October 29, 2025 • 22 mins
On this week's Harness Racing Alumni Show, we are joined by Steve Stewart of Hunterton Farms. Stewart discusses the very successful Lexington sale where his consignment brought in over 12 million. He talks about his Hunterton Farm consignment in the upcoming Harrisburg Sale where he says there are several well bred bargains. He also discusses how Kentucky’s success spreads out to other states as he closes with his answer to our question, “What would he do if he became the “Czar” of harness racing…???” Don’t miss this week’s informative broadcast.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to this week's Harness Racing Alumni Show. I'm Freddie
Hudson and I'm here today with Trade Martin and Bob Marx.
This week's Harness Racing Alumni Show is brought to you
by Hunterton Farm and the metal Lands Racetrack. Check out
the Hunterton Farm's Harrisburg Consignment sellen November three through the seventh.
(00:20):
At the Harrisburg Sale, visit Huntertonfarm dot com. The metal
Lands Racetrack, America's number one harness track, visit Playmeetlands dot com.
The Roosevelt Raceway Reunion is being organized and will be
held at the metal Lands Saturday, January thirty first. Visit
us trats dot com for more information.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
The Harness Racing Alumni Show with your host Freddie Hudson
and Trade Martin.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Joining us today is our special guest, the Steve Stewart
of Hunterton Farm. Steve, Welcome back to the Harness raised
Alumni Show.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Glad to be bad guys.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, Steve, the first thing I'm your say, congratuations on
the successful Lexington sale. Your consignment brought a little over
twelve million dollars.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah it's kind of crazy, but yes, it was a
very rewarding sale to say the least.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yes, Now moving on to the Harrisburg sale, you have
what fifty fifty eight horses in the Harrisburg.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Sail, Yes, sir, Yes, sir, which is about a little
bit more than we normally do. But we had a
little bit more than we normally do at Lexington. So
hopefully we'll have the same same outcome to have a
good sale. I think we will. We've got a lot
of nice horses to sell. Well, tell us about live
variety with that, tell.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Us a little bit about some of them if you can.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Well, probably the headliner and Murray Brown was very kind
in his yesterday in HRU with mission briefs yearland that's selling.
He a chimpanzee called Hip number one and he's a
chimpanzee brother three quarter brother. I guess you would say
(02:16):
to apex so and out of mission brief and so
he he said a lot of nice kind word yesterday.
He would probabvr. He definitely is a headliner of the sale.
But there's quite a few other nice ones. You know.
We've got about eight or so tactical landings and we've
got probably a third of them are Canadian bred. Horses
(02:40):
from Bulldogs to King of the North to you know,
kind of a variety of everything. So we're we're pretty
excited about the sale. It it usually does well.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
We've done.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Pretty much over the top of the horses that we
sold last year we sold at sale, and we sold
Apex for a lot of money, and then he's done
great things or whatever, almost one a million dollars this year.
And then we sold Endurance, the Captain Corey Headlining Colt
or whatever, that made about five or six hundred thousand,
(03:18):
and we sold him for a bargain basement of fourteen
thousand dollars on the same day as Apex. So and
then we sold Fragment who pretty much dominated, definitely dominated
all the races and won the New York Final and
the Big Apple Pace and unfortunately drew the unfortunately drew
(03:41):
the ten Hall and Breeders Crown this past weekend and
didn't have much of a chance against those monsters, but
he raised very well. And then we sold Ah and
then we sold a Sweet Loupe Philly that did top
phil Key, that did extremely well, won the Kentucky fire
(04:02):
Stakes finals. So we sold the Kentucky Sires Steak two
Kentucky Sire Stakes Finals horses in Harrisburg. We sold Apex,
who won the New Jersey fire Stakes Final, and we
sold the Fragment who won the New York fire Stakes Final.
So we have a lot to be proud of of
the horses we sold last year and hopefully we'll do
(04:23):
it again this year.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah. Well, you also had two of your offspring one
two British crowns, didn't they?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yes, yeah, the the age mayor pace was one. I
think twin b Shoke fresh coming up lame and the
post parade helped her. But he did very well. Always
be naughty for Greg Luther, which is always it's always
good when the big guys that spent so much money
(04:53):
do well. And Greg spent as much as anybody has
the last few years, and that was a good win
for him. And then we we sold, we raised and
sold uh yo Kelly who won, and so that was
very good. And uh yeah, we did we did extremely well.
