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Nick de Meric grew up in England, where he showed ponies and studied rural estate management at Cirencester Agricultural College, after attending boarding school Berkshire. Early in life, he decided to make horses his career. He worked for legendary trainer Tommy Smith in Australia and for several other conditioners in England, including Brian Swift, Roger Stack, and R.C. Sturdy. He also toured East Africa and the Far East, herded cattle, picked apples, toiled in an iron ore mine in Australia, wrote for a magazine in London, and competed as an amateur rider in point-to-point races.

"For quite a number of years, I was a bit of a rolling stone, and it was the greatest fun," de Meric said. "I loved to travel, and working with horses was a profession that you could pretty much use in any country."

After journeying to the United States in the early 1980s, de Meric worked for well known thoroughbred sales agents L. Clay Camp, Lee Eaton, and Fred Seitz. He also broke and rode young horses for a number of respected Florida farms.

Jaqui was born in Connecticut and moved to Kentucky with her family at the age of ten, where she pursued her lifelong love of animals, horses in particular. Early in life she demonstrated a rare skill in the nurturing and raising orphaned animals, and to this day the de Merics play host to various mammal species at any given time, including a family of flying squirrels at present. She worked at Mayfield Veterinary Clinic throughout high school, after which she embarked on her own travels in Central America. When she returned she continued her equine education on several prominent farms in central Kentucky, also working at yearling and breeding stock sales when possible. It was on the crew of Lee Eaton's fall yearling consignment of 1981 that Nick and Jaqui first met, both being later recruited to assist in the preparation and presentation of yearlings for resale as two year olds at Mason Grasty's Foxfire farm in Lousiana. Six months beside the bayou at the farm cottage affectionately dubbed 'Rancho Malaria' laid the foundations for a relationship which has grown stronger with time. The couple then traveled to England where they lived and worked before returning to the United States in the latter part of 1982.

In the fall of 1982, Nick and Jaqui bought their first horse together. They started by purchasing a Nearly On Time filly privately as a yearling for $15,000. "She was a gray filly- as pretty as can be- and we had all our savings from working the sales tied up in her." de Meric remembered. "When we finished freelance riding in the morning, we would cook a bran mash on the kitchen stove for her, put it in the trunk of our car, and drive it over to her stall. The poor filly had the hide rubbed off of her because we didn't have kids in those days, and she got our undivided attention."

In March of 1983, the filly sold for $30,000 at the OBS March auction of 2-year-olds in training. The small profit allowed the couple to buy a car, and the two were married that spring in Kentucky. Not long afterward, the de Merics decided to settle down in Ocala and lease some property. A couple years later, they purchased 40 acres they called Manuden, named after a small village of thatched houses in England where de Meric's grandparents lived. The operation expanded in size gradually, until 1997, when the couple added a 230-acre chunk of land that became Eclipse Training Center. The de Merics also started a family, adding the care of daughter Alexandra and son Tristan to their seven-day-a-week schedule.

In 1990, de Meric achieved his first major pinhooking score with Beauty Sign, a Fit to Fight filly who sold for $280,000 at the Barretts March select sale after being purchased for 43,000 as a yearling. Bradley also shared in that success as a partner.
"When I was younger, I wanted to pursue a career of training at the track," de Meric said. "But I soon realized what kind of schedule it would demand and the limitations it would put on your choices of where to live. Buying yearlings to resell as 2-year-olds was a very good compromise. You would still be able to have the fun and excitement of training, but you would also be able to live in a rural environment and not be on the road all the time."

Even though only de Meric's name appears in the juvenile sale catalogs, he said his wife's "has been my partner every step of the way. It's not just Nick's outfit, its Nick and Jaqui's outfit. I've done everything with her right beside me. We have also been blessed with some wonderful staff over the years and our current key personnel are among the best in the industry."

Jaqui's main focus is the breaking program, where she uses "resistance-free" techniques she learned from Idaho horseman Martin Black. She introduces the yearlings to tack and riders in a round pen. One of her tools is a fishing pole with a plastic bags attached to the end. The bags are rubbed all over the young horses' bodies to get then used to new sensations. The pole and bags are used to guide the horses before the riders get on board. Before they are introduced to the training track, the yearlings spend lots of time jogging and going on trail rides.

This method has made a difference in everything we do with the horses, from clipping them to introducing them to new places and new situations," Jaqui de Meric said. "They are very self-confident, and they also are very happy. They're having so much fun they don't want to go back to the barn."

Her husband takes over the horse's care after they are ready for more serious exercise. Preparing them for the sales has become as increasingly difficult task, according to de Meric, who must satisfy buyers' demands for fast works and clean veterinary exams.

"The game has changed a huge amount since I started selling 2-year-olds," he said. "There was a time when we could sell horses just two minute-licking them in nice, pretty sets. Now the horses need to demonstrate something that separates them from the crowd, and the buyers place a very significant emphasis on speed.

"I've tried to strike a balance between what I feel is right as a horseman and what will make my horses marketable." de Meric continued. "We gradually built up the distance our horses gallop, getting a good foundation under them before we start on open gallops and two-minute licks. I don't hone on them and ask them for a lot of fast works before they leave the farm. I usually try to bring my horses to a peak at the sale itself. But I won't compromise a horse's future for the sake of a fast breeze in an under tack show. I council the people I represent that we want to leave something in the tank for the buyer, and we've been fortunate to develop a clientele that has been quite supportive over the years."

Cot Campbell, President of the nationally prominent Dogwood Stable, remains one of de Meric's most loyal customers. At the OBS select sale at the 2001 Calder sale, he purchased graded stakes and recent Sunshine Millions Distaff winner Smokin' Frolic from de Meric for $85,000. de Meric was the third-leading consignor at 2002 auction, selling seven of the nine horses he offers for $737,000.

"I can't think of another human being in whom I have more trust than Nick de Meric." Campbell said.

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