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About Us
Who We Are
Biography:
Frank Zureick
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Frank
with the late Hall of Fame trainer,
Scotty Schulhofer |
Frank admits that his first word was probably
“horse”, even though he had not grown up with family
in the horse business. His father was Publicity
Director for the Cincinnati Reds professional
baseball club and so Frank’s baby pictures were of
him being held by the likes of famous ballplayers
such as Frank Robinson and Stan Musial. Still, Frank
was not impressed with baseball---it was horseback
riding lessons that he begged for. He asked for and
got a subscription to Thoroughbred Times as a 5th
grader.
He
bought his first horse at 15 years with money earned
from mowing lawns. Frank was not handed over a pony
by his parents. Instead, he had to figure out a way
to get one on his own initiative. His interest in
horses was not nurtured by environmental influences
and was not inherited. Instead, his devotion to
horses was innate, self-made, and self-determined.
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Show hunter
championship |
Over the next few years, Frank progressed from
showing Quarter Horses, Hunter-Jumpers, and Arabians
to working as a riding instructor. Although his
heart had always been in Thoroughbred racing, he did
not have an opportunity to get directly involved
until later on. In the meantime, he studied
pedigrees and breeding records, and honed his
horsemanship skills.
In
1978, the late Sally Sexton, American Horse Shows
Association Hall of Fame horsewoman, arrived in
Cincinnati to give a weekend riding clinic at the
stable where Frank taught. Before she departed, she
had offered Frank a job. So, he packed up and moved
to Virginia to work with her Major A show barn,
where he broke yearlings and did the early schooling
of show hunter prospects.
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Frank
showing hunters when he first came to
Virginia |
He
also got involved in fox hunting. His wife likes to
say that his claim to fame is that he saved Jackie
O’ from falling off her horse! Mrs. Onassis had
just jumped a big coup with Orange County Hunt and
had lost a stirrup; she was tilting to the off
(right) side. Frank was able to gallop up beside her
on the near (left) side, grab the back of her Melton
hunt coat, and pull her upright. “I thought it might
help me impress Caroline (Jackie and JFK’s
daughter), but she married someone else anyway!”
Frank jokes.
Frank had a brief stint as a jockey; he rode his own
horse in a point-to-point race, won the race, and
then promptly retired undefeated.
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Lifetime
record 1 for 1! Winning his only start
as a jockey, Frank aboard "AsBadAsCanBe"
at the Orange county Point to Point
Races |
Winning
point to point jockey, Frank Zureick |
He
also had his hand in breeding and showing English
Springer Spaniels,
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Frank showing English
Springer Spaniels |
Judging English
Springer Spaniels |
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Frank owned/showed
English Springer Spaniel sire of the
year (1987), Ch. Northminster’s Czar of
Croydon aka “Cagney” |
and
showed a little for fun at local Virginia horse
shows.
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Warm up
before the Gentleman's Hack at the
Upperville Horse Show |
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Frank showing
at Upperville |
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Frank showing Devil’s
Craft in the Thoroughbred Yearling Colts
class at the Upperville Horse Show (2nd
place) |
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Belmont
Stakes winner Colonial Affair |
In
1986, Frank started breaking yearlings for
Centennial Farm in Middleburg, Virginia. He was
there for
10 years and had the opportunity to break Colonial
Affair, Go
For Gin, Ordway, and Signal Tap among many others.
During this time, he also sought about finding well
bred, but inexpensive broodmares. From his first
mare purchased at auction for
$7,000, he bred a Group III winner (Stone Gold). He
then grabbed on to a tall, rangy, crooked, and
unattractive filly by Pleasant Colony who was being
culled from a nice Virginia breeding farm. He got
her for $1,500. She eventually became his first
graded-stakes producing broodmare (producing G1 millionairess, Urbane). Frank
went on to be breeder of G2 winner, Major Success,
from his second mare purchased at auction (for
$25,000).
