These may not be the best of times for the Thoroughbred racing business, but amid the constant drumbeat of gloom and doom, there are beacons of light. You
just need to know where to find them. There are people
who have done quite well financially over the last few
years, whether they have been buying low and sellinghigh at the sales, turning their valuable race horses intovery valuable stallions or simply running farms or businesses that seem to get bigger, better and more relevantby the day.

The Thoroughbred Daily News’s Spring
magazine features five operations beating theodds amid these difficult times. They are owners, pinhookers, breeders, consignors. They run
multi-faceted farms. They form partnerships.
The only criteria for inclusion in this story was that the participants invest their own money in the
sport, and have had success based on bottom-line results. How have they done it? That’s the primary
question we asked each one of them.
There was no one answer. Some do things on a small scale and don’t spend a lot of money. Others
aren’t afraid to step up and buy a $650,000 yearling. Some are careful. Some believe in taking risks.
There was, however, a recurring theme that ran through their stories: integrity. Every person interviewed for this article was a firm believer in doing things the right way. That means striving for excellence, which is only possible when you are honest and surround yourself with people who share yourbeliefs. In an industry that has, of late, seemed to produce more bad headlines than good, we arepleased to demonstrate that maybe the good guys do come out ahead in the end.
Meet some of racing’s greatest success stories.

THEY SAY
SUCCESSBREEDS
SUCCESS.
We say: Medaglia d’Oro
breeds success...

O

fficially, Hard Spun was
7-for-13 during his career,earned $2,673,470 and won
six stakes races. He finished his careerwith a second-place finish behind
Curlin in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup
Classic at Monmouth Park. On thesurface, he was a good horse who hada successful career and made his owner a nice profit.
Now, for the rest of the story:
Rick Porter, who races under thename of Fox Hill Farm, paid $400,000
for Hard Spun, who is by Danzig outof the Turkoman mare Turkish Tryst,
buying him from Eaton Sales in a private deal after the colt did not meet
his $485,000 reserve at the 2005
Keeneland September Sales. It wasa typical Porter purchase: the horse
was expensive but not wildly so, he
had an outstanding pedigree and his
conformation impressed Porter’s key
advisor. Porter knew that with somedegree of success on the racetrack
Hard Spun would go on to be a valuable sire prospect, which was his goal
all along.
Hard Spun won
a couple of small
stakes as a 2-yearold and then won
two graded preps
for the Kentucky
Derby. By then, he
was starting to attract the attention of some of the major Kentucky farms, which are always
interested in well-bred horses who
can run.
Hard Spun showed he belonged
with the best of his generation, finishing second in the 2007 Derby andthird in the Preakness. With thoseefforts, Porter began to weigh offers,
many of them sizeable. Prior to Hard
Spun’s start in the Belmont Stakes,
Porter sold the breeding rights to thecolt to Sheikh Mohammed’s DarleyStud for a reported $20 million. The
deal reportedly included a provisionthat Darley would pay an additional

Rick Porter after Round Pond’s 2006 Breeders’ Cup Distaff win.

$15 million should Hard Spun win
a Grade I race. No other farm had
much such an offer.
That would mean when he won theKing’s Bishop at Saratoga, Hard Spunbecame a $35-million horse.
“We hit the jackpot,” Porter said.
“That was our grand slam.”

Perhaps anyone can get lucky
once, even so lucky that they turn a$400,000 investment into $35 million. But Porter’s success almost can’t
be a matter of mere luck, not when
he keeps coming up with horse after
horse that excels on the racetrack andthen is snatched up by someone willing to pay a lot of money for a sire or
broodmare prospect.
Porter bought Round Pond asa yearling for $105,000. The filly
earned $1,998,700 on the racetrack,
won the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Distaff
and was sold to Sheikh Mohammed’s
agent John Ferguson for $5,750,000
at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky
November sale.
Rockport Harbor cost Porter$470,000 at the 2003 Keeneland
September sale and won three graded stakes and earned $324,800 on
the racetrack. He was sold to Darleyas a stallion prospect for a reported$5,750,000.
Jostle, the first major stakes winnerPorter owned, cost him $85,000, theprice he negotiated with Taylor Madeafter the filly did not meet her reserveat the 1998 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga
sale. While racing for Fox Hill Farm,
she made $1,381,682 and was soldfor $1.7 million to WinStar Farm at
Keeneland November in 2001.
How has Porter done it? His formula actually isn’t that complicated.
He surrounds himself at the sales
only with knowledgeable and hon-

est advisors like bloodstock agent
Tom McGreevy, is willing to spend
enough money to buy a horse withan outstanding pedigree and will only
give his horses to trainers who havethe ability to take a young horse, develop it and make it competitive inthe sport’s most important races.
Back when Porter got started in thebusiness he didn’t have a plan, any
particular goals, and never seriously
considered whether or not he could
make money at this. He just wanted
to have some fun.
Porter, 70, always enjoyed going to
Delaware Park with his parents when
he was growing up, but he gravitatedtoward the auto business after college. He went on to own a numberof car dealerships in the Mid-Atlantic
states, but always hoped to get involved in racing some day.
In the mid-nineties, he attended
the races at Atlantic City Race Coursewith the general manager of one of his
dealerships, who happened to own
horses. Porter’s employee introduced
him to trainer John Servis. Porter
took an immediate liking to Servis
and told him to go out and find him
a few modestly priced horses.
“I talked to John and told him I always wanted to get into it, but didn’tknow how to get started,” Porter said.
“I felt real comfortable with John. I
asked him, `what do I do now?’ Hesaid the best thing to do was to startslow, claim a couple of horses, and geta feel for how it all works.”Servis was the first person in racingthat Porter hired, but not the last who
would fit the same bill. In Servis, Porter was certain he had found someone
who was both talented and trustworthy. Everyone he has hired since has
had to have those same two assets.
“As I started looking at racing as abusiness, I tried to go back and see
what analogies I could find between
the car business and the horse business,” he said. “I started thinking
what made me successful in the carbusiness were the people I surrounded myself with. That probably works
in any business. The biggest thing“We hit the jackpot. That
was our grand slam.”-Rick Porter, on Hard Spun’s sale to Darley.

that has helped me is that I have surrounded myself with really good,talented, honest people, like Tom
McGreevy, John Servis, Larry Jones,
Tony Dutrow, and Victoria Keith.”
Still learning the business, Porter
had some early success with his racing stock, but soon figured out where
the real money was to be made.
“One thing that I have learned isthat it’s not the hardest thing in theworld, if you manage things properly
and have a good trainer or trainers, tobreak even when it comes to purse income versus expenses,” he said. “Thereal problem is how are you goingto get this investment back? We’d go
to Keeneland and spend $1 million,
then $2 million and then $3 million
a year. How were we going to getthat money back? I started to analyze
the business and figured out pretty
quickly that the only way you’re going to get this money back is to comeup with a stallion or an expensive

broodmare.”With that in mind, Porter deviseda plan of attack, one from which hehas not varied. He would budget $3
million annually to spend at the sales,
would buy only well-bred horses andwould lean heavily on McGreevy’s expertise.
The process begins with McGreevy,
a South Carolina native who has beenaround horses all his life, studied animal science at Penn State and used
to train on the Mid-Atlantic circuit.
McGreevy tries not to let anything
go unnoticed at the sales, from how
a horse handles the pressure of beingaround crowds to their conformation
to the ins and outs of how they walk.
He pays particular attention to how
the horses he scouts at the sales walkand, in particular, focuses on watching them from the side and not just as
they walk toward him
His goal is not necessarily to find ahorse with a sparkling pedigree, but a
2CIG

