By Sid Fernando
It’s been almost eight months since Werk Thoroughbred Consultants (WTC) founder and my friend Jack Werk passed away, but this blog—which Jack took great pleasure in writing—remains alive in his memory, with Elaine Belval, senior pedigree analyst at WTC, doing most of the heavy lifting these days.
Jack was very careful in this space to devote it to the accomplishments of horses and people, instead of using it as a place to bang his and the company’s drum, and we have followed the example he’s set. However, I’d like to acknowledge Jack and WTC and introduce the company to an international audience through a piece published recently at the Australian site www.stallions.com.au that backgrounds the rise of WTC and explains how it succeeded and why the company remains relevant today, because more than ever WTC is committed to servicing a growing international clientele in addition to it strong domestic base.
The article begins like this:
Established practices in any field can almost always be traced back to small, innovative enterprises that took on a big job and executed it well. Werk Thoroughbred consultants, based in Fremont, California, a quiet, East Bay suburb of silicon valley, certainly fits that profile.
“Jack Werk, who passed away early this year, founded the company in the late 1980s, initially running the operation in an office he rented in the rear of a Fremont hairdresser’s salon. The company quickly outgrew that modest beginning, however, and it did so by breaking the mold that had been cast for thoroughbred pedigree consulting services.
“Rather than seeking patronage for his services among the major commercial operations, Werk tailored his consulting to the small breeding operation and to new entrants to the game. Werk’s offer of an independent perspective caught on among clients wary of established practices of the time, and, with the introduction of the Werk Nick Rating, which provided an objective measure of the effectiveness of sire-line crosses, the business really took off.”
Please click here to read the entire story, which also explains new company features, such as MareMatch.
Part and parcel of international presence is having respected representatives in foreign countries, such as Andrew Reichard of Bluebloods in Australia. Australian breeders will remember Jack and Andrew traipsing through the countryside visiting farms Down Under last year, for example.
Before Jack passed, he was contacted by young Clive Webb-Carter, of Clive Webb-Carter Bloodstock Services, with an offer to represent WTC in Europe. Jack did his due diligence and was tremendously impressed by Clive, whose website information can be viewed here. Clive, like Jack, was also a blogger, a fact that Jack liked. Read Clive’s blog here.
I’m pleased to announce—and did just that in a press release this week—that Clive will represent the company in Europe, starting immediately. Clive can be contacted by phone at 44-07860158645 or by email at cwc@wcbloodstock.co.uk.