DETAILS
Role: Author
Client/Org: Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association (PHBA)
Date: 2024
Categories: Editorial
When Italian immigrant Joe Giangiulio arrived in America over a century ago, he was an enthusiastic kid ready for a new adventure. As he grew up, he worked at several construction companies, sometimes more than one at a time. He was honing his craft, learning on the job. He essentially became a full-time, self-taught student in everything he was involved with. When the time was right, Giangiulio created his own construction company. He used the profits to access a dream: a life with horses.
Joe Giangiulio started with show horses but quickly was introduced to Thoroughbred horse racing. He was immediately hooked and soon enough bought land in Havertown, Pa., which he named Castle Rock Farm. He bought about 20 horses including some broodmares who became foundation mares on the farm. By the 1950s, his horses were competitive on the highest stage. His first horse was a half-brother to Two-Year-Old Champion Uncle Miltie. Named Mr. First, he was second to Bardstown in the Widener Handicap at Hialeah, second to Nashua in the Monmouth Handicap (which would become the Haskell Invitational), and second behind Bold Ruler in the Ben Franklin Handicap at Garden State Park.
“My father had the ultimate bad fortune in that he was successful right away,” Joe’s son Peter Giangiulio said with a laugh. “He was a grassroots horseman who really worked hard at research, so from meager mares, he produced horses that could run on a national level. He was a student of Federico Tesio with his breeding tactics.
“He also didn’t like other people racing his horses and he was not one to quit. That’s why he bought the farm and training center; he decided he was going to do it his way. He also used to say that when a horse broke his maiden, he lost his best friend: the ‘M’ in the win column. With no state-bred programs at the time, you just ran and competed, or you didn’t.”
Peter and his sister Barbara Geraghty spent the earliest years of their lives at the original Castle Rock Farm. Peter remembers cooling out his first horse at six years old and has been active in the industry ever since. Barbara loved the horses too. In 1957 Joe purchased Indian Rock Farm on the current Castle Rock property and moved his family across the county.
“He decided to sell the original Castle Rock because the whole town had so many houses on it; all that was left was a little postage stamp-sized piece of land,” Peter said. “He wanted to stand stallions, so he was smart commercially. He changed the name from Indian Rock to Castle Rock Farm because his horses were nationally recognized, and made sure to keep the same traditional silks.”
After Joe and his wife Julia passed away, the farm was left to their children. Barbara had not taken an active role in the racetrack when she was younger but she was more than prepared for the business side.
“We have a lot of faith and trust in each other,” noted Peter. “Of course, we argued as cats and dogs as kids but we clung to each other too. As adults, we have never had a cross word. She’s brilliant. Now she has as many horses on the farm as I do.”
Barbara owns multiple Pennsylvania champion Power by Far, who still stands at Castle Rock at age 29. Power by Far was a brilliant racehorse, winning 15 of 35 races including ten stakes races. During his career the Mid-Atlantic racetracks joined together to create a unique series of stakes races for local horses, with races offered at each participating track. Power by Far dominated, capturing what had become known as the M.A.T.C.H. Series.
“When he won the MATCH Series, I made a collage for Barbara of winning pictures,” Peter said proudly. “Power by Far was in the center with his mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother, all in our colors. Power by Far has sired the next generation, who in turn produced another generation. All in all, it’s been seven generations. It’s extremely gratifying.”
Peter credits the success of Castle Rock Farm to many family members and longtime employees. He especially appreciates longevity in relationships. He has been on the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association Board for 47 years. Barbara and her husband Bill Geraghty have been married for 64 years, while Peter and his wife Stephanie are approaching 40 years.
“I have the most amazing crew. In addition to our family, my Farm Manager June Hillman has been with us 29 years and our right hand man Fernando Carranco for almost 20 years. There are six of us: June, Fernando, Barbara, Bill, Stephanie and me. We’re all better together. Take one person out of the team and everything else would fall apart.”
When Peter and Stephanie met, she did not have much interest in horses, but he says that she “osmotically grew interested in the horses through his appreciation and dedication to the farm”. He firmly believes that they would not have been able to have success without his wife. “Stephanie is the glue that holds things together for me with running the business. She does work so she’s not able to be there every day at home, but she’s a tremendous asset and very savvy.”
Inevitably, as with most businesses these days, the Castle Rock Farm team found themselves searching for a way to continue without giving up their land to developers, like so many other farmers have been forced to do over the last decade. That was when the National Lands Trust approached them with some ideas. The answer was creative and sustainable: the Giangiulio family placed a permanent conservation easement on 170 acres of the property with Natural Lands. In a press release, Natural Lands said that it received funding to underwrite the preservation of the farm from Chester County’s Preservation Partnership Program; Mars Foundation; the Marshallton Conservation Trust; the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development’s Greenways, Trails and Recreation Program; West Bradford Township; and the Giangiulio family.
Peter was happy with the decision. “I got no resistance from my wife or sister. We were able to come up with an agreement that allowed us to preserve this legacy because once you sell it, you lose control of what happens to it. The idea of having this place turn into a development and ruin my neighbors’ lives…it would destroy the land forever; once it’s gone, it’s gone. It was our refusal to be pushed out.”
Ironically, Castle Rock Farm holds a fascinating piece of horticultural history. It was the home of Humphry Marshall, who is considered a founding father of American botany. His original house, built just before America declared its independence, still stands today. The house itself is still in use, showcased by a stone designating it as a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It was also recorded in 1958 by the Historic American Buildings Survey and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. In 1788 Marshall famously penned Arbustrum Americanum, the very first scientific document about the trees and shrubs of North America. He also built one of the first botanical gardens in the newly-formed United States around his home.
This fall at the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) National Awards Dinner, the members of Castle Rock Farm will be honored for their efforts in land conservation in the Thoroughbred industry. They will receive the 2024 Robert N. Clay Conservation Award, presented by the Equine Land Conservation Resource (ELCR).
“It’s a national award so we appreciate the recognition,” said Peter. “It’s great that the industry has a new idea of what to do with the green space we’ve basically been given stewardship of. I’ve never been to Kentucky so it will be a nice little trip.
“But our world is Pennsylvania and it’s been awfully good to us over the years. Now, when you come down from Marshallton and hit the break of the hill approaching Northbrook, there is such satisfaction in the half-mile of river frontage on the Brandywine. Knowing it’s going to be this way for everyone to enjoy – kayaking, canoeing, fishing – it means the world to us. I’m so happy that we can continue to raise our horses, enjoying the beauty of our land, and it’ll be here forever.”