Eight Belles was special. After win- all hit you hard. It really soured mehorse who has all the characteristics
of a great athlete. It is the horse, more ning just one of five starts as a 2-year- and I started to think maybe this isn’t
than the horse’s pedigree, that mat- old, she started to turn things around for me. If this is what you have to go
for trainer Larry Jones early in 2008. through trying to have these glorious
ters to him.
“With my part of the equation, I She won her first four starts of the moments, maybe it’s not worth it.
“The first few days, I was completeput very little into pedigree,” he said. year and was clearly one of the best
“My job is to find the individual, and 3-year-old fillies in the country. She ly sick about it. I didn’t want to talkto anyone or take any phone calls.
after that we will get together and proved as much when finishGradually, I talked to my wife andKentucky
discuss the pedigrees. I would just as ing second in the
I said, ‘Look, stuff happens likeic mosoon not know the pedigree of the Derby, an ecstatthis in this sport. It was a fluke
horse when I look at it. When you ment for Porter
and we have to try somehow toknow, you can get a false impression. that would last
put it behind us.’ She said, ‘EvI use the catalogue because it’s a very only a few secery time I watch a horse run,convenient way of keeping track of onds.
that’s all I’m going to think
When Eight
who you are looking at, but I think
about, whether or not it’s going
most people would be better off if Belles broke
to break down.’ I told her she
they didn’t know who the horses were down in thewas going to have to deal withby when they went to evaluate them.” Derby andit her way. I was going to try
had
McGreevy learned some of his
to block it out of my mind
tricks while at Penn State, where
and move forward. I was notpart of his curriculum involved
going to let a tragedy likejudging livestock shows that inthat ruin a passion that is recluded horses and other animals.
ally important for me.”
“We judged pigs, sheep, horses,
Pressing on, Porter has
cattle, at these competitions,” hecontinued to come up
said. “It helped you develop yourwith still more goodeye. I’ve talked to a lot of people
horses. He had an early
about how they do things befavorite for the Kencause I like to think I can always
tucky Derby last year
learn from them. There are somein Old Fashioned, anpeople who say they really like
$800,000 yearling
this horse, but they can’t pick it
Portersold
Rockport
Harborto
standatDarleyAmerica.
purchase who wasapart and tell you why. When wehurt after finishing sechad to judge in school, you placed
ond in the Arkansas Derby. Not satthe animals one, two, three, four, etc.
isfied with the offers he was getting
You would have to explain why you
for the colt as a sire prospect, Porter
placed them the way you did. You
has retained ownership in Old Fashhad to look at details and be able toioned. Still another offspring of Unexplain them.”
bridled’s Song, Old Fashioned stands
For the McGreevy-Porter team,at Taylor Made Stallions, Inc. and his
not everything has worked. In 2007,
stud fee is $12,500.
Porter paid $725,000 at Keeneland“A lot of people were interested in
September for an Unbridled’s SongOld Fashioned,” he said. “It’s just thatfilly named Christina’s World, whothey wanted to steal him from me.”has won one race and has earned
Porter owned Kodiak Kowboy in a
$51,000. But enough of Porter’s purpartnership with Vinery. The colt waschases have panned out that he has
made a considerable amount of mon- to be euthanized, Porter was sudden- named the 2009 sprint champion andly faced with the sport at its ugliest. is standing at Vinery for a stud fee of
ey in the racing business.
His best horse may not have even Despite all the success he had had, he $15,000. The Porter-Vinery partnerbeen Hard Spun or Rockport Har- was no longer sure he had the stom- ship also owns Friesan Fire, the 2009Louisiana Derby winner who remains
bor. At the 2006 Keeneland Septem- ach to go on.
“When we first realized what had in training and has earned more thanber sale Porter paid $375,000 for an
Unbridled’s Song filly with whom he happened, the bottom of my heart $650,000.
Porter looked like he had anotherfell out,” he said. “The reality of it
would soon fall in love.

“I think most people
would be better off
if they didn’t know
who the horses wereby when they went
to evaluate them.”-Tom McGreevy

2009 early Derby favorite Old Fashioned now stands at Taylor Made.
potential star this year in Winslow
Homer, the winner of the Holy Bull
Stakes. A son of Unbridled’s Song
who cost $310,000 at the 2008
Keeneland September sale, he has
been sidelined with a stress fracture ina cannon bone, but is due back before
the end of the year.
He has 15 horses currently racing, seven more on the shelf, and 14
2-year-olds gearing up for later in theseason.
A few things have changed. With
the downturn in the economy, Porter’s bankroll for the sales each year
remains $3 million, but he intends
to buy more horses than he has in
the past, expecting to find more bargains. His primary trainer is now
Tony Dutrow, who came aboard after
Larry Jones retired. Jones took overfor Servis after Porter became disenchanted with some aspects of the Ser-“A lot of people
were interested in
Old Fashioned. It’s
just that they wanted to steal him fromme.” -Rick Portervis operation. He said he always had
faith in Servis, but feared that he did
not have a strong team behind him
when it came to assistants and otherkey personnel.
What hasn’t changed is his enthusiasm for the sport and his drive towin. It’s not the money that motivates him, but races like the Kentucky Derby, where he has twice fin-ished second.
“Nobody likes to lose, but, for me,
it’s not about trying to make money,”he said. “The money we made fromhorses like Hard Spun are funds thathave enabled us to not to have to put
up more money out of pocket. But
it still boils down to that unbelievable challenge of getting a great horseand getting to the big races. When I
talk to Tony or Tom, all we talk about
is who do we have that might giveus that thrill we are all looking for?
When we get to the sales, it’s all about
trying to find that horse that can be agraded stakes winner.”
Porter has found them, many times.
The result is he is getting everything
he could possibly ask for out of racing—excitement, a challenge, success and a nice added benefit calleda profit.
2CIGMEDAGLIA D’ORO BREEDS SUCCESS

DIRT.
TURF.
SYNTH.
Medaglia
d’Oro sires
G1 horses for
all courses...

C

arrie Brogden has a theory. If
everyone else is doing X, sheshould do Y. When others
see a horse at auction they don’t likebecause of an imperfection or two,
she sees a bargain. When others see asire that has fallen out of favor or thatwas never popular to begin with, shesees an opportunity. When it comesto raising young horses, she won’t dowhat everyone else does. She will dowhat works for her.
That might be why Brogden andher partners at Machmer Hall, aParis, Kentucky-based farm thatboards, breeds, raises, races and sells
horses, have done so well. The nameMachmer Hall comes from a building
at the University of Massachusetts
named in honor of Carrie Brodgen’s
great-grandfather, a former dean of
the university.
Established in 2001 and co-owned
by Brogden’s husband, Craig, andher mother, Sandy Willwerth,Machmer Hall has
been involved
withseveral success stories, particularly
when it comes to pinhooking
ventures.
The latest hit came at the OBS
March Sale of Selected Two-Yearolds in Training, where a partnershipthat included Brogden sold a horse to
Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stables for$225,000. The colt, by Imperialism,
has come a long way from its days asa weanling by a $5,000 Florida-based
sire. Brogden bought the colt, out of
Certainly Royal, for $6,000 at the2009 OBS October sale.
“We’re willing to step outside thebox with pedigrees,” she said. “Wetry to find big, strong horses who will
outrun their pedigrees.”
That takes a good eye. Brogden began
to develop hers while very young. The
daughter of two veterinarians, she’s
been around horses most of her lifeand started riding at a young age.
Brogden went to James Madison
University, where she got a degreein psychology
and biology,
but knew that
she would
eventuallyg e tinvolved in

Brogden gets up close and personal with her boarders.

