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Hertzes Plan to Retire From California Breeding Will Offer for Sale Practically All Acreage on Amari|lo Ranch By KENT COCHRAN - Staff Correspondent WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., June 6.— A major portion of Amarillo Ranch, reputedly the finest breeding farm in California, has been sold to a firm of subdividers. John Hert, acting for his wife, Fannie, in whose name all the Hertz horses and breeding-farm lands are held, made the announcement yesterday. The Hertzes are retiring from breeding in California and aim to reduce their activity at Stoner Creek Stud in Kentucky. The i.ecision to retire from the breeding picture in California is due to one factor and one factor alone: increasing age of the couple, and the demand of their physicians that they reduce their work and worries to an absolute minimum. Hertz is now in his 76th year, and both he and Mrs. Hertz have been warned that only by taking life-with the greatest of ease can they hope to continue its enjoyment, healthwise. Ten of the approximately 110 acres in the ranch were retained. The 10 acres includes the ranch-type residence and its parked grounds. Its retention is in line with the desire of the popular sports couple to live at least five months of each year in California, as has been the custom since 1940. Also, the yellow-with-black-circle Hertz colors will continue to be raced Continued on Page Three » ■ Hertzes to Sell Most of Amarillo Ranch And Retire From California Breeding Also to Reduce Activity at Stoner Creek; Decision Due To Couples Increasing Age Continued from Page One on the California circuit, under trainer Buster *Millerick. The local racing and breeding colony has realized for some time that the Hertzes must reduce or give up their extensive breeding interests, because of the work and worry it imposes. Announcement of the sale therefore created little surprise. Absentee ownership, it was surmised, would multiply the work and anxiety attendant upon operation of a business such as Amarillo Ranch. Amarillo was established in 1947 at Canoga Park, a suburb a few miles northwest of Hollywood. The Hertzes were spending their winters in California and they wanted the fun of living where they could watch some young horses growing up. They envisioned a small place. But friends kept asking for the privilege of sending horses to be boarded so additional acerage was bought and developed. The horse population grew rapidly until the ranch which was planned for a small-scale operation grew into big business, whereupon pleasurable relaxation flew out the window and unwanted cares and respon-sibiliites flew in. Hertz statement to the press follows: "Mrs. Hertz and I have for many years obtained our chief enjoyment from the breeding and racing of horses. It has been our avocation and our pleasure. We delighted in the exploits of Reigh Count, Anita Peabody, Count Fleet, Count Speed and the many other stake winners we raced, and especially of those we both bred and raced. "We had Stoner Creek Stud in Kentucky for several years and then established Amarillo • Ranch in order to be around horses during the several months each year which we spend in California. But both Stoner Creek and Amarillo somehow grew too large, and operation of the two farms, 2,500 miles apart, entailed too much responsibility in their active management, especially since we long ago reached, and now have passed, an age when people rightfully cut down on their work. "We believe California is an ideal place to breed horses, and we regret the necessity of reducing our over-all operation, but we have been warned that we must avoid all the work we can, and in compliance with this advice I have resigned all the offices I held in various corporations and institutions with the exception of those in which I hold honorary directorships and serve in an advisory capacity and my partnership in Lehman Brothers. "Similarly, though Mrs. Hertz will continue to race horses in California and the East and to breed at Stoner Creek, and possibly keep a few mares at a broodmare farm in California, she will dispose of many of the mares she now has at the two farms. She will, however, continue to sell yearlings at Keeneland and Del Mar. "Therefore, Mrs. Hertz has sold 100 acres of Amarillo Ranch to a firm of sub-dividers; the other 10 acres, including the residence and grounds, is being retained MR. AND MRS. JOHN D. HERTZ for our personal use during the five months or so which we will continue to spend in California. "The 15 mares Mrs. Hertz has here will either., be sold locally or sent to Kentucky. The barns, fences, farm equipment and cottages are for sale. Owners of boarding stock are being notified that the ranch will cease to function not later than September 15."
