East Coast Equestrian

June 11, 2018

Newly minted Triple Crown champion Justify saw his stud value skyrocket with his gate-to-wire victory Belmont Stakes. The muscle on muscle chestnut three-year old colt with a big white blaze joined Seattle Slew as the only undefeated Triple Crown winners and became the 13th horse ever to win the Triple Crown comprised of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park on June 9.

ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell reported the Belmont Stakes (Grade-1) victory pushed the value of Triple Crown winner Justify to an all-time record $75 million.

ESPN and the New York Times previously reported after the Preakness that an agreement was in place for the owners of Justify's breeding rights – WinStar Farm with 60 percent, China Horse Club with 25 percent, and George Soros' SF Bloodstock with 15 percent – to sell them to Coolmore Stud for $60 million with a $15-million bonus if the son of Scat Daddy were to win the Belmont.

WinStar Farm CEO Elliott Walden has denied that a deal has been made. The New York Times said that it may not be official until September so that Justify's owners can take advantage of tax laws dealing with capital gains. Rovell writes that Coolmore can put a higher value on Justify than other stud farms because it has the capacity to stand the superstar at both its Ashford Stud in Kentucky and in Australia during the southern Hemisphere breeding season. WinStar has stood some of its stallions in the southern Hemisphere but does not own a stud farm in Australia. The highest previous stallion deal, Rovell writes, was the $70 million Coolmore paid to acquire 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus.

 WFIT (NPR Radio - Melbourne, Fla)

June 11, 2018

The Space Coast Symphony Orchestra will open their 2018-19 tenth anniversary season with On Broadway. The concert takes place Saturday, June 16 at 7 p.m. at the Scott Center for Performing Arts and on Sunday, June 17 at 3 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of Vero Beach.

Selections from the greatest musicals of stage and screen will be represented, including The King and I, Hamilton, Phantom of the Opera, South Pacific, Chicago, Beauty and the Beast and Grease. Featured will be a special suite of music from The Beatles, which includes hits such as "All My Loving," "All You Need is Love," "Blackbird," "Can't Buy Me Love," "Come Together," "If I Fell," "Lady Madonna," "Let It Be," "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da," "Something," "Yesterday," and much more.

Conductor and Artistic Director Aaron Collins is a past recipient of the Richard A. Stark Award for cultural leadership, awarded by the Cultural Council of Indian River County.

"I predict people will not be able to restrain themselves," said Collins with a laugh. "Because this music makes you want to burst with song. What better way to kick off our season than with Broadway and the incomparable Beatles?"

Advance tickets for On Broadway are $25 for adults are available through the orchestra website at www.SpaceCoastSymphony.org or at the beachside and mainland branches of Marine Bank & Trust. Tickets at the door are $30. The SCSO is one of only a handful of orchestras nationwide to perform year-round. On Broadway is free for those age 18 and under or with a student ID. For more information, call toll free 855-252-7276 or visit www.SpaceCoastSymphony.org.

Vero Beach Magazine

June 2018

Often dubbed a rolling work of art, one of the delightful aspects about owning a wood-sided station wagon is nearly each one comes with a story. Here's mine.

With my father at the wheel of his 1949 Ford woodie our family is barreling down the White Horse Pike through the pine barrens to the south Jersey shore. I'm a mere toddler sitting in the back taking in the sights and sounds on our summer vacation to Avalon. Who knew Dad was so cool, piloting a woodie?

The wood-sided station wagon has long been an iconic part of American automotive culture. In their earliest days they were known as depot hacks, bussing guests and luggage from railway stations to an upscale hotel, country estate or dude ranch. Film star Clarke Gable owned several Deluxe models to cruise through the farmland and small ranches of the San Fernando Valley. The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean (the chart-topping "Surf City") sang about woodies evoking memories of sun-splashed beaches and magical summer days.