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Frank with G2
winner Signal Tap |
Frank left his Assistant Trainer position at
Centennial to start his own breaking/training
business in 1998, while continuing to pursue
breeding top performers. He currently trains for
flat and steeplechase racing at the Middleburg
Training Center, and maintains Thoroughbred breeding
stock at Dog Branch Farm in Virginia and Hartwell
Farm in Kentucky.
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Champagne
winner Ordway stood at Claiborne
after
retirement |
The true
love of Frank's life, Urbane, multiple
graded-stakes winner bred by Frank |
Biography:
Candace Lundin, DVM, MS
Like Frank, Candace grew up in a family
unconnected with horses and, yet, horses were
her passion from the earliest she can remember.
Her parents always assumed that she would “grow
out of it”. Unfortunately for Candace, she did
“grow”---she grew too tall to be a jockey! At
just 12 years old, she was already 5’7”, but she
still hiked up the stirrups on her pinto
Shetland Pony, leaned over its withers, and
pretended to race.
As soon as Candace admitted to herself as a
young teenager that the dream of being a jockey
was not realistic, she decided that she would
become a veterinarian to care for horses. She
was born and raised in Manhattan, Kansas, a
college town with a veterinary school. So, her
educational path was planned out in her mind
long before she ever entered high school.
During this time, Kansas State University (KSU)
built the largest state-of-the-art veterinary
teaching hospital in the country (for that
time).
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Dr.
Candace Lundin (1986) |
After graduating in 1985 with a Doctor of
Veterinary Medicine degree, Candace (now Dr.
Lundin) was asked by the Head of the Equine
Department to stay on and become the veterinary
hospital’s first-ever equine intern. Though KSU
is not an “Ivy League school”, KSU veterinary
school graduates of that year had the highest
mean score on the National Veterinary Board
Examination of any College of Veterinary
Medicine in the country.
Candace continued another year at KSU to obtain
a Master of Science Degree, with research in
equine exercise physiology (sports medicine for
horses). At that time, KSU was 1 of only 3
locations in the USA with a high-speed treadmill
for horses (Washington State and Tufts
University were the others) and Candace wanted
to exploit that opportunity. Her thesis research
involved analyses of performance indices in
racing Quarter Horses on the treadmill and the
track.
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Candace (background) supervising
equine physiology research on one of
the first high speed treadmills in
the US (1986) |
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Equine sports medicine |
In 1987, Candace left Kansas and headed to
Virginia to spend 2 years specializing in equine
surgery at the Marion DuPont Scott Equine
Medical Center. She examined and treated many
different cases while at Morven Park, including
one elephant! She met “famous” and nonfamous
people but was most surprised one night while on
emergency duty by Col. Oliver North, arriving
with his daughter’s colicky pony! It was in
Virginia where Candace bought her first horse
for racing—steeplechase racing. She finally got
to gallop a race horse!
Over the next 8 years, Candace moved from
Baltimore (where she was in a private equine
practice) to the suburbs of Chicago where she
was a medical editor at the American Veterinary
Medical Association (AVMA, the national
membership organization for veterinarians) to
New York City (where she managed global
scientific communication plans for Pfizer’s
Animal Health Division) ----all the while
maintaining contacts and horses in Virginia.
She “commuted” back to the horse country of
Virginia several times monthly.
While at the AVMA, Candace assisted in getting
Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams (VMATs)
formed and participating as part of The Federal
Response Plan activated as part of the National
Disaster Medical System (NDMS) during times of
disaster declarations. Candace was Coordinator
of Emergency Preparedness for the AVMA when
Hurricane Marilyn hit St. Thomas. At 10am on a
Monday morning, a call came in from Colonel
Rebuck of NDMS, Dept of Health and Human
Services to Candace: “Dr. Lundin, we have a
mission assignment” is what he said, Candace
swears!
Though Candace’s career path has continued to
move further into pharmaceutical research and
medical publishing, she keeps a continual hand
in the horse racing and breeding business,
consulting on lamenesses and other veterinary
medical problems, advising on
fitness/conditioning issues, and evaluating
conformation of potential purchases at auction.