Thoroughbred racing. Everything
started to click when she met and thenmarried Craig, an Australian native.
He had worked at Three Chimneys,
and also under the tutelage of thelate Dr. Phil McCarthy. In 2001, thetwo, along with Willwerth, opened
Machmer Hall, then only 105 acres.
Just starting out and undercapitalized
at the time, the Brogdens knew
they probably weren’t going to be
involved with too many horses withfashionable pedigrees. Instead, theylooked for horses they thought might
benefit from their care and attention,
ones that no one else wanted to takea chance on. The problem that kept
the big spenders away from a horse at
the sales might just be something they
could easily fix.
“We will buy the horse that has adefect we can deal with, improve on
and correct,” Craig Brogden said. “If
we do our jobs right, then we cansell the horse at a significant profit.
A lot of horses have been discounted
because of vetting issues that aren’t
necessarily long-term vetting issues.
They are developmental. An example
is the weanling that has a throat
problem. Young horses get sick andwhen they get sick, it’s like a person inthat their throat kind of tightens up
and things don’t work right for them.
During that three or four-day windowat the sales when they have to have aperfect throat, they might just be sickbecause of the stress of the shipping
and being at the sales and then they
fail the vets.”
While the Brogdens willvalueaveterinarian’s
opinion, they don’t
think the vets haveall the answers. They will listen towhat a consignor or seller has to say,as long as it is someone they trust.
“It’s about having a relationshipwith the seller and trusting the seller
and what the seller is telling you,”
Craig Brogden said. “They can tell
you what the horse was like before thesale, before something minor went
wrong. You can make a good decision
based on that information and notjust based on what you see that one
instant while at the sales.”The Brogdens, who involve partners
in virtually all the horses they breed,buy and sell, have had a number ofthen turned around and sold the foal
for $270,000 at Keeneland November
in 2009. They bought a Maria’s
Mon colt for $50,000 at Keeneland
November in 2006, and resold it for$220,000 at Keeneland September
the following year.
But nothing compares to the home
run they hit with a Medaglia d’Oro
colt out of I’ll Do It My Way theypurchased for just $10,000 at FasigTipton February in 2008. They
resold him just five months later for$260,000 at Fasig Tipton July. Of
course, it helped that in between
the dates of the two sales, Medaglia“The biggest
thing for us isthat we do not‘hot house’
anything.
They are out,
and I meanout.”
- Carrie Brogden
Carrie Brogden and Andrew Caryat the 2009 Fasig-Tipton July sale.
success stories as pinhookers. They
always buy low. They try to neverspend more than $60,000 for a horse.
Oftentimes, they sell high.
They purchased Pulsion, who ran
second in the Grade I Norfolk lastyear, for $60,000 as a weanling at
OBS October in 2007, and sold him
for nine months later for $200,000
at the Fasig-Tipton July sale. The
Machmer Hall team bought a marenamed Excellentadventure in foal to
Dixie Union privately for $60,000
from Gainesway after she RNA’d for$70,000 at Keeneland November andd’Oro’s daughter Rachel Alexandra
broke her maiden and finished secondin a stakes race.
“He was kind of a weaker horse witha big giant walk that was a little flat in
the knees,” Carrie Brogden said. “Hestrengthened up a lot after we got
him. I noticed that the stallions thatwere making it, like Pollard’s Visionand Lemon Drop Kid, were absolute
warriors with speed. That seemed tobe what was working. People weren’tthat high on Medaglia d’Oro at thestart because he doesn’t have the mostcommercial pedigree. I loved the factthat he was an absolute warrior on the
racetrack. I had to have somethingby him. I thought he had it all:beauty, brains, brawn, finesse, speed.
I thought he was going to breakthrough as a stallion.”With any pinhooking deal, it’svital that the horse looks its very bestwhen it returns to the sales. For some,that means being very protective of
the horses during their stay at thefarm. Carrie Brogden doesn’t believein that. She wants her horses to behorses--to learn, grow, play and evenroughhouse in a natural setting thattakes mankind out of the equation
as much as possible. That philosophy
grew out of a situation when Brogden
came across a horse raised in virtual
seclusion.
“He was raised in California and hehad a lot of talent, but had never beenraised with other horses and he wasso afraid,” she said. “He couldn’t run.
He’s a great show hunter now because
his best friends are humans. But hewas terrified of other horses.”That’s not going to happen with a
Machmer Hall production.
“The biggest thing for us is that
we do not ‘hot house’ anything,” shesaid. “They are out and I mean out.
The yearlings will come in Monday
through Friday for about an hour inthe mornings to get fed and so we
can take a look at them, but that’s it.
I want them out there beating the hellout of each other and being used toclose quarters.”
When it’s time to prep the horses forthe sales, the tactics change and theemphasis is put on making the young
horse look as good as possible. But
Carrie Brogden believes a foundation
has already been built that will help
down the road when the horses get to
the track.
“If it gets to the point where they
are actually hurting one another, we
will separate them, but 99.99 percentof the time they will not get separated
until we get into sales-prep mode,”
Carrie Brogden said. “Are we goingto have less-than-perfect vetting
sometimes? Possibly. But I wantpeople to keep coming back to us.”According to records supplied to the
2CIG

TDN by Carrie Brogden, Machmer
Hall returned a 99 percent net profit
on its pinhooking ventures in 2006.
With their profits, they expanded
the farm, which now consists of 360
acres.
Their net profit was 44 percent in
2007, and 42 percent in 2008. Theirnet was down to 15 percent in 2009 as
Machmer Hall, like virtually everyone
else selling horses last year, was hit by
the downturn in the market.
The Brogdens are reassessing theirstrategies, again trying to stay ahead of
the pack, ever more important during
a poor economy. They have decided
to take on less risk, which means
concentrating on proven stallions andfirst- or second-year stallions that stillmight be a bargain.
“We bought a Borrego in Februarywith Hunter Valley Farms as ourpartner that I loved,” Carrie Brogden
said. “He’s a big, strong gorgeous colt
we got for just $7,000. People arescared right now, and that helps us
find horses like this. Is Borrego goingto make it? I am willing to bet that hewill. He’s a son of El Prado and he wasa serious race horse.”
But should their next round of
pinhooking ventures not go well,
Machmer Hall has plenty to fall backon. It is a diversified operation that
has its hand in a number of different
facets on the game.
Along with Andrew Cary, Tom
Ryan, and Sandy Willwerth, Carrie
Brogden has started Select Sales, aconsignment agency. They debuted at
the sales in 2009 and were the seventhleading weanling consignor in North
America, selling 32 weanlings for a
combined $1,470,700.
As breeders, the Machmer Hall teamalso has had success and will continue
to breed horses on a relatively small
scale. In partnership with Will Farish,
they bred Premium Tap, the winnerof the 2006 Grade I Woodward and a$2.5 million earner on the racetrack.
They also race a handful of horses
and do so with an eye on letting themprove themselves on the racetrack
before selling them. That’s what

