Heritage Hill Farms honored in NJ
The Dey family’s Heritage Hill Farms of Allentown, NJ, has been selected the Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey’s Breeder of the Year for 2009.
Heritage Hill Farm, spanning 500 acres in western Monmouth County, is one of the founding farms of the New Jersey Sire Stakes program. The Heritage Hill – HH – name was given to nearly 100 horses, including the world champion filly HH Shadow who was second in the 1986 Cane Pace and retired with 17 victories and nearly $280,000 in earnings.Heritage Hill stood 1972 Pacing Horse of the Year Isle of Wight, whose offspring dominated the New Jersey Sire Stakes in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The farm no longer stands any stallions – the last was Jaguar Spur — but the Deys breed and foal nearly 100 mares a year.
A thousand horses have represented the Dey breeding program, most bred in the name of the senior Deys, Stephen Perrine Dey and his wife, Elizabeth S. [Liz] Dey, whose father, Charles I. Smith, was a founder of the New Jersey Sire Stakes program. In recent years, Heritage Hill raised Forensic Z Tam, who has banked nearly $1 million, and his half-brother Blue Rock, who in 2009, won three of four New Jersey Sire Stakes starts as a two-year-old and earned $109,985.
The family includes a trio of prominent equine veterinarians – Dr. Stephen P. Dey II and his sons, Dr. Stephen P. Dey III and Dr. Greg Dey.
Past recipients of Breeder of the Year have included Fair Winds Farm, Kentuckiana Farms, Southwind Farms, Valley High Stables, White Birch Farm and Perretti Farms.
The Dey family and Heritage Hill Farm will be among those honored at the New Jersey Equine Advisory Board’s 53rd annual New Jersey Breeders’ Awards Luncheon at 1 pm on Sunday, Jan. 31, Charley’s Other Brother Restaurant [charleysotherbrother.com], 1383 Monmouth Road, Eastampton Township, NJ.
The New Jersey Equine Advisory Board is a panel of 48 members, representing 16 different breed groups and additional agricultural organizations. One of the board’s primary functions is to recommend horse breeding and development programs to the New Jersey Board of Agriculture. For banquet tickets and information about the New Jersey Equine Advisory Board, contact Debra Moscatiello at 609-984-4389 or at debra.moscatiello@ag.state.nj.us. (SBOA/NJ)
