Coming Out Of The Shadows - Lambeth Media

Coming Out Of
The Shadows
The outstanding pacing filly Western Silk has put the
spotlight on her breeders, KERRY FEUKER-WEED and
KENNY WEED who operate Shadowbrook Farm in
New Jersey. By Nicole Kraft • Photos by Vicki Wright
It took just a few afternoons helping
some New Jersey friends ready their Standardbreds
for a sale to sell Kerry Feuker-
Weed on the breed that would change her
life.
Feuker-Weed, an Atlantic City native
who at the time professionally showed and
bred Arabians, brought her ring experience
to Royal Casino Farm in the early
1980s, to assist clipping and pulling yearling
manes. So enamoured was she with
the little bay pacers and trotters that she
sought one for her own and bought the
Good Time broodmare Golden Goodness.
One mare led to one foal, which soon
led to more mares and more foals, and
before racing knew it, Shadowbrook Farm
was born. And the farm, operated by
Feuker-Weed and her husband, Kenny
Weed, reached its pinnacle in 2010 when
their graduate Western Silk won the
Jugette, Fan Hanover and Ontario Sires
Stakes Super Final.
“It is truly amazing,” Feuker-Weed
said. “It’s what most people only dream
about and a lot of people never get to see
or experience.”
Feuker-Weed admitted most of her
Arabian friends thought she had lost her
mind when she started investing in Standardbreds,
but she admired the temperament
of the bred, and the price to invest
was far more reasonable. Still, she may have
stayed a hobby breeder if not for the blind
date that introduced her to Kenny Weed.
Weed, a casino shop steward who fixes
kitchen equipment, was far from an equestrian,
but a pair of horse-head bookends
from his equine-loving mother led a mutual
friend to set him up on a date with Feuker.
It was quite the match.
By 1993, they were married, and the
next year Weed had come to admire his
wife’s horses enough to make a life-altering
proclamation: “Let’s get a farm to
breed Standardbreds.”
“He had gone to some sales with me,
and he liked it,” Feuker-Weed explained.
“He liked the horses and felt like it was
something he could be involved in. He

COMING OUT OF THE SHADOWS
couldn’t show horses, but he could breed
them.”
Feuker-Weed reflected with a laugh
that saying, “yes” to her husband’s idea
“created a monster,” for Kenny Weed was
immediately devoted to his new pursuit.
Their first venture to the New Jersey
Mixed Sale brought home the seven-yearold
Niatross mare Dania Lobell, as well as
Beckilyn Hanover, a 22-year-old daughter
of Columbia George.
Later that year from the Standardbred
Horse Sale Company’s Harrisburg
mixed sale they purchased the Harold J
mare Happy Trick, who was 19 years old,
but had already produced $673,000 winner
Righteous Bucks.
“We didn’t have much to spend, so
we would buy older mares, the ones other
farms were letting go, but were still doing
well,” she said.
They then worked out an agreement
with Taylor Palmer to have his Boxwood
Farms serve as sale consignor for their
yearlings.
“They seemed to be nice people and
were interested in the business,” Palmer
said. “We are always looking for clients
that will sell yearlings and mixed horses
with us, and they seemed to be people we
January 2011 • The Harness Edge
Shadowbrook Farm's most successful graduate to date was last year's outstanding
three-year-old pacing filly Western Silk who took in more than a million dollars
from just 15 starts. Her wins included the Fan Hanover, Ontario Sires Stakes
Super Final and the Jugette which may be viewed by clicking here.
wanted to do business with. They were
very straightforward and honest. It’s
worked out very well for both of us.”
“Well” for the couple meant their
mares were producing live foals, and
those foals were making it the races,
although few were setting records in the
sale ring or on the track. Dania Lobell produced
two fillies and colt for the couple,
led by $23,833 winner Then Came A Lady,
before she was sold in 1998.
Beckilyn Hanover produced just one
foal for the couple, $3,577 winner
Sosiouxme, while Happy Trick contributed
three foals in their four years together.
But a claim made on January 20, 2005
would change Shadowbrook forever.
The Weeds spent $12,500 at Dover
Downs to bring home the Jennas Beach
Boy mare Extemporaneous, who was out
of the BGs Bunny mare Lady Longlegs. It
was not the mare’s paternal line that
appealed to them, however, it was all
about her granddam. Lady Longlegs was a
daughter of the immortal Silk Stockings.
“Silk Stockings was such a great mare,
we knew she had to pull out a champion,”
Feuker-Weed said.
The couple opted to let Extemporaneous
race out of Owen Franklin’s barn for
the next few months, until breeding season
began. She ended up winning two of
five starts for her new connections before
being sent in April to the court of I Am A
Fool. Their ill-fated filly, born in the spring
2006, broke her neck at the age of four
months.
“We had a tree in the field that didn’t
look dangerous, but she was playing with
buddies and got her neck in the crook of
the tree,” Feuker-Weed said. “It was
awful. She was a such a sweet filly.”
Extemporaneous was, at the time,
carrying her second foal, this one from a
breeding to Canadian super sire Western
Terror, and on May 8, 2007, a bay filly with
Photo by New Image Media

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To Be Raced In 2012
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Sponsored by Harness Horse Breeders of New York State, Inc.
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All payments (US Funds) to: Harness Horse Breeders, 400 Troy-Schenectady Road, Latham, NY 12110
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COMING OUT OF THE SHADOWS
“We’ve done well. Most of our
babies make it to the races, and
they make money. We try to get
in contact with everyone who
buys our horses to help them in
whatever way we can. Not all of
them will turn out to be a
Western Silk, but that doesn’t
matter to us. We love them all.”
– Kerry Feuker-Weed
a small star was born. In honour of her sire
and granddam, she was dubbed Western
Silk.
Although her daughter was strong
and healthy, the mare’s bad fortune was
about to get worse.
A month after giving birth to her
2008 foal, the American Ideal colt Cowboy
Wisdom, Extemporaneous colicked
so violently she could not even be
sedated enough to be transported to the
hospital.
“I came out in the morning to feed,
and she was a wreck,” Feuker-Weed said.
“She was put down three or four hours
later.”
And the tragedy was only beginning
for the Weed family, who a month before
Western Silk was slated for auction suffered
through the unimaginable when
Weed’s brother, Ronald, 40, a diagnosed
schizophrenic, murdered their mother and
a niece and critically wounded the girl’s
twin.
“It’s not something we really want to
talk about,” said Feuker-Weed. “All I can
January 2011 • The Harness Edge
say is it was a tough year. That was August
and we sold her in September.”
But life and business must go on, and
the couple continued with its planned
consignment through Boxwood Farm.
Though Weed said she was surprised
when trainer Casie Coleman went to
$50,000 to take home Western Silk,
Palmer said there was much to like about
the filly.
“She was an outstanding-looking
yearling,” he said. “You didn’t have to do
much with her but lead her out of the stall,
she showed herself. She was one of those
kind that just caught your eye.”
Western Silk continued to shine once
she hit the track, winning seven of her 14
freshman starts including a trio of Ontario
Sires Stake Gold finals and a Breeders
Crown elimination, on her way to earnings
of $319,804.
She was even more dominating at
three, with 11 victories in 15 starts, including
the $666,000 Fan Hanover final, the
$300,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final
and the $240,312 Jugette. Her 2010 earn-
ings of $1,101,112 are second only to
Breeders Crown winner Put On A Show
amongst last year’s sophomore pacing fillies.
“She by far is the biggest horse we’ve
ever produced,” Feuker-Weed said. “We
are so proud of her. When you pick a stallion
and have the mare, and you get a
hold of those little legs when you are foaling
them, you still feel like a part of that
horse. We will always be a part of her.”
Though Western Silk may have
brought them a share of the racing spotlight,
the Weeds say they are comfortable
keeping their broodmare band between
seven and 10, a boutique breeding operation
committed to producing good bloodlines
with the best of care.
Among their most recent sale offerings
were the American Ideal - Here
Comes Gia colt American GI, who brought
$30,000 at the 2010 Standardbred Horse
Sale Company’s Harrisburg sale, while ontrack
success came in the form of the sophomores
Cajun Pearl p,3,1:53.2s, by Art
Major, and Speedy Angel p,3,1:57f, by

Kenny Weed didn't have a Standardbred
background when he met his wife, but that
didn't deter him from establishing a boutique
breeding operation in New Jersey and
learning all he could about the breed along
the way.
Village Jolt, as well as Western Silk’s baby brother Cowboy Wisdom
p,2,Q1:56.4.
They have also foaled and raised their share of top performers
for other owners, most notably Western Ace, a winner of
nearly $2 million.
“They do a nice job,” Palmer said. “Their yearlings come to
us ready. When Kenny first started, he did not know that much
about horses, but he has done his homework. And Kerry is a wonderful
horsewoman. They are trying to upgrade their broodmare
band all the time and pick out stallion shares when they think it's
a good productive sire. Each year they upgrade.”
The Weeds agree they continue to seek “the best mares that
we can afford to buy,” focusing exclusively on pacers. Broodmares
like the Astreos $200,000 winner Lasensa and the $250,000
winner Grinfromeartoear daughter Sweet Celebration may not
be not high-price or high-profile, but the couple hopes they will
be high producing.
“We’ve done well,” said Feuker-Weed. “Most of our babies
make it to the races, and they make money. We try to get in contact
with everyone who buys our horses to help them in whatever
way we can.
“When you have 100 broodmares, it’s hard to be on a personal
level like that with people. We don’t have that many so we
contact each purchaser to say ‘Hi,’ and keep in contact to see how
the yearling is doing.
“Not all of them will turn out to be a Western Silk, but that
doesn’t matter to us. We love them all.”
The Harness Edge • January 2011