Posts Tagged ‘enicks’

PRESS RELEASE

Jack Werk, 65, founder of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants and the eNicks online mating and stallion promotion service, died early Sunday morning, attended by close friends and family, after a long battle with cancer. He is survived by his daughter Kris and son Steve. 

In the late 1980s, Werk transformed a long-time hobby into the most vibrant pedigree consulting company the thoroughbred industry had ever seen. The popular Werk Nick Rating, only the best-known of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants’ many innovations, together with Werk’s imaginative approach to product creation and marketing, catapulted the company into prominence. As advisor to the late Eduardo Gaviria, Werk’s company recommended the mating that produced 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Real Quiet, who raced for the same connections as those of 2010 Classic prospect Lookin at Lucky, also the result of a WTC-recommended mating.

In 1987, with the support of his friend and long-time Daily Racing Form "Bloodlines" columnist, Leon Rasmussen, Werk founded the influential Owner-Breeder, a first-of-its-kind monthly journal dedicated to thoroughbred pedigree analysis and evaluation. Werk’s column, "Who’s Hot, Who’s Not," the most popular feature of the publication, was reinvented as a blog at www.werkhorse.com, the company’s website, where Werk continued to provide insightful pedigree commentary until just days prior to his death.

In 2004 Werk launched what has become his company’s most successful venture ever, the wildly popular eNicks.com, an online mating assistance facility featuring WTC’s signature Werk Nick Rating. "With the remarkable success of eNicks," said Sid Fernando, Werk’s long-time friend and hand-picked successor in the management of the company, "Jack has left the company stronger than it’s ever been. We’re all devastated at losing Jack, but his most heartfelt wish was that the company go on, and he put a solid plan in place that promises the thoroughbred industry WTC’s high standard of service for a long time to come. I’m going to see to it that the company keeps that promise."

"Knowing Jack has made me a better person," said Roger Lyons, long-time friend and partner with Werk in the popular pedigree software, CompuSire, which the two founded in 1992. "Jack’s friendship, advice, and vision have gone a long way in my life, both professionally and personally."

Chuck Fipke, long-time client and close personal friend, once named a foal out of his mare Recoletta "Jack’s Work" in honor of Jack. "Recoletta was his favorite mare," Fipke said. "Jack and I were completing a distance aptitude research project when Jack suddenly passed. Jack has trained his assistant Elaine Belval in this project, but there will be a huge void for owners and breeders throughout the world. But Jack will have a place in all our hearts as ‘Jack’s Work’ lives on."

PRESS RELEASE

Sid Fernando, president of eMatings LLC, and Jack Werk, president of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., the owner of eNicks, announced jointly Thursday that Mr. Fernando has acquired a stake in WTC, Inc., a privately held corporation controlled by Mr. Werk, and will assume an active role in management immediately.

WTC, incorporated by Jack Werk in 1988, is a leading pedigree consulting firm that pioneered the original commercial sire-line nick rating service that has been notably copied in recent years. Its Werk Nick Rating, however, remains the industry standard and is the most widely used nick rating service in the country. At present, more than 707 stallions are registered with eNicks—significantly more than the number of horses on any other commercial nick rating service. Click here for more information about WTC.

eMatings is a novel internet pedigree consulting service founded by Sid Fernando in 2009 that allows users to obtain pedigree analysis from a wide array of well-known pedigree experts for discounted fees. A former bloodstock editor and columnist at Daily Racing Form, Fernando is an internationally known pedigree writer and racing authority whose articles have appeared in leading thoroughbred racing and breeding publications around the world, including Owner-Breeder, Racing Post, The Thoroughbred Times, Thoroughbred Daily News, Turf Diario, and Pacemaker. His blog, Sid Fernando + Observations, is one of the most internationally read in the business, and he also is a private consultant to a select group of international breeders. Away from the business, he’s a well-known New York youth travel baseball coach and scout. Click here to read a recent article about eMatings by Brad Cummings of the Paulick Report. Click here for more information about eMatings.

“Sid will continue to run eMatings as he always has,” said Werk, “but this will now give him an interest and role in WTC. I’ve been trying to get Sid to buy into WTC for years because of his international knowledge and contacts, and I’m thrilled that he’s acquiring a significant stake in the company because he can expand it internationally right away. He’s one of the sharpest pedigree guys in the business, and I’ve used him as a consultant over the last 10 years for my clients, to great success. Sid’s integrity, knowledge—he was bloodstock editor of Daily Racing Form in the 1990s—and contacts will become huge assets to WTC, and I feel he’s the person I’d like to eventually step in and run the company.”

“Jack and I have been friends since the late 1980s, and our mutual friend—the late Leon Rasmussen, the longtime DRF Bloodlines columnist—was instrumental in the early development of our relationship as writer and editor during the days when Jack published and edited the seminal Owner-Breeder magazine, for which I also wrote,” said Fernando. “Jack’s older than I am—and wiser—and he was actually responsible for my leaving DRF years ago to spend time raising my two sons. ‘You only get one chance,’ Jack said, and I’m glad I listened. It’s worked out that as I was ready to re-enter the business again full time a few years back, Jack was there. His company has been responsible for the infrastructure of eMatings—admin, billing etc.—so acquiring a stake in WTC, Inc., is really a natural progression of an existing relationship. I am looking forward to helping grow the company that he—along with others such as Roger Lyons and a loyal staff—has developed, while also continuing to develop eMatings, which has made quality pedigree analysis affordable and quickly available to breeders at all levels.”