Apex didn't do as well as we wanted and and
(05:15):
Maryland didn't do as well as we wanted to do.
But uh it always seems like, uh uh we do well,
whether whether all the ones do as we say, the
Lord gives you what you need, not what you want sometimes.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Well, as you know, as as you know, I'm a
little partial right now to the King of the North
Coast because he connections with one of your colts over there.
How how do your King of the North look at
I think I got five of them so in at Harrisburg.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, they look very good. You know, the one Joey
de v Philly is small, but she's a very nice
took a very good video. We're selling one with our
partners Terra Hills out of Cali's Keepsake that we saw
this weekend when we were up in Canada.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
He's extremely nice. He's extremely nice. Cult and and then
several other ones, first Poles out of Alison and Hanover
and and so yes, well well represented with King of
the North also, which is a good thing. It's always
good to have Canadian horses selling at Harrisburg. They the
(06:21):
Canadians will will attend much more. I think it's somewhat
of a convenience factor or whatever, and I think it's
somewhat of a historical factor that they support. They really
attend and support Harrisburg sale in a good way.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, Now I was looking at your consignment at the
Harrisburg Sale. And do you know that you have a
bulldog Hanover Trotter.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I have a bulldog, Hanniver Trotter. No, I didn't.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I know. I know it's a mistake. But it looks
like they have under Draten Cults they have a bulldog Hanover.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Oh do they really?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, I've often, I've often thought to myself that it
would not be very easy to put a catalog together
when you think of how many different locations you have
to put horses and keep the hip numbers correct and
and the whole nine yards.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So it uh, it's really an amazing uh effort that
they do and how few mistakes they make.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, I know, I know, Like for your last catalog, Uh,
every everyone was waiting. They got the catalogs at the
last minute. So Bob was very nervous about that. Correct.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Well, you know it, uh, And it's and it's not
easy to get the catalog you know, there's a double
edged sword there in the fact that you know, you
want to get the catalogs to the people as fast
as you can, but the problem is that but you
don't want to get them so fast that you leave
out a lot of the updates, especially for the two
(07:54):
year olds. So it's it's kind of a balancing act
there when you're trying to, uh, when you are trying
to you know, accommodate the sellers and the buyers're correct.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Easy and I would hate to be the person that
has the proof free to catalogs.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well. The one thing that that both sale companies do
an excellent job of is that they send you know,
they send proofs to everybody, all the consigners or whatever,
and then we will then send the proofs to for
us if if we don't own the yereland or whatever,
send it to the owners because it's a lot easier
for them to catch a mistake when they're talking about
(08:34):
their their offspring. Then stay the other way. But you're
you're one hundred percent right. It's not easy at all
to uh keep up with it and then what they're
eligible to and and uh, yeah, it's you could refer
to it as being a nightmare. But luckily these people
have done it so many years now that that's kind
of like us preparing the islands for the sale. It
(08:58):
you worry about it, but it's pretty much gets taken
care of.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, now the other thing I'm going to come talk
about is Kentucky racing. It just seems like Kentucky is
just taken off bigger than bigger than anyone could ever imagine.
I was just looking at you. Every race is forty
at fifty thousand dollars today and I guess tomorrow also.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
So yeah, they well, where it's where where they'll not hole,
but where it is filled in, so to speak, is
corbyin the track that's racing now. You know it used
to be that we it was over with when you
got to Lexington and then the first of October there
was no more racing. And then so you got Corbett.
(09:42):
You got o grove that goes pretty much starting the
end of April and it goes till July. And then
you start, you know, right after the the end of July,
you start with the Red Mile to go to the
first week in October, and then they go from first
week in October until fully the middle of November. And yeah,
(10:02):
you see the overnight persons. You see the uh excuse me.
