Breakin the Fever provides best win of career for Ronald and Debra Breed
Breakin the Fever’s victory in the $142,000 Hudson Handicap last Saturday at Belmont Park gave the husband-and-wife training team of Ronald and Debra Breed their biggest career victory.
The Breeds have been based at Finger Lakes since the early 1980s. As Ronald Breed put it, “I train the horses, and Debra runs the barn.”
Ronald Breed is 71. Before setting up shop at Finger Lakes, he worked downstate for Hall of Fame trainer Eddie Neloy and for Johnny Campo.
“I worked for Eddie Neloy the last three or four years before he died,” Breed said. “Then I worked for Johnny Campo 11 years.”
Eddie Neloy died of a heart attack in 1971.
Breakin the Fever, a 4-year-old New York-bred gelding by Roaring Fever, is owned and was bred by Debra Breed. He was the horse of the meet at Finger Lakes last year and is in the running for that title again. Breakin the Fever, a five-time stakes winner, is now 14 for 24 with earnings of $445,000.
“He means a lot to a stable like ours,” Ronald Breed said.
Breaking the Fever made seven of his first eight starts at the New York Racing Association tracks, winning a statebred maiden, an allowance race, and finishing second in the Notebook Stakes. Last Saturday, he outdueled 2-5 favorite Weekend Hideaway in the six-furlong Hudson despite leaping in the air at the start to get away a beat slow.
“When he was 2, he was outworking all the 2-year-olds we had,” Breed said. “That’s why I ran him down in New York. I thought he was a nice horse right from the start.”
The Breeds trained Breakin the Fever’s dam, Breakers West, a winner of 1 of 7 starts for owner Francis Casey. They have a 2-year-old full sister to Breakin the Fever who is a few weeks from making her career debut.
Breed is thinking about bringing a few horses downstate for the winter.
“I think I have three or four that will be okay there,” he said.