Candace and Frank met on a blind date at the
Traver’s Ball in Saratoga Springs in 1991. How
ironic that two Midwesterners, without “horsey
pedigrees,” without family traditions of horse
racing , both stubbornly pursued their interest
in horses, only to meet at one of the most
revered and historic locations in all of
racing—Saratoga. Candace and Frank were married
in 1997.
Philosophy
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Too often, young race horses are sent out to
gallop around a track without ever having
learned the basics of balance and going in a
proper frame while carrying the weight of a
rider on their back. Under Frank’s tutelage,
horses learn to use themselves properly
during the early breaking stages so that a
trainer is not trying to correct a
long-standing problem further down the road.
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If you like high veterinary bills because
you think that the answer to winning is in
overmedication, our training/racing program
is not for you. Marketing gimmicks are
rampant in the equine industry and trainers
can easily fall prey to them (at the expense
of the owners’
pocketbook).
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Overmedication and marketing gimmicks |
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As a veterinarian with post-graduate
training in equine surgery and equine
exercise
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Why not just use a blow torch on
those shins? |
physiology, and experienced in critically
analyzing scientific data, Candace provides
consultation to Frank (at no charge!) in
terms of the newest (and proven) treatment
modalities.
She can easily sort through and discard the
“research” that has been performed by
marketing teams, as opposed to those with
legitimate medical study results. Fads come
and go in the “treatment” of horses, and
Candace helps Frank and his clients
recognize these. At the same time that
tradition plays such an elegant role in the
sport of horse racing, tradition in
“treating” certain conditions slows the
industry from moving into the modern age of
equine sports medicine.
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Let’s be honest. Making money in horse
racing can be a challenge. Most horses are
not profitable. Racing syndicates with
marketing staff will rarely, if ever, admit
that to the potential clients they are
trying to lure in. Sure, the financial
rewards can be tremendous if you are lucky
enough to be one of the few who end up with
a champion. Most of us though, will not. It
doesn’t mean that we won’t keep trying. In
the meantime, we can have a great time
cheering on our horses while hoping and
dreaming of that BIG ONE someday.
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Horse racing is a sport. However, most of us
also have to treat it as a business because
we are not independently wealthy. It is
sport for kings, but a sport AND business
for the rest of us. Frank appreciates the
costs that owners must bear (because he is
one them) and he will be careful with your
money. He will not encourage you to continue
with an unsound horse in training simply to
keep a stall filled.
Our Farm
Dog Branch Farm, near the tiny
community of Unison, Virginia, is home to Frank,
Candace, 4 dogs (plus puppies periodically), 5
cats, and 12-15 horses, including broodmares and
foals, yearlings for sales prepping, and layups.
The farm is less than 10 minutes driving time
from the Middleburg Training Center.
Recommendations
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A thank
you from an appreciative owner |
“Frank’s racing stable and his nearby farm are
like athletic facilities for a fine prep school,
of which Frank is the principal. Year after
year, Country Life Farm and our clients have
sent young horses to Frank. He is a complete
horseman.”
Josh Pons, Owner, Country Life Farm, Maryland
“I have always been unreservedly happy with the
personal care Frank has devoted to each
individual, and the vital, frank (no pun
intended) communication between trainer and
owner. Frank puts the owner’s interests first.”
Anthony Warrender, horse owner, Virginia
“I've known Frank for 12 years. I consider him
the consummate horseman, demonstrating expertise
in all aspects of thoroughbred management---from
newborns to retirees, from horsemanship to
bloodstock analysis. He possesses a wealth of
pedigree knowledge, is an astute advisor
relative to buying and selling, and is blessed
with a particularly keen eye for conformation
and gait. Most of all, this is a man of
integrity. I have been involved in the
thoroughbred business for over 45 years--as an
owner, breeder, and advisor. Never have I met
another with whom I felt such confidence. For
many years Frank has been my first choice, for
my clients' horses and my own. Horses in Frank’s
care thrive physically and mentally. I have
given Frank my best, and they have bloomed under
his care.”
Dr. Robert Fishman, owner, breeder, bloodstock
advisor, Pennsylvania |
