Seabrook calls time after 47 years at Brisnet

Spectacular Bid’s Triple Crown dreams had just been thwarted, and Affirmed was in the midst of his second Horse of the Year campaign when Becky Seabrook first walked through the doors of Bloodstock Research Information Services (now Brisnet.com) in Lexington, Kentucky. 

On Nov. 20, Seabrook will reach the finish line after more than 47 years of service, virtually all of it as Brisnet’s director of research.

“Becky Seabrook’s 47-year career at Brisnet was exemplary as the backbone to our company’s research department,” said Happy Broadbent, son of Brisnet founder Richard V. Broadbent III. “Becky’s dedication and leadership in making sure Brisnet had the most accurate and complete pedigree and racing data was what always made Brisnet the leader in Thoroughbred information.”

“It won’t be the same here without Becky Seabrook. Her knowledge, wisdom, and experience will prove irreplaceable,” said Tommy Raymond, Brisnet's director of foreign research since 2004. “Not only her knowledge of Thoroughbred racing in general, but also about horses themselves. 

"She brought experience from a racing and horse farm perspective that few others have. There wasn’t a question about this industry you couldn’t ask her. She had a sound and well-thought-out answer regardless of the topic.”

The daughter of a career Marine, Seabrook grew up in various locales, including Spain, where she was limited to following Secretariat’s run through the 1973 Triple Crown on Armed Forces Radio.

“I had a subscription to the Thoroughbred Record, but everything arrived late in Spain,” Seabrook noted.

By then, Seabrook’s interest in horses and racing had been firmly planted for years.

“My parents always rode, so I always had some involvement with horses,” she said. “I first remember reading books by C.W. Anderson, who wrote horse books in the 1940s and 1950s that appealed a lot to little girls. He had heart-catching descriptions of horses like Equipoise, Whirlaway, Dark Secret, and Man o’ War. Plus, he was a phenomenal artist.

“I don’t know why I was the only one in the family to have picked up on racing. The first Kentucky Derby I ever watched was Kauai King’s in 1966.”

After settling with her family in northern Virginia, Seabrook’s first taste of live racing occurred in the early 1970s.

“We could pick what we wanted to do for our birthday, and I always wanted to go to the racetrack, and Laurel was the only one running in late November,” Seabrook said. “In college, I did go to the Washington D.C. International (G1) a couple of times and saw Nobiliary (1975) and Youth (1976).”

A math major, Seabrook initially started at the all-female Sweet Briar College before transferring to the University of Virginia, where keeping tabs on racing was sometimes a challenge. That was especially true in June 1978, when Affirmed was bidding for the Triple Crown in the Belmont (G1).

“I lived in the country outside Charlottesville and had no TV reception to speak of, so I went to the TV department at Sears,” Seabrook said. “I wasn’t the only one watching the Belmont on those big consoles. It was worth going for.”

After graduation, Seabrook attempted to break into the horse business in Virginia but was consistently told to head to the Kentucky bluegrass. By word of mouth, she landed a secretarial position at Foxtale Farm near Nicholasville in February 1979. Four months later, she secured a job at Bloodstock Research.

“It started out being a catch-all position in the old office on Alexandria Drive, but I would hang out in the research department when I could because that’s where my interests were,” Seabrook said. “When the offices moved to Corporate Drive around the summer of 1980, I joined research full time.”

Seabrook’s primary duty of keeping the Brisnet database up to date has changed little over four decades, though technological advances have made the process easier.

“Entering stakes and pedigrees, checking stakes and pedigrees, sales, filling pedigrees that aren’t complete, and correcting errors on foreign racing -- I call it quality control. To me, it’s making sure everything is correct,” she said.

“Back then nothing was automated. We were still dealing with a mainframe computer, so we’d load information on pedigrees and stakes, and it would run once a week. Eventually it was once a day, but it had to be punched in, and then a program would run later. There was a mad dash to get as much information loaded before it ran. It’s a different world now as far as computers go. Pedigrees, sales, and American stakes results are now all automated.”

As detailed in this space several years ago, an undisputed highlight of Seabrook’s stint was giving a brief presentation on the research department's work to Queen Elizabeth II during the monarch’s visit to Brisnet headquarters in October 1984. Seabrook also helped compile and catalog the pedigrees of the Queen’s horses, which were gifted to her in book form.

When asked about some of her equine heroes, Seabrook said she preferred tough, hard-knocking horses, Forego being her all-time favorite. Affirmed, Sunday Silence, and Zenyatta were also mentioned. Seabrook also has fond memories of her visits to Claiborne Farm, which she lived near for many years.

“Secretariat was always the star, but Sir Ivor was silly,” she said. “He had a funny personality. He was always the one they’d tell him to stick his tongue out, and he’d flip it over. He won the (Epsom) Derby (G1), and here he was doing party tricks for visitors.”

Seabrook says she also has a great admiration for horsemen of the past that took the time to understand their stars’ individual quirks and ultimately get the very best out of them.

“I like trainers that treat horses as individuals. I’m not saying they all don’t, but some seem to have more of a program,” she said. “John Sheriffs figured Zenyatta out and treated her as an individual. Dickie Small did the same, like the story of him taking Broad Brush out in a trailer to let him watch airplanes take off and land while he took a nap.” 

In retirement, Seabrook says she plans to ride more and take long weekend trips with her husband, Dan, a trainer she met at Foxtale and with whom she raised a daughter, Christy, a veterinarian. She’s also looking to devote more time to her hobby of family genealogy. 

“A couple of times I looked into going other places, but it’s such a narrow field, and it had the benefits of a five-day work week, unlike a farm during breeding and sales seasons,” said Seabrook, reflecting on her long tenure at Brisnet. “I enjoyed the work.”