Check out that woodwork. Clad in perhaps rare bird's-eye maple and framed in white ash, the panels were fitted and mitered with the perfection of a Chippendale highboy. They boasted intricate finger-jointed framing. Basswood created handsome longitudinal roof slats. Polished and lacquered, woodies satisfied the need for stylish transport of people and parcels.

WFIT (NPR Radio - Melbourne, Fla)

June 18, 2018

Back in the early 20th century a four acre spit of land was a thriving bird rookery in the Indian River Lagoon just below Sebastian. Beautiful herons, egrets, spoonbills and pelicans were so plentiful it was hard to fathom that these birds might soon disappear.

Then came the plume hunters. They stalked the local birds for their dramatic colorful plumage coveted by the booming New York City millinery trade that produced fancy hats for the most fashionable ladies of society who were in a frenzy over feathered hats.

After a while Sebastian boat builder Paul Kroegel had seen enough. He developed his own conservation plan by positioning both his small sailboat and his 5'6'' frame between him and the faster boats of the bird hunters. He wore a big hat and carried a double-barreled 10-gauge shotgun to make his point. After President Roosevelt signed an executive order establishing Pelican Island as America's first National Wildlife Refuge, Kroegel was named the first refuge warden and remained in the area protecting the population of birds until his death decades later.

A little more than a century later England had its own astonishing endangered bird tale. Skillfully told by author Kirk Johnson, The Feather Thief (Viking, 248 pages) reads like a classic crime thriller, the story of an unlikely thief and his even more unlikely crime that weaves together a British museum break-in, the development of evolutionary theory, endangered birds, greed and the clandestine underworld of fly-tying masters into a spellbinding tale.

Space Waves

May 15, 2018

In 2002 when Elon Musk revealed his idea of making rocket flights comparable to air travel many folks in and outside of the aerospace industry thought he was more than a bit looney.

Fast forward. On May 11 SpaceX successfully launched its most modern Falcon 9 rocket delivering the first Bangladeshi telecom satellite into orbit. The first stage booster landed approximately 11 minutes after liftoff on a drone ship floating 340 nautical miles down range of Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 25th successful landing of a booster rocket by the Hawthorne, Calif. company.

The enhanced version of Falcon 9 is called Block 5. Musk sees a host of new milestones for SpaceX, including launching and landing the same rocket twice in 24 hours – as early as next year.

"We expect [Block 5] to be the mainstay of SpaceX business," Musk said in a teleconference with space reporters a day before the launch. “We still need to demonstrate it. It’s not like we’ve done it. But it can be done.”

Vero Beach Magazine

May 2018

Famous for beautiful women, IKEA and the Spotify music service, Sweden is reveling in its latest pop culture star. He goes by Vinnie the Dreamer. Standing just 30 inches tall, the handsome chestnut miniature horse with a blonde mane and tail is starring in a wildly popular series of television ads for the ATG Swedish gaming company that returns profits to the equine industry. Young or old, few can resist the charm of the miniature horse.

"He's all the rage in Sweden," says Johnny Dent, who bred the 6-year old "mini" at his Dent Family Miniature Horse Ranch in west Vero Beach. "He narrates the TV spots. I'm told he learned to move his lips on cue when the trainer tapped his rear hoof. Some people actually think he can talk like Mister Ed. When they take him to the racetrack each week, he needs a bodyguard. He's a rock star over there."

The pint-size horses tend to be very willing, sociable, and extremely smart with big-size personalities. Not ponies, they have long slim legs in the same proportions as a regular-sized horse – just smaller. Too little to ride, minis work eagerly when hitched to a cart where they can pull four times their own weight.

Miniature horses are bred for superb conformation and outstanding dispositions. The result is a beautifully proportionate tiny equine that is suitable to a variety of uses: as pets, show animals, and a form of therapy for disabled people and even guides for the blind. In the show ring, minis compete in halter and conformation contests and in performance events from obstacle driving and jumping to chuckwagon racing and equine agility trials. Minis can hit speeds of 25 mph, turn on a dime.