One way or another, it has been quite a journey to Versailles from his native Bronx. When I think of all the people that have helped me along the way-people who taught me, helped me understand, gave me a push, gave me knowledge, encouragement… That's not self-made. “People use the term 'self-made man',” he remarks. Seitz the outsider has become Seitz the patriarch. In an industry often dominated by dynastic operations, he has literally made his name-to the point that the next generation, in sharing and enhancing its prestige, are themselves evolving into one of those Bluegrass clans whose nurture is a guarantee of trust. I went down, I stopped, and I knew.”Īnd here he is, very nearly half a century later, reflecting in his office at Brookdale Farm on a career best measured not just by the scale or diversity of his achievements (raised and sold a Derby winner pinhooked an Oaks winner stood a champion stallion raised a champion stallion) but by the respect of a whole community. This is where I'm going to live for the rest of my life.' And I was right. They didn't have jetways back then, so as I went down those steps from the plane, it was a very odd sensation. (He was, by this stage, a Vietnam veteran and closer to 30 than 20.) “So seeing how I had loved the horses when I was younger, I took a trip out here. “I was wondering what I was going to do when I grew up!” Seitz recalls in his gentle, humorous tones. Sure enough, all the perplexity Seitz felt about his future was about to evaporate. And the young man stepping onto the tarmac at Lexington airport had meanwhile learned resilience and adaptability with the Marine Corps. Even as a kid, from nowhere obvious, Fred Seitz had discovered an affinity for horses. It felt like everything was up in the air but actually everything was falling into place.
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