Brogden at her Machmer Hall in Paris, KY., where she boards, breeds,
raises, and sells horses.
happened with Join in The Dance. Be Happy My Love was sold for
Machmer Hall bred the son of Sky $360,000 at the 2004 Keeneland
Mesa in a partnership, but it soon November Sale.
They also continue to board otherbecame apparent that a problem with
Equine OCD in the colt’s front ankle people’s mares. Tampa Bay Derby
was going to be a serious impediment winner Odysseus was born and raised
to selling him. The Brogdens at Machmer Hall.
To do so many things at once issuspected the horse would be justfine, and he proved as much when he not easy. Craig Brogden likes to kid
broke his maiden at Arlington Park his wife that she spends the majority
in his second career start. Afterward, of her life on her cell phone. She has
Join in The Dance was sold privately three young children to look after,
for $250,000. He would go on to plus the 60 or so yearlings currently
finish second in the Tampa Bay and on the farm. She works hard, which
Pennsylvania Derbies and seventh in is what you have to do when you’re ina tough business and trying to makethe Kentucky Derby.
And sometimes Brogden will buy money. But it’s also her enthusiasm
a horse right off the track. Pay close that keeps her going in so many
enough attention to what is going directions at once.
“I can’t believe I get to do what I
on, and sooner or later a bargain willturn up. In 2004, in partnership with do,” she said. “It’s an absolute labor of
Brereton Jones, she bought a cheap love. I wish that everybody could feelclaimer named Be Happy My Love as about their work the way I do.”Like many, she worries aboutpart of a package deal, estimating thecost of the filly at around $55,000. racing’s future. She believes the sport
She was willing to pay that much for must find a way to organize under aa filly who had only recently lost a commissioner, get rid of the drugs and$6,500 claiming race by 34 ½ lengths downsize when it comes to breeding
because she had noticed the filly was and racing. Some claim those things
a half-sister to an up-and-coming will never happen, that there are too
horse named Smarty Jones. When many obstacles in the way to topple
Smarty Jones won the Kentucky the status quo. Brogden hates that.
Derby and Preakness, Brogden had in It’s conventional thinking. That’s
her possession a valuable broodmare something she doesn’t believe in.
prospect. In foal to Proud Citizen,

MEDAGLIA D’ORO BREEDS SUCCESS$1.6 MILLIONTWO-YEAR-OLD,$1.5MILLIONYEARLING,$1.3 MILLIONYEARLING,$1.1 MILLIONYEARLING.
Well, they say gold is thesafest bet in troubled times...

D

avid Hanley has always done
a little bit of this and a little
bit of that. He’s trained horses and bred horses, including Eclipse
Award winner Golden Apples. He
designed an uphill gallop at the Hurricane Hall stallion and training operation. He is an accomplished equestrian. Yet, he always seems to comeback to pinhooking. There’s a reason
for that: he’s good at it.
Modest and careful not to comeacross as a know-it-all, Hanley won’t
say that. But he doesn’t have to. The
numbers speak for themselves.

Perhaps no pinhooker had a betteryear in 2009 than Hanley did. The
Irish transplant, who, along with hiswife, Ann, operates a Lexington-based
farm called Whitechurch, sold a Medaglia d’Oro colt out of Kendall Hill
for $875,000 and a Tiznow filly out of
Positive Energy for $725,000 at FasigTipton Saratoga. Some nine months
earlier, Hanley bought the two for a
combined $405,000 at Keeneland
November. In 2009, at Fasig-Tipton
Kentucky July, Whitechurch soldstill another Medaglia d’Oro filly for$425,000, or $340,000 more than it
paid for the yearling six months earlier
at Keeneland January.
A year earlier at Fasig-Tipton July,
Hanley sold a daughter of Exchange
Rate for $375,000 after purchasing
the filly for $100,000 at Keeneland
November in 2007. Both the Exchange Rate and Medaglia d’Oro fillies were the sales toppers at their respective Fasig-Tipton July sales.
He bought an Indian Charlie colt
for $75,000 at Keeneland November
2008 and turned around and sold it
for $150,000 at Keeneland September 2009. He must have been on tosomething: the colt was subsequently
sold for $675,000 at the 2010 FasigTipton February sale.
Hanley, 51, didn’t think he’d be immersed in the buying and selling ofhorses when he moved to Kentucky
in 2002. Based in Ireland at the timeand primarily working as a trainer, hedecided he wanted to get more involved in the bloodstock side of theracing business and figured he needed
to relocate to Kentucky to maximize
his potential. He came here in 2001
and wanted to train, breed, and buy
and sell at the sales. Initially, he part-

nered with Needham Betz Thoroughbreds before joining Hurricane Hall
as a co-owner of that operation alongwith Ben P. Walden Jr., Patrick Madden and Brad Kelley.
Hanley was brought in to be thetrainer for the Hurricane Hall racing operation and did win nine races
with Hurricane Hall runners in 2006
and 2007, but the partnership was
eventually dissolved. That left Hanley
with time on his hands and looking
for a way to pay the bills. It was backto pinhooking. It was something hehad always been successful at during
his many years in Ireland, where hepartnered with James Egan of Corduff
Stud on several successful ventures.
“It wasn’t the plan to do this,” hesaid. “I am a horseman, a trainer anda rider; I have spent my whole life riding horses. But I had a lot of successin Ireland buying yearlings cheaply
and running them as 2-year-olds andHanley, 51, didn’t think he’d be immersed in the buying and selling ofhorses when he moved to Kentucky in 2002
2CIG

Hanley keeps just about 11 horses at a time on his 52 acres in Kentucky.
winning and then selling them. The
experience of training 2-year-olds
and training the group winners I did
certainly allows you to appreciate
what people are looking for in a goodhorse.”All pinhookers have the same goal,
to buy low and sell high. It’s figuring
how to get that done on a consistentbasis that is the tricky part.
Part of the equation involves finding a weanling that looks like it is going to grow and develop into an athlete. For Hanley to be successful, thehorses he buys have to look better at
the sale he sells them at than they did
at the sale he bought them at. If forced
to choose, he said that Keeneland November would be his preferred weanling sale, just for sheer volume, whichleads to opportunity. He feels most
comfortable buying in the $50,000 to$250,000 range.
“What changes from year to year as
far as the value? What you are trying
to see is if the horse can improve from
where he’s at right now,” he said. “A“When you have yourown money down andit’s your investment,
it certainly motivatesthe mind to be creative
and to take care of yourbusiness and pay particular attention to details.” -David Hanley
lot of times when you are buying foals,
they are far from the finished product. If they have the physical structure where you know they’re going togrow, they’re going to be movers, andthey have the balance and the skeletal
structure to develop the physique you
are looking for when you go to sellthem, then you’ve probably landed onsomething good. It’s a matter of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.”But Hanley is just one of many

when it comes to having a good eye
for a horse. His ability to produce somany yearlings that prove to be attractive has a lot to do with how he handles the horses during the brief timethey are in his care. He prefers to keep
his numbers small, handling about 11
horses at a time. That way, no detail isoverlooked.
“He’s a perfectionist and when prepping horses he goes through more detail than anyone I know,” said bloodstock agent Mike Ryan. “Because thisis his complete focus--raising, prepping and developing those yearlings
for sale--he brings them there in absolute mint condition. With the amountof time he spends with those horses,
he gets to know them like you know
your children. In a large operation,
you might not get to know your horses as well because you may not havethe time to be that hands-on with somany horses. David has a small, boutique operation and his numbers arevery manageable.”
To come up with those 11, hewhittles down from literally 1,000 or
more. “I look at nearly all the yearlingsin the sale, except sires and pedigrees
that have no shot. From the first fourbooks, for example, I’d look at nearly
all of them. I go through the catalogue
and try to make lists, but in the first
three or four books, nearly everything
qualifies.”
The selection process also relies
heavily on trusted veterinarians like
Scott Pierce and Daryl Easley. “We Xray and scope,” Hanley said. “We vet
every horse we’re interested in, and I
am very much led by my vet. If he’s
comfortable, we’re comfortable. We’ll
put up with some little things on the
X-ray he feels may improve. On thescope, the horse has to scope good. It’svery hard to overcome a bad scope.”
As Hanley describes his methodology once the prospects are in hand, it
becomes obvious that he focuses on
his horses virtually every waking hour.
He comes to know them as individuals and devises different programsfor each horse. Some may do a lot ofswimming. Others may spend more of
their time jogging. Still others may do
a lot of walking. Hanley is constantly
tweaking things like what he feeds his
horses. He is constantly monitoring
the weight of each horse. He is careful about the surface over which they
jog and walk, constantly cultivating it
so that it provides the optimal cushion
for a young, growing horse.
“We only have 52 acres, so we
can only have about 11 horses a
year,” he said. “That allows us
to really focus on those horses.
I wouldn’t want to speak negatively
about anyone elseor how they dothings and I

know there are other operations thatdo every bit as good a job as we do,
but what makes us different is our
size. With a big farm where a guy
might have 50 or 100 yearlings, they
have to rely on managers and barn
foremen. When you have your own
money down and it’s your investment,
it certainly motivates the mind to becreative and to take care of your business and pay particular attention todetails.”
Once he has the horses ready for
sale, he has to decide where the bestplace to sell them is and in what partof that particular sale. He doesn’t haveto have his horses in the most prestigious sales, especially if that means
they might be overshadowed by better-bred horses.
“You don’t want to put a horse inBook 1 or in a select sale if it isn’t
good enough,” Hanley said. “Youwant to put your horse where he’s going to be one of the better horses offered in that sale, whether it’s Book 1,
2, 3, 4, whether it’s July or whether it’sin Saratoga. The one thing you don’t
want to be is in a select sale with ahorse that doesn’t make the cut. Then

Before he even gets to a sale, Hanley has done hours of research

you’re dead.”
The other part of the equation ispicking sires on the rise before everyone else realizes they are sires on therise. That, Hanley admits, sometimes
involves a little luck. That two of his
biggest successes came with offspringof Medaglia d’Oro had as much to
do with Rachel Alexandra’s historic
campaign as anything else. When hebought the weanlings, Hanley had no
idea a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro
would soon emerge as one of racing’s
all-time greats.
“Last year, we were very lucky tohave two Medaglio d’Oros and findourselves in a situation where a stallion takes a big jump like he did,” hesaid.
The final piece to the puzzle is finding horses who will not only increasein value at a subsequent sale, but who
will go on to be good race horses. If
Hanley sold nothing but horses who
never panned out on the racetrack,
most people would be unwillingto take a chance on the yearlings hebrought to the sales. In that area, healso has an impressive record. As a
trainer, breeder, buyer or seller, he has

2CIG

“You cannot be judged on
one or two years’ performance. If you are at this for
10 years and you’re still doing it and doing well at it,
that’s when you have provensomething.” - David Hanley

Medaglia d’Oro was responsible for two of Hanley’s 2009 home runs.

been involved with many top horses.
Golden Apples leads the list. She
earned $1.6 million on the track andwon five graded stakes races, threeof them Grade I events. Hanley andpartner James Egan bought GoldenApples’ dam, Loon, at the 1997 Tattersalls December sale for 13,000
guineas. She was in foal at the time
and was carrying Golden Apples, whois by Pivotal.
The list of horses Hanley and his
partners have bred, raised or pinhooked is an impressive one. It
includes Acorn winner Forest Secrets; Rebelline, a Group 1 winner in
Ireland; and Chief Seattle, therunner-up in the 1999 Breeders’
Cup Juvenile.
“He has an exceptional eye and he’sa very skilled horseman,” Ryan saidof Hanley. “A lot of people can lookat horses and pick the obvious ones.
But when you’re buying weanlings—
and there are five or six guys who do itvery well—not only do they buy nicehorses that turn out to be nice yearlings, they buy horses who turn out tobe nice race horses.”
Hanley believes anyone can get
lucky once, maybe even twice. That’s
why he’s so reluctant to pat himself on
the back.
“You cannot be judged on one or

two years’ performance,” he said. “Ifyou are at this for 10 years and you’re
still doing it and doing well at it, that’s
when you have proven something.”
Hanley knows that 2010 may not
be as good to him as 2009 was, but
he is optimistic that it will be anotherprofitable year. To him, consistency
is important; to be truly successful inthe pinhooking business, you must get
results year after year.
He has 11 horses to sell this year andwill spread them out among Keeneland September and Fasig-Tipton’s Julyand Saratoga sales. Combined, the 11
yearlings cost him about $1.1 million,
and the list includes offspring of Tapit,
Tiznow, Hard Spun, Indian Charlie
and, yes, another Medaglia d’Oro filly.
Like most everyone else, Hanley isworried about the current economic
climate in racing and at the sales andknows he will be selling this year inwhat is sure to be a buyers’ market. So
far as the pinhooking business goes,
he wants to stay in only as long as it
makes sense to stay in. If changing
economics make pinhooking a losing
proposition, he will look for something else to do.
“I will keep pinhooking as long as
the opportunities are still there and
I am confident I can buy the righthorses,” he said. “You always have tokeep moving. You can’t sit still. It’s achanging game, so you have to be really careful about your approach to it.
It’s really hard right now to see where
this business is going.”
He hasn’t lost his desire to train.
He’s also interested in breeding more.
Because of the size limitations of his
farm, he has only two broodmares,
but says he could always look for abigger place and expand that part ofhis operation. What’s his future? He
can better answer that question after
the major 2010 yearling sales. Most
likely, he’s not going anywhere.

MEDAGLIA D’ORO BREEDS SUCCESSWE THOUGHTWE COULDLIST ALL THE
TOP MARES
VISITING
HIM THISYEAR...
But we’ve nothing likeenough space so we’ve putthem all on our website:www.darleyamerica.com

George and Lori Hall are major players in Thoroughbred
racing. They just don’t spend
like ones.
Few in the sport have done morewith less. Though their racing stable
has existed only since the summer of2005, the Halls have won 19 stakeswith 12 different horses. They have
had two horses start in the Kentucky
Derby and have won three gradedraces. They have done so while buying yearlings largely out of Book 3of the Keeneland September Saleand spending less than $100,000 per
horse on average.
Their first stakes winner, Keeneland Kat, a filly by Hennessy, cost
$77,000. She won the listed Sorority
Stakes, finished third in the Grade I
Frizette and is now a broodmare who
has produced foals by Ghostzapper,
Empire Maker, Fusaichi Pegasus and
Mr. Greeley.
Their first graded stakes winner,
West Side Bernie, who is by Bernstein,cost $50,000. He won the Grade III
Kentucky Cup Juvenile, finished second in the Grade I Wood Memorial,
started in the Kentucky Derby andwas sold privately to Godolphin Racing for what was no doubt a considerable profit.
Their most productive runner, Bold
Union, was purchased for $75,000.
By Dixie Union, she has won fivestakes races and has earned more than$350,000.
“Ultimately, it’s an investment
choice,” George Hall said. “We see
the most value there. I am trained tolook at everything so far as return on
capital and there’s an argument to bemade for buying more high-priced
horses because of the overhead. The
costs to care for an expensive horse
and a cheaper horse are the same. But
we’ve found you’re more likely to havea $100,000 horse that’s worth $1 million than a $600,000 horse that turns
out to be worth $6 million. It seems
that the return on capital and thevalue you can get on these horses isbetter in that range.”
That wasn’t necessarily the idea

when the Halls got into the businessin 2004. George Hall, 49, grew up on
Long Island and had a doting grandfather who loved to take Hall and his
brother to Aqueduct, Belmont andSaratoga. He grew up as a racing fan
and always wanted to get involved as
an owner.
After he graduated from the Wharton School of the University ofPennsylvania, Hall would become
the founder, president and majority
shareholder of Clinton Group, Inc.,an investment company that manages more than $6 billion in capital.
Shortly after the Halls settled
in Middletown, N.J., about eight
miles from Monmouth Park, a mutual friend introduced the couple totrainer Kelly Breen. Liking Breenand sensing it was a good time toget started as an owner, he told the
young trainer he would let him buy
some horses for him. As far as plansgo, that was the extent of it.
“I never discussed the economics ofhorse racing with anybody,” George

Hall said. “I met him at the track andhe invited us to go back to his barn
and see his horses. I took a liking to
Kelly and thought maybe I’d buy a
few horses. It was as simple as that.
We just decided to go for it. I wasn’t
thinking of it as a business. We invested strictly as a hobby.”
Breen suggested they begin by buying yearlings at Keeneland September. The Halls decided to buy four,coming up with that number because
they figured that, statistically, at least
one was likely to make it to the races.
The original four cost a combined$182,000 and included Keeneland
Kat and Fagan’s Legacy, who won thelisted Pilgrim Stakes. The Halls won
their very first race, a maiden special
weight at Monmouth with Keeneland Kat, and won the Sorority with
Keeneland Kat in their third start asowners.
“Yes, we started to think it was
easy…really easy,” Lori Hall admits.
Of course, nothing comes that easily in Thoroughbred racing, at least'37+2*161

George and Lori spend a day at Monmouth Park with the family.

2CIG

over an extended period of time. But
the early success allowed the Halls tosettle on a formula that worked forthem and encouraged them to invest
more in the business.
They bought eight yearlings in theirsecond trip to Keeneland September,paying a combined $552,000 for thegroup. The list includes their first sixfigure purchase, a Yonaguska filly thatcost them $155,000.
When you’re spending $552,000
for eight horses, someone better havea good eye for a horse and for a bargain. With the Halls, that person is
Breen.
Breen, 40, was an assistant to Ben
Perkins Jr. before going out on his
own in 2000. He was just what theHalls were looking for, someone withability, a good reputation and who
wasn’t so immersed with anothermajor stable that he couldn’t devote
his full attention to helping build theHalls’ operation.
“Kelly’s got the heart, the drive
and the ambition,” Lori Hall said.
“And he was very successful
with a barn that consistedof 75-percent claimers. We
thought that if we gave him
better tools to work with hewould really shine. I think
Kelly can compete with any
trainer.”
Breen begins his assault on
the sales about two weeks
before they begin, studying
the catalogues and looking
for horses he thinks might
be available for what theHalls are willing to spend.
He will not buy 2-year-olds because
he believes some horses available atthose sales have been put through toomuch to get them there.
“We primarily want something that
isn’t tainted, which is why we haven’tbought any 2-year-olds in training,”
he said. “When you go to a 2-yearold-in-training sale, those horses havebeen stressed. They’ve gone an eighthof a mile, they’ve been in training. We
want horses that have gone throughas little stress as possible. It’s hard to

re-evaluate their list and put a priceon what they think each horse isworth. The Halls are adamant about
not bidding above the price they haveestablished for each horse.
“We try to be as disciplined as wecan,” George Hall said. “We set a
certain number and we try to neverto go above that number. It’s easy to
get into a heated battle when you
are competing for a horse, but if you
don’t have the discipline to stop at a
certain level, you’re eventually goingto pay the price.”
If the Halls, Breen and Holly believe a horse has the athleticism to become a quality racehorse and will not
be overvalued in the sales ring, they
will target it. The idea is not necessarily to find future sires, something thatis all but impossible to do when you
are buying a lot of $60,000 yearlings.
They want good racehorses.
“When we buy, we strictly buy
for racing,” George Hall said. “If wedevelop a good broodmare, we will
breed them. If we were ever fortunate enough to find one thatcan go on to be a good sire,of course, we’d love for thatto happen. We just don’t focus on the breeding end. We
buy strictly based on what we
think their ability to run well
will be.”Sometimes, finding a goodrunner is enough.
After the $50,000 yearling
purchase West Side Bernie
finished second in last year’s
Wood Memorial, he caught
the eye of someone involved
fect. The Halls won’t spend the mon- with the Godolphin team. The Halls
agreed to sell him in a deal that iney it takes to get that kind of horse.
“A lot depends on whether or not I cluded a provision whereby the colt
can live with the horse,” Breen said. would run in their name in the Ken“Some times we won’t get the pristine tucky Derby and they would keep
horse when it comes to their legs. any purse money earned in that race.
Picking them out and having to train West Side Bernie finished ninth in thethem, I know what I can live with, Derby and was soon thereafter turned
and that’s a big factor. If the legs are over to Godolphin’s American-based
perfect, they’re probably horses we stable.
Goldolphin would soon strike
can’t afford.”
Just before the horses go through again. With West Side Bernie gone,
the ring, the Halls and their team will Atomic Rain became the leading

keep horses sound as it is. We want toknow everything that has been doneto the horses we might buy and knowthat they haven’t been stressed yet.”Once Breen has put together a listof prospective horses to buy, he, theHalls and Dale Holly, who runs afarm the couple recently purchased in
Kentucky, go from barn to barn andcheck out each individual.
Breen knows that it’s all but impossible for him to buy a horse with agreat pedigree that looks next to per-

“We just don’t focus on the breedingend. We buy strictly based on what
we think their ability to run well willbe.” -George Hall

The Halls sold West Side Bernie to Godolphin prior to the 2009 Derby.

3-year-old colt in the Halls’ barn. After he finished 16th in the Kentucky
Derby, he won an allowance race at
Monmouth Park and then the Long
Branch, a prep for the Haskell. After the Long Branch, Godolphin
swooped in and bought him from theHalls. A son of Smart Strike, Atomic
Rain costs $170,000 at the sales.
The Halls signed a non-disclosureagreement with Godolphin andthey cannot reveal how much they
were paid for either horse. There’s nodoubt, though, that their profit was
substantial.
The sale of the two colts to Godolphin meant the best year yet for
the Halls, at least when it comes totheir bottom line. The revenue fromthe sales prompted the Halls to spend
more lavishly at the 2009 Keeneland September sale. They bought 24
horses for a combined $2,435,000.
With a rare foray into Book One,
they bought an A.P. Indy filly for$325,000, the most they have everspent on a horse.
“What hasn’t changed is the philosophy,” Breen said. “We still insist
on value. With an A.P. Indy filly, we
believe that even if she doesn’t domuch on the racetrack, she’s still going to be worth maybe $300,000 as abroodmare.”
The size of their operation has

grown over the years. They do not go
to the sales with any set numbers in
mind, but look to buy enough horses
so that they can be reasonably certainthat Breen will have about 35 runners
at his disposal come the beginning of
the subsequent Monmouth meet.
The number will include holdovers“I would imagine some of thelarger commercial
stables look at us
like we’re from thepeanut gallery.”- Lori Hall
from the prior year plus a handful ofhomebreds. The Halls have developed
enough quality fillies in their shorttime as owners that they have beenable to expand the breeding end of
their operation. They have purchased
a farm in Versailles, Kentucky, and in2009 had their first major success as
breeders with a filly named Truth andJustice. She won three Listed stakes,
including the Sorority, and earned$238,500. It was, however, a bittersweet story. She broke down in theGrade III Delta Downs Princess andhad to be euthanized.
The Halls are already off to a goodstart in 2010. Bickersons, a Silver
Deputy filly that cost them $80,000,
won the Grade II Forward Gal at
Gulfstream. In The Rough, a Stormy
Atlantic filly they purchased for$40,000, won Gulfstream’s Coconut
Grove Stakes. Nacho Friend finishedthird in the Grade III Gotham. He
is by Friends Lake and cost $30,000.
They’ll be among the horses thatthe Halls will have bedded down
this summer at Monmouth, a track
to which they have been loyal since
their start in the business and wellbefore that track instituted a purse
structure where $1 million a day will
be paid out. But their horses will be
racing throughout the country, withblue-collar pedigrees and inexpensive
price tags that will often make themseem out of place in the sport’s biggest races.
“I would imagine some of thelarger commercial stables look at us
like we’re from the peanut gallery,”
Lori Hall said. “They probably think,‘Oh, they’re going to run a $40,000
horse against our $500,000 horse.’
That makes it more satisfying for us.
I don’t care if we come in with a 30-1
shot. That’s okay. I don’t care about
the odds. I believe in the heart of ourhorses.”For the Halls, racing remains morea sport than a business. George Hall
rides a lead pony during training
hours at Monmouth on the weekends. Lori Hall falls in love with allof her horses. Their entire family
likes nothing more than to spend asummer afternoon at beautiful Monmouth Park. That’s why they got involved in racing.
But the Halls also know something about investing wisely, making
prudent decisions and surrounding
yourself with good people. Do that inany business and you’re bound to be
successful. You don’t have to be a big
spender. Just smart.

2CIGMEDAGLIA D’ORO BREEDS SUCCESS

HEY! ANDWE DIDN’T
EVEN
MENTION
RACHELALEXANDRA!
DarleyA

year, he had claimed a horse named
Snake River Canyon for $62,500 out
of a maiden race and was rewarded
with a win at the $75,000 level sevenweeks later. He thought that colt had
a lot of potential and was disappointed when the horse was claimed awayfrom him. That the 2-year-old in the
Keeneland sale happened to be a halfbrother to Snake River Canyon was,to him, a big plus.
The result was the purchase of Big

Backseat Rhythm, This Ones For Philand Franny Freud. He has also hadsome major successes in his pinhooking ventures, most notably with Desert Party. Pompa bought the son ofStreet Cry for $425,000 at the 2007
Keeneland September sale and thenturned around and sold him for $2.1
million at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton
2-year-old sale the following February.
As was the case with Big Brown,

Brown for a relative pittance, a smart
move on the owner’s part and the result of a team effort. If there’s a secret to Pompa’s success, it’s that he’ssmart enough to surround himself
with smart people. There has perhaps
been no smarter alliance than Pompa’s partnership with Hidden Brook.
“You have to be focused all thetime and you have to find people toadvise you who really care about you
versus people thatjust want to makemoney off of you,”
Pompa said. “Youto have to have atrusting relationship with people,
and that only
comes with time.”
Pompa, the president of a trucking
company based in
Brooklyn and an
owner since 2000,
may be best known
for his ownershipof Big Brown, butthere’s a lot more tohis story. In full orin partnerships, hehas owned several
other top horses,
like stakes winners
D’Funnybone,
Pompa and Edgar Prado accept the trophy after
D’Funnybone’s Saratoga Special win.

Hidden Brook Farm was one of theguiding forces behind the decision to
buy Desert Party as a yearling.
If two heads are better than one,then five heads must be the stuff of genius. That was the general idea when
Hall, Jack Brothers, Sergio de Sousa,
Mark Roberts and Dan Vella came
together in 2002 and formed Hidden
Brook Farm. All five had years of experience, much of it with the Adena
Springs operation, and solid reputations in the Thoroughbred business.
They had always done well working
for other people and decided their
combined knowledge could form an
unbeatable and profitable team that
did a lot of things and tried to do allof them well. Hidden Brook boards
mares, preps horses for the sales, consigns horses, advises clients at thesales, raises foals, breeds and races.
“There are the five of us and we eachbring different things to the table,
and that’s been part of the key to our
success, being able to branch out in a
lot of different directions,” Hall said.
“We’re not just a boarding operation,
we’re not just a sales consignor; ourbusiness isn’t based strictly on privatetransactions and it isn’t based strictly
on purchasing and public sales. But
we tend to bring all of that together.”“You don’t have one person withthem. You have several people whot the 2007 Keeneland April
Two-Year-Olds in Training
Sale, a lot of people looked
at a particular youngster by Boundary and, apparently, didn’t like what
they saw. There’s no other way to explain how the colt who would go on
to be named Big Brown was boughtfor just $190,000. A lot of people
thought they saw something rather
ordinary. Paul Pompa Jr. and his advisors looked at the same horse andsaw something exceptional.
“This sounds like a cliché when
you’re talking about a Derby horse,
but he was an athletic horse, a beautiful moving horse,” said Dan Hall,a partner in Hidden Brook Farm,which advises Pompa and was instrumental in the purchase of Big Brown.
“With him, it wasn’t a matter of going out of your way to buy a pedigree. It may not be by a sire that’s theflavor of the month at that particulartime. The key is that they are athletic,
which he was. He had a great mind,
and all the parts came together.”
Hidden Brook liked the colt and so
did Pompa’s veterinarian, Dr. Michael
Chovanes. The rest was up to Pompa.
He wasn’t a hard sell. Earlier that

have a wealth of experience and awealth of knowledge,” Pompa saidof the Hidden Brook team. “By thetime they come to me, I have a lot ofknowledge behind the advice I’m given. You get a general consensus so far
as what they present to you when it
comes to breeding, yearlings, 2-yearolds, what sales we should buy at. It
really works.”
Hidden Brook opened as a modestly sized farm with 180 developed
acres that concentrated on boarding
mares. Among the first horses to takeup residence at the Paris, Kentucky,
farm was the broodmare Pretty Discreet, who was in foal at the time toForestry. The foal turned out to be
Discreet Cat, an electrifying maiden
winner at Saratoga who was sold byowner Joyce Robsham to Godolphin
Racing. After two starts in Dubai,
Discreet Cat returned to the U.S. andwon the Grade I Cigar Mile at Aqueduct in 2006.
Pretty Discreet has also produced
Discreetly Mine, who was foaled andraised at Hidden Brook before hewon the Grade II Risen Star Stakes
earlier this year at the Fair Grounds.
Hidden Brook also raised Grade I
winner Dixie Chatter and Grade II
winners Awesome Maria and Amen
Hallelujah.
Boarding mares and raising horses
is only so lucrative, no matter how
good you are at it. With that in mind,
the Hidden Brook team was soon
branching out, looking for new ventures and new clients, like Pompa.
Musket Man, recently second by anose in the Grade I Carter, is a Hidden Brook product. He was bred by
de Sousa in partnership with Jim Nelson. At the sales, they do more thanadvise buyers. Hidden Brook is now
fully immersed in the consignmentside of the sales. By 2007, it ranked
No. 8 in the world in total sales. Occasionally, Hidden Brook will get
into the racing side of the business.
The star of their racing ventures has
been Knights Templar. Hidden Brookbought the filly at the 2005 Keeneland September Sale for $80,000,

After Big Brown broke his maiden, Paul Pompa sold 75 percent of the colt to
IEAH Stables in a deal that put the colt’s value at $3 million.

have been any different had he won
the Breeders’ Cup.”
De Sousa is the hands-on guy. He
runs the farm, deals with the needs ofthe clients’ horses and gets his hands
dirty. Hall is the businessman. He
has a background in accounting andhis primary role is to help grow thebusiness. He’s always recruiting newclients and looking for more horses tosell. Brothers specializes in arranging
and has years of experience
When it comes to rais- matingsin bloodstock. He was a long-time
ing and foaling horses, bloodstock advisor to Frank Stronach
still does work for Adena Springs.
there are no secrets to andHe’s also the people guy, the type that
Hidden Brook’s suc- knows just about everyone in thebusiness and is well-liked, importantcess. It’s more a mat- assets in any growing business.
Vella and Roberts are not inter of making sure ev- volvedin the day-to-day operation
ery need of a young, of the business and neither lives in
Vella is a trainer based at
growing horse is taken Kentucky.
Woodbine and Roberts is the farmcare of and no detail is manger of Adena Springs South inFlorida.
overlooked.
The Hidden Brook staff includes- Sergio de Sousa Mike Recio, who has worked at Taylor Made and Mill Ridge Farm. He
first horse we bred that raced in our handles bloodstock services and clicolors is a horse called Maccarib Pass. ent relations. Alan Fahey is Hidden
He won a $40,000 maiden claimer Brook’s broodmare manager. They
at Gulfstream. The feeling wouldn’t complete a team that was built with
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raced her in a partnership and collected the 2007 Canadian Juvenile
Filly Championship after she won
two stakes that year at Woodbine.
“That’s what I enjoy the most, racing the horses,” de Sousa said. “That’s
what we do; we raise these horses
to become good race horses. There’s
nothing like the feeling of seeing
your horse win in your colors. The

the idea of bringing in people with awealth of knowledge and experiencein a wide variety of areas.
But simply knowing what you’re
doing isn’t enough. The Hidden
Brook team knows that they can
only prosper if their clients are happy
and their clients can only be happy
if the Hidden Brook team is always
straightforward with them. The cornerstone of the Hidden Brook philosophy is integrity, something thatis sometimes in short supply in thebusinesses they deal in.
“That’s something that is very important to us,” Hall said. “That’s acommonality you will find with thefive of us, and that’s why we wereclose friends before we became business partners. Our relationships werebuilt on honesty and integrity andthat’s the way it’s always been. It has
been our approach from Day One.
Does it hurt us going in the door
with somebody? Maybe? Possibly?
That’s the kind of thing that people
will appreciate down the road after
you’ve been with them for a while.
That’s the way our business plan was
built and it will not change. Eventually people see the value in that.”
Hidden Brook has reinvested its
profits back into its business. From aphysical standpoint, the farm has expanded significantly since it opened
some eight years ago and now consists of about 600 acres. Brothers,
de Sousa and Hall are always thinking about what they are going to donext and in which direction to takethe business. Their books tell themthat their work at the sales, whether
as consignors or advising buyers, hasbeen the most profitable part of theirbusiness, so that is an area that willremain a priority. But Hidden Brook
has never been about any one thing,
and that doesn’t figure to change.
As for Pompa, he currently campaigns about 40 horses and is activeat the sales as both a buyer and a seller. That is another part of his strategy. He doesn’t want to focus solely
on any one area, believing that’s anunnecessary risk because any one partof his operation could always have an

Brothers is the people guy, the typethat knows justabout everyone in
the business and iswell-liked--important assets in any
growing business.
off year.
“You have to be diversified,” hesaid. “I still claim horses on occasion.
I’ll buy horses privately. I buy yearlings and 2-year-olds in training andI breed.”He’s also always looking to sell, evenwhen he develops a star, which was
the case with Big Brown. After Big
Brown broke his maiden in a 2-yearold grass race at Saratoga, Pompa sold75 percent of the colt to IEAH Stables in a deal that put the colt’s value
at $3 million. Big Brown went on to
win the Florida Derby, the Kentucky
Derby, the Preakness, the Haskell andthe Monmouth Stakes before retiringwith career earnings of $3,614,500.
Big Brown is currently standing at
stud at Three Chimneys, which acquired his breeding rights just before
the Preakness in a deal NBC reported

was worth $50 million.
“You can’t be afraid to sell goodhorses because in any business the
only time you can make real money
is when you’re selling,” Pompa said.
“It’s the same in the trucking business, the clothing business, the restaurant business. A lot of people don’t
want to sell because they’re afraid thatthe horse might do better for the next
guy. But if a guy pays $400,000 for
a horse, isn’t he entitled to win someraces? People, even some prominent
people, don’t want to sell just because
they’re afraid of the possibility thatthey might look bad.”Since Big Brown, Pompa has donea good job proving that he’s morethan just lucky. Much of his recent
success has come on the racing side.
His primary advisors in that aspectof the business are Nick Sallusto andDonald Brauer. They’ve helped Pompa find a number of underrated horses who have prospered once turned
over to the Pompa stable. This Ones
For Phil was bought privately aftera modest 2-year-old campaign inFlorida. He’s since won two stakes in
the Sunshine Millions series and has
career earnings of nearly $500,000.
D’Funnybone also came out of Florida and has, since being bought privately by Pompa, won four gradedstakes races. Pompa bought Zakocity
off John Franks and, after the horse
won the 2004 Discovery Handicap atAqueduct, sold him to Saudi Arabianroyalty for a hefty profit.
Whether it’s Pompa or Hidden
Brook, the goal is always the same, tofind the next big horse, the one thatputs a sizeable amount of money into
the pockets of everyone involved.
“In this business, you’re only as
good as your last deal,” Hall said.
“We’re not going to live off Big Brown
forever. People are always looking at
what you do next.”
With Hidden Brook, Pompa just
paid $300,000 for a Smart Strike colt
at the same Keeneland sale where
they found Big Brown three years earlier. Will this be his next big thing?
Considering the track record, you
shouldn’t bet against it.

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