You see all the redevelopment money that is raised for
even as four year olds are Philly Puzzel one. The
fifty thousand dollars four year old trot yesterday and uh
for Phillies, and and there was only six of them
(10:23):
in it. You know. I mean that that will change
because so many of the mayors are now you know,
have headed this way the last couple of years to
where the numbers will increase. But uh. But the other
thing that the other the other thing that nobody really
talks about is that that everybody can you know, feel
(10:45):
with envy or whatever some of the some of the
money that that's get raced for it at let at
in Kentucky. But one thing it does do I think
that helps everybody is all of our horses are due
to eligible. So if you captain Treacher's as an example,
and they are due eligible where the mayor lives in
(11:06):
the state of Kentucky for six months the pregnant year,
that that offspring is also eligible to Pennsylvania because of
captain living there and then being eligible in Kentucky because
of the mayor. Did it also freeze up a lot
of spots or the ability for people to make money
in Pennsylvania because otherwise all of those captains would all
(11:30):
be racing in Pennsylvania whatever and really flogging up the
ability to make money in Pennsylvania. So with if you
use Captain Treacher's as an example, a lot of those
come to Kentucky where it really helps the guys that
aren't dual eligible to not have to race against those horses.
So it really to me it's some of the other
(11:55):
people that have forces in other states can complain about,
oh well, Kentucky is is the place to be, but
it also helps them too in the sense that it
doesn't it takes a lot of the competition away from
the locals.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, it doesn't. It also have tier race there, like
you have multiple tiers for like two year olds, three
year olds.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Tuck well. For the only place that there's four different
tiers is the Red Mile. The other two tracks pretty
much you're in there with the forty thousand dollars legs
and one hundred or two hundred thousand dollars finals and
so the other two tracks. But the other two tracks
don't attract nearly the number of horses as the Red
(12:36):
Mile does for the simple reason that so many of
the big trainers want to race on a mile track,
and then the really good ones will leave Red Mile
and go to the Breeder's Crown or they'll go to
Indiana and race in those races, or they'll you know,
so they will leave the Red Mile and not go
to Corbyn, so there's not as much participation in Corbyn.
(12:59):
Then the same thing as uh And it's the same
way with huh the you know the track in uh
in western Kentucky that they don't they you don't have
as as much competition or whatever. And some of it
(13:19):
has to do with uh uh them racing earlier in
the year whatever, where some horses aren't ready and and
since most of the horses are dual eligible that racing Kentucky,
a lot of those may be racing in the Pennsylvania
Sires Stakes early, you know, you know, to me, to me,
a lot of people will outside of Kentucky will somewhat complain.
(13:40):
But I don't think it's a bad thing that you
spread these horses out, you know, But it used to
be that, you know, you only you had the Grand Circuit,
and the Grand Circuit was all the best horses went
on a circuit and they went from you know, the
Coin Illinois, to Springfield, Illinois, to Indianapolis. And now you
know that you've got horses making money everywhere and I
(14:01):
think that's a bonus and I think that's what really
grew the industry.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
And the other thing is the hire stakes is for two,
three and four year olds.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, and that's that's something that we really wanted to
try to do and most most jurisdictions don't have races
for four year olds and we thought it was very
good to uh to to have that and uh, I
think it's I think it's really a plus for Kentucky
bread that you you can and you'll see it a
little bit where or a three year old that is
(14:33):
Kentucky eligible will sell for more money at the upcoming
Harrisburg sale if they're if they're selling as a race
horse because of the money, I think you can race.
I want to say with Oak Grove and Corbyn and
the Red Mile. Now I think you u a oh uh,
(14:54):
a four year old Kentucky elogis I think in race
for nine hundred thousand dollars each horse, you know, at
each division or whatever. So that's a tremendous amount of
money for a four year old just to race. And
I think there's like eleven races if you race in
all of them and the finals or whatever. So Corbin
(15:16):
does not have a final, So what they do is
they have three legs of fifty thousand. I think there's
four legs of thirty five thousand at the Red Mile
for four year olds. But then the big money for
four year olds is earlier in the year at at
Oak Grove where they have a two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars final. They have two divisions or two separate
(15:38):
series or whatever starting I think the end of April.
So it's a you know, Kentucky just about does about everything.
We don't have breeders awards, so all our money goes
to purses. We don't have any money that is held
back for breeders or whatever. We pretty much just give
it all to the purses. And you can see that
(16:00):
why there's so much money to race for.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, and the other thing I'm going to point out,
if you have a horse that's dual eligible as a
you know, four year old, he now has a shot.
Rather than just have there's no stake races in Pennsylvania
for him, he has stake races in kentuckte.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's definitely a bonus and it's something
that we tried to and it's worked. I think it's
worked very well for those four year olds that you know,
a top four year old can make money just in
overnights and going in you know, some of the age
pace and age races or whatever. But that that gets
(16:37):
pretty pretty dicey or pretty difficult or whatever. So if
you can run off to Corbyn, let's say, in the
fall and race for three legs for fifty thousand dollars,
is a nice thing to have.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
All right. See with that, I'm going to close the
show out. But I have one question for you, And
I asked this question now of all our guests. If
you woke up one morning and you found out that
you're now the czar of harness racings, what's the first
thing you would do?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
If I was the bizarre of harness racing. What I
would do is is get probably about ten more people
to help and form form somebody, people that would that
I could lean on to. Okay, Freddie, I need you
to contact so and so, and I need and and
somebody came up with a really good idea for saying
(17:28):
and I need somebody to investigate that. And so you know,
I've always said it's not so much the czar is gonna,
you know, be somebody with a thumbs up, thumbs down
and control, be one hundred percent in control of the industry.
What you would want is somebody that would disseminate all
(17:49):
the good ideas that we have. Everybody has a lot
of really good ideas for how to improve harness racing.
The problem is where do you go with that idea?
If you go to the USTA, the USTA will sell says,
you know, we're a record keeping company, and we don't
you know, we don't have the funds to manage the
(18:10):
ideas and investigate all the different things that we can
explore to make the the industry better. And I think
that if you had a the office of the Commissioner
or whatever you want to call it, and you don't
have to call it azar, you don't have to call
a commissioner. Everybody gets hung up on words and h
(18:34):
what you do is but it would be a place
where somebody could call somebody and say, hey, we need
to look into as an example, let's let's pony it.
Let's partner up with the four H where the four
H whatever, and we could help them whatever and get
some mayors to the four H kids or whatever. Instead
(18:55):
of brushing on a cow, and when a ribbon or
whatever you you, we incentive them to get involved with
buying a brood mare breeding the mayor selling one. And
all you have to do is is that one kid
that buys the thousand dollars mayor whatever, and she ends
up being the damn of so and so. And then
what happens is that young child or a young teenager
(19:20):
takes the horse to the Airisburg sale and sells the
yearlind for seventy five thousand dollars. And that makes a
pretty good headline for the four H group or whatever.
And the reason why you want four H is when
when the state houses decide or the governor decides, hey,
(19:40):
we want to take your money from the slot machines. Now,
all of a sudden you have another contingency of kids
or whatever the show up at the state house and say,
wait a minute, you know we love harness racing. And
just because you think that they're all a bunch of
rich people or whatever, you get the young people in
(20:01):
there that that can carry a lot of weight and
make a lot of noise that the state houses when
they want to come take your take our money and
that's always our fear or whatever. And so the more
broad base we have and you you have the four
h and all of those you know their power that
they have. That's just one one example of if you
(20:25):
had a tzar where somebody could work with, you know,
and it's nationwide and it's you know, every state has
four h and and they already have pigs and chickens
and whatnot that they take to the fair. But if
they got involved in harnet and so they have places
to have a horse, that would be and you know,
(20:45):
the parent would love to have the horse that didn't
cost a lot that might end up selling for a
lot of money instead of a blue ribbon at the fair.
So that's just one example that I would if I
was there to try to implement.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
All right, Steve, it's oh the pleasure to have you
on the show.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Thank you. It's always fund it on top.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
This week's Harness Racing Alumni Show is brought to you
by Hunterton Farm and the Metal Lands Racetrack. Check out
the Hunterton Farm's Harrