With next week’s Lexington Selected yearling sale the curtain will come down on one of the greatest breeding farms the sport has known. Brittany Farms will sell its final yearling consignment, a small collection in Kentucky, and by the end of the year say goodbye to the farms that helped raise generations of the sport’s best performers. For Art Zubrod, the heralded farm manager that was there from the start when owner George Segal offered him a career-changing opportunity, the time was right. “I had said that I would die with my boots on,” Zubrod said, reflecting on his time with Brittany and the thought that his dream job would last all his days on this earth. Then a few years back Zubrod sort of saw the writing on the wall. “It hadn’t rained for quite some time and I was worried about the fields.” The daily attention to the details necessary to run not just a breeding farm, but one that most buyers had come to expect excellence from had finally weighed so heavily on Zubrod that he recognized there had to be an exit strategy. “I would say in the 40 years or so I’ve been at this job there’s only been two days that I’ve ever been completely disconnected from the farm,” said Zubrod. “That was when we took a trip to Colorado and were in the mountains where there was no cell service.” Under Zubrod’s care and owner George Segal’s guidance Brittany Farms became an institution in the sport. Unlike Hanover Shoe, that annually offered consignments in the hundreds, Brittany started out small, grew much larger and then eventually moved to disband. “George started out with 12 mares,” said Zubrod, recalling the roots of Brittany. When asked about what Segal offered Zubrod as a “business plan” on what would come next once the mares were in his care, he laughed. “There was no business plan,” Zubrod said. Segal agreed that things just started when he found himself with a collection of fillies that had finished their racing careers and needed to move on to the next part of their journeys. There was no actual farm in 1984 when the idea of Brittany came to pass, but a year later a major opportunity came along and Segal took it when breeder William R. Shehan decided to sell his Kentucky nursery. “Bill Shehan was a genius,” Zubrod said with great admiration for a man that he got to know quite well over time. “He would study a horse for hours.” Shehan was not a horseman but a lawyer, yet what he saw in those horses would lead to a collection of broodmares that provided some of the foundation that Brittany Farms was built upon. While Shehan had sold off a large part of his pacing broodmare band prior to the Brittany Farms acquisition, Zubrod and Segal inherited some of the most coveted trotting mares. That may not have been apparent at the time but they would later produce some of the sport’s biggest stars. “Take a mare like Allegro,” said Zubrod. “There was nothing on her page and nothing that preceded her.” The Arnie Almahurst-sired mare would go on to produce Higher Love from one of Brittany’s first crops. Higher Love’s first foal Lookout Victory gave Brittany its first Hambletonian Oaks champion in 1995 and would go on to earn $1.9 million. While William Shehan’s mares helped kick start Brittany’s trotting impact on the sport, it would be the solid foundation of pacing broodmares that Segal had brought in and ones he would later acquire that generated the biggest buzz throughout the farm’s 40-plus years of existence. It was Segal’s Three Diamonds, a champion filly at 2 and 3 that opened the floodgates to future champions. “Gene Riegle had a lot to do with our success,” said Segal of the late Hall of Fame trainer. “I would pick out the pedigrees and Gene would approve of course, but Gene would look over the conformation and he had a great eye.” Conformation was key to selecting not only horses that could make it on the racetrack but ones that could pass on those characteristics to the next generation. It was sort of the insurance policy required to get into the breeding business, and with Riegle’s blessing Brittany’s foundation mares would flourish. Three Diamonds’ maternal line was Shehan-influenced, though the breeder would sell off much of that pacing line prior to his deal with Segal, and she did produce the 1993 Jug winner Life Sign. From her 10 foals, half were fillies. Her daughter Lifetime Success hit with current top New York stallion American Ideal. Fresh Look, a full sister to American Ideal, produced Fresh Breeze from a mating with Captaintreacherous. Fast forward a couple of years with the farm producing Twin B Joe Fresh from her second foal. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter The Three Diamonds line flourished through one other daughter Trilogy Lobell, a mare who would produce the dams of Eternal Camnation and Trim Hanover, a line that has seen dramatic success in the last decade. While there may have not been a specific business plan, Segal did make some major decisions along the way that he feels quite good about. “I would say that the two biggest were the decision to start the farm and the second would be to close the farm,” said Segal. While the farms won’t exist in 2025, Segal was quick to add, “The Brittany name isn’t going anywhere.” In fact, George still has some mares that he has retained and owns in partnership with others. “There will be horses sold under the Brittany banner,” said Segal The Brittany brand has produced excellence for more than 40 years and the name still evokes a sense of quality at the sales. As far as this year’s final consignment is concerned, the focus will likely be on the first crop of Perfect Sting, the son of Always B Miki from the world champion Shebestingin. “I’m thrilled with how all of his foals look and behave,” said Zubrod. Brittany and partners will be selling five by Perfect Sting at the Lexington Selected auction. “His colt out of Captiva is very special,” said Zubrod of Stingman, HIP 34, selling on opening night (Monday, September 30). Zubrod’s comments on Stingman came just days before Captiva’s full brother Fallout captured the C$1 million Metro at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Captiva’s maternal line extends back to Three Diamonds via the Eternal Camnation branch of the family. Segal is excited as well with the first crop from Perfect Sting, a horse that he raced in partnership with Marty Granoff’s Val D’or Farms. “From the horses I’ve seen, they look very good,” said Segal. “I may be biased.” Segal’s bias has worked quite well for those lucky enough to have purchased from his consignments over the last 40 years. It’s somewhat ironic that many of today’s breeders have adopted Segal’s strategy that during its infancy drew a ton of unfounded criticism. In the early 90’s Segal was both a breeder and active bidder at the yearling sales, and some had implied that he was “bidding up” his own horses. Many believed that breeders shouldn’t be in the racing business, but as we can see today with the successes of major farms like Diamond Creek and Crawford Farms, it is possible to both breed and race horses. “The thoroughbreds do it all of the time,” said Zubrod.” There is nothing wrong with setting a value on a horse and taking it home if it doesn’t reach the price.” As for the breeding business Brittany is departing from, Segal said, “I would say it’s far more competitive today than it used to be.” The good fortune to those who continue to breed standardbreds will surely come from future stars with Brittany-rich bloodlines that have already stood the test of time. On the human front, Zubrod was most grateful for a loyal staff that has helped make his horses accessible to would-be buyers for many years and will now move on. “I’ve had a lot of good people over the years and without them none of this would have been possible,” Zubrod said. With Brittany Farms’ closure, Zubrod was happy to find a spot for items that have provided cherished memories. “I kept staring at all of the trophies we’ve collected and just didn’t know what to do with them,” said Zubrod. “Thankfully we’ve donated them to the Round Barn at The Red Mile where they will be displayed.” Fitting that the Brittany Farms legacy will live on in the Bluegrass for years to come.