Jaqui de Meric

The X-Rays Files series, now in its second year and presented in cooperation with the Consignors and Breeders' Association, uses conversations with buyers and sellers to contribute to the discussion on the sales and training process. Nick de Meric and his wife Jaqui have become stalwarts of the pinhooking scene in Ocala over the last four decades and their program has produced success after success both in the sales ring and on the racetrack. Among the graduates of the family's program are Horse of the Year Knicks Go and champion...

"It's a really difficult thing, to let go of something that you've spent your whole life building," acknowledges Nick de Meric. "I don't know if 'letting go' is quite the right way to put it. But to actually cut that umbilical cord, it's a leap of faith." The Ocala horseman, who reflected on a colorful past in yesterday's TDN, now turns his attention to the future. For the evolution of a successor program, parallel to his own, makes the de Meric family a particularly pertinent case study for our series...