evolved into one of the most prolific quarter horse breeding operations in the country.
And at 20, Leaving Memories hasn't slowed down. The sorrel stallion is still breeding after already having produced 39 stakes winners and offspring with earnings of more than $7 million.
In 2008, JEH bred about 1,050 mares, marking the ranch's best year yet in the midst of a economically fledgling Texas horse racing industry. This year, that number has been scaled back to about 700.
“We started from ground zero. We just made it go,” Helzer said. “We just looked for quality horses and invested a lot of money.”
Helzer started his breeding operation under the name Venture Farms in 1992, then moved to an existing ranch in Frisco two years later. The Helzers opened the existing Denton County facility covering hundreds of acres in 1998.
It has since become one of the top five quarter horse breeding farms in the country, a designation measured by earnings from offspring of stallions standing at the farm.
“I've been racing horses for a long time,” said Helzer, who raced his first horse in 1963 and remains active as an owner today. “The key is in the selection of the stallions. A large percentage of them have worked out.”
The 10 stallions currently standing at the farm include seven quarter horses and two Thoroughbreds. They come from a combination of horses purchased by Helzer specifically to stand at stud and those who have had success for him on the track.
Among those in the latter category are This Snow Is Royal, who was named the country's top 2-year-old quarter horse colt in 1997; and Feature Mr Jess, who earned more than $525,000 including several stakes wins.
Feature Mr Jess went on to become the No. 2 most successful stallion in the country in 2008. His stud fee currently sits at about $15,000, which is on the high end for quarter horses.
“You've got to have the stallions. Like any other business, it's about the product,” said Andrew Gardiner, JEH general manager. “Many of our stallions are a result of his [Helzer's] success in the racing business.”
About 90 percent of yearlings bred through stallions at JEH are quarter horses, and that's primarily due to industry regulations. Quarter horses are allowed to be bred for racing through artificial insemination, meaning frozen semen can be shipped for breeding at various locations. Thoroughbreds, however, must be bred live.
“Genetics are genetics,” Gardiner said. “There's no difference in the quality of the resulting foal.”
The top stallion at JEH in 2009 has been Tres Seis, a horse that was bred at JEH and went on to have a successful career on the track before being retired.
Quarter horses typically are retired sooner than Thoroughbreds because of the purse structure in quarter horse racing. Many have maxed out their earning potential by the end of their 3-year-old season, when they are no longer eligible for the lucrative futurities and derbies.
Top quarter horse stallions usually produce more than 100 offspring each year.
“On the quarter horse side, there's really no home for him as a stallion if he hasn't had any success on the racetrack,” Gardiner said.
While certain stallions have a deeper pedigree and greater potential, breeding remains a game of calculated risk. In other words, each conception is a roll of the dice, and many yearlings never pan out. Only a small percentage ever turn into quality racehorses.
“Their earnings and pedigree will get them to the dance, but a stallion's worth is solely dependent on their offspring's success,” Gardiner said. “I think you have to stay with a certain level of quality to be successful, but you can't buy your way into the winner's circle.”
JEH has an eight-stall stallion barn, a 40-stall breeding barn and a four-stall foal-out barn on its massive Pilot Point campus, in addition to 145 paddock spaces and 350 spaces to house mares.
The mares typically will begin arriving in late December, with breeding season occurring from about Feb. 1-July 1 each year.
In the meantime, the staff tends to the stallions, exercising them daily to help improve fertility when the time comes. Some horses have special needs either physically or psychologically.
Racehorses usually take to the track for the first time as 2-year-olds, and Gardiner said he tracks many of the offspring produced by the stallions at JEH to see how they perform. He said that in addition to being lucrative, such success also has a personal level of satisfaction.
“That's a huge sense of accomplishment,” Gardiner said.
JEH has had enough success through the years to expand its operations. The company opened a location on a revitalized ranch in New Mexico in 2003, and started another site in Wynnewood, Okla., in 2006. The Helzers also launched Eclipse Sales Co. in 2005, which conducts an annual yearling sale at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie.
“You have to be a horse lover,” said Helzer, who currently is president of the American Quarter Horse Association. “I had no idea that we would be able to do as well as we have in 17 years.”
Helzer, 69, remains busy in the racing world, owning various active quarter horses and Thoroughbreds that race at some of the top tracks in the country. One of his quarter horses, Vrrroom, will be among the favorites in the $350,000 Texas Classic Derby on Saturday night at Lone Star Park.
Helzer estimates he owns about 100 racehorses, with about a third of those currently in training. He said that after owning horses for almost 50 years, that part of the racing world never gets old.
“I used to think that winning a $10,000 race was a big deal. Now I'm trying to win million-dollar races,” he said. “I've still got a lot of goals and ambitions.”
Meanwhile, Helzer has remained an advocate for the struggling breeding and racing programs in Texas, which have been hurt because surrounding states have breeder incentive programs and casino gaming at racetracks which bring in extra revenue to help boost purse money for racing.
Texas has neither, which has put both the racing and the breeding sides of the sport in jeopardy. The issue has turned Helzer and other Texas horsemen into lobbyists for the Texas legislature to amend the rules, which would allow Texas to keep up with states such as New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Helzer has seen the biggest decline among Thoroughbred yearlings, which have dropped about 50 percent at his ranch in the past five years. He used to stand four or five Thoroughbred stallions in Texas, whereas now he has only two.
In the meantime, JEH has tried various ways to keep up. It has reduced stud fees, cut shipping costs for frozen semen, and promoted the quality of its stallions as a way of offsetting incentives breeders have for sending their mares elsewhere.
“It's really made the commercial breeding industry in Texas very, very difficult,” Helzer said. “Unless Texas does something, we will be forced to relocate within the next few years. I do believe that.”
