TERF Awards BCCA $10K For Educational Purposes

The Thoroughbred Education and Research Fund (TERF) is awarding the Belmont Child Care Association (BCCA) $10,000 to be used for educational purposes.

The mission of the BCCA is to 'provide a safe, supporting and adcademically inspiring environment' for the children of parents working in the backstretch areas of Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga Race Course.

TERF has awarded funds to the BCCA over the last four years which were used to fund their early childhood education program. The BCCA early childhood education program encompasses a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math)-based curriculum to prepare students for elementary school while promoting physical, emotional, social and cognitive growth.

TERF was founded by the late Herb and Ellen Moelis.

The post TERF Awards BCCA $10K For Educational Purposes appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Cory Moelis Joins TERF Board

Cory Moelis has joined the board of trustees of the Thoroughbred Education and Research Foundation. Moelis is the grandson of the group's late founder, Herb Moelis.

“Cory is an outstanding addition to the board and we look forward to working alongside him to further the goals of TERF,”  said Dr. James Orsini, DVM, co-chair of TERF.

Orsini's co-chair, Dr. Kathleen Anderson, DVM, added, “We are pleased to welcome Cory to the TERF Board of Trustees. Cory continues in the footsteps of his grandparents, Herb and Ellen, TERF's founders. The trustees are confident Cory will be a key part of the board in their work to further the mission of TERF.”

Moelis, who is general partner at Ground Up Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on early-stage investing, currently races horses based in Kentucky and New York, where he now resides.

The post Cory Moelis Joins TERF Board appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

A Tribute to Herb Moelis: Hooray for Hollywood

In the early 1980s your correspondent had the great fortune of having been a guest lecturer at a series of background seminars developed and hosted by Bradley Telias at the sometimes too precious New School in New York City's West Village. There were basically a couple of dozen people at each two-hour meeting, mostly people either wanting to get into Thoroughbred racing and breeding, or some who were already in the game but were eager to expand their knowledge.

The first year's class included Vivien G. Malloy, who became a close friend and client and went on to become New York's Breeder of the Year twice. She is still quite active at age 90 and has been Secretary/Treasurer of New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc., for many years.

The second year's class was attended by two members of a newly formed racing partnership who met in that endeavor and were ready to go on their own–after they would take their wedding vows. They were successful CPA and entrepreneur Herbert Moelis and real estate executive Ellen Avenna–a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn and a strikingly lovely and elegant Italian lady from Queens. Welcome to New York!

Somehow the three of us managed to stay in touch and a few months later Herb and Ellen were seated behind me at a seminar sponsored by the American Horse Council in Washington, D.C., an event at which I'd been invited to address the topic of investing in limited partnerships and over-the-counter Thoroughbred racing and breeding endeavors. After a presentation in which I noted my deep skepticism about investing in public stocks unless they were very tightly drawn, I returned to my seat and Herb had this big grin on his face.

“That will shake a few people up, good luck!”

The editor of an industry magazine loved it, and asked permission to published it–after which I was fired as public relations consultant to a small Wall Street firm that was planning to issue stock in one of those new over-the-counter type companies.

Obviously, Herb had a point.

Many people in the industry soon came to know that when Herb Moelis spoke the truth, which was always, he was right. He and Ellen were in the process of developing their Candy Land Farm in Delaware and along the way they asked for my advice on their breeding plans. One of my recommendations was noted in the Oct. 11 edition of TDN is T.D. Thornton's strikingly perfect notice of Herb's passing last weekend in which Candy Land's longtime manager Mike Palmer gave a wonderfully detailed and accurate overall picture of Herb.

That was the recommendation that they claim a filly from the family of La Troienne for $20,000. When it came time to purchase a season for her to be bred in Herb and Ellen told me they wanted to go commercial and hoped to find a stallion that would get the foal into the 1993 Saratoga Yearling Sale.

“I'm looking to spend $50,000 on a stud fee,” he said to me, “which one do you recommend?”

I lifted my jaw off the ground and told him that at the most a foal might bring $125,000 at Saratoga and that he should look at a new “sleeper” stallion for a lot less money.

In the end they took my recommendation of Houston, a son of Seattle Slew who entered stud at $5,000–and the resulting foal topped the Saratoga sale in 1993 at $335,000. Herb and Ellen commissioned Anthony Alonso to paint the scene in the pavilion when the colt was hammered down with Herb and Ellen clearly visible at the left and surprise, yours truly clearly visible in the center. As a “thank you,” they had Anthony send me a copy, which has a pride of place in our apartment gallery.

By that time Herby and Ellen had formed Thoroughbred Charities of America in 1990, the history of which was nicely reported in T.D. Thornton's article but for these purposes needs more detail (go to https://www.tca.org/about/ and scroll down to History). By that time my wife and I had been invited to spend a weekend a year at Candy Land, and we were there when the first auction was held in 1990.

When they decided to move the event to a heated tent venue on the farm each January, I was stunned and honored when Herb and Ellen asked me to be the Master of Ceremonies, an honor I enjoyed for at least a dozen years.

Along the way I called him one day to discuss the upcoming party and he was in a hurry to get to the airport. I asked him where he was going, and he said California. I was surprised because he'd never mentioned such a trip before, so I pursued.

“Where in California?”

“Beverly Hills.”

“Really? Why?”

“My son is a financial guru and lives there.:

Because he knew by then how my brain worked, he just laughed when I said:

“Alright, you are now officially Hollywood Herb.:

Subsequently whenever we ran across each other at sales or other events, all I had to say was “Hello, Hollywood!” and he and Ellen would just beam.

Thus, with apologies to composer Richard A. Whiting who wrote the song for the 1937 movie Hollywood Hotel, I think anyone who's life was touched by Herb Moelis would gladly join in for a chorus of  his wildly popular and widely used song, “Hooray for Hollywood.”

The post A Tribute to Herb Moelis: Hooray for Hollywood appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Herb Moelis of Delaware’s CandyLand Farm Dies at 91

Funeral services were held Sunday for Herb Moelis, who bred, raced and sold horses for parts of five decades at the CandyLand Farm he founded in Middletown, Delaware. He was 91 and had recently suffered a bout of pneumonia as a complication from a years-long battle against Parkinson's disease.

Known for his passion for the sport, an even-keeled nature, and quiet, steadfast generosity, Moelis helped to create the Thoroughbred Charities of America (TCA), which since 1990 has distributed over $26 million to over 200 approved organizations.

Mike Palmer, who over the course of 30 years worked his way up from farm worker to CandyLand's general manager to being Moelis's business partner in various bloodstock endeavors, confirmed the details of his Oct. 6 passing in a Monday phone interview, noting that Moelis died “extremely peacefully” at his home on the farm property.

“He was a friend and a mentor. I'd call him my 'employer,' but what I did for Mr. Moelis wasn't work,” Palmer said. “It was what we both loved to do. In fact, he probably wouldn't want me to be calling him 'Mr. Moelis.' He always wanted me to call him Herb. He never thought he was better than anybody else. He was just a man's man. A true, true gentleman is what he was.

“He'd walk up to the barn with his dogs, a half mile every single day for 30 years, just to check in,” Palmer said. “And he and I would chat. Mostly the horses, matings, work that needed to be done. But a lot of times, we would just talk about life, for hours at a time. He was one of those guys whose horse could win by 17 lengths or lose by 17 lengths and he would have the same emotion. He was just very low key, and nothing excited him.”

Originally from New York, Herbert Irwin Moelis graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1953, then earned a law degree and graduate degree in taxation from New York University Law School in 1956. According to his TCA biography, Moelis established a career as a certified public accountant and tax attorney for 30 years, retiring from practice and relocating to Delaware in 1986.

Fulfilling a longtime horse racing dream, Moelis and his wife, Ellen, began to breed Thoroughbreds from a broodmare band of about 20, racing some and selling others at auction.

According to the TCA bio, in 1988 the Moelises claimed a 2-year-old filly named Redeemer for $20,000 because she was a descendant of the influential broodmare La Troienne. Redeemer injured herself in a paddock accident shortly thereafter and was retired, but she produced a foal by Houston who was the top-selling colt in the 1993 Saratoga sale. CandyLand was also a regular fixture atop the sales-topper lists at Timonium over the last several decades.

Racing under the name Candy Stable and in various partnerships, the Moelises campaigned such stakes winners as Cat Be Nimble, Surely Six, Shapely Scrapper, Dr. Unright, Time To Dream, Five Star Deputy and Scary Bob.

In addition to the TCA, Herb and Ellen established The Moelis Family Foundation, which is involved in granting funds to charities involved in medical research, animal welfare, and children's causes.

“Herb Moelis was a visionary for sure,” said TCA President Mike McMahon. “Before the formation of TCA, there was not a broad discussion about the aftercare of racehorses. 'Aftercare' wasn't even in our lexicon yet, but our founders knew they needed to help provide Thoroughbreds with an appropriate retirement from racing. Thirty-two years later the Herb's vision for TCA has helped thousands of Thoroughbreds and the people who care for them.”

Palmer detailed to TDN how his relationship with Moelis grew into almost a “father and son” type of bond.

After Palmer had worked for Moelis for about 10 years, the CandyLand founder underscored to Palmer how important it was to him to have Palmer be with the horses on his 160-acre property on a 24/7 basis. To accomplish that, Moelis offered Palmer land on the farm to build a house for his family, with Moelis paying for the design and construction of the home.

“I mean, who does that, right?” Palmer said. “I had to pinch myself when he offered me that.”

Later, Palmer would run his own Thoroughbred venture, DreamTime Stables, on that same land, always adding “at CandyLand” on his signage at sales out of respect for Moelis and the farm's good reputation.

“Sunday was hard,” Palmer said of Moelis's services. “His death wasn't a surprise, but I don't know if I've come to terms with it. But I have come to terms with Herb not being tired anymore. He fought as long as he could, and I think he might have fought a little too hard in my personal opinion–but that's just me knowing him.”

The post Herb Moelis of Delaware’s CandyLand Farm Dies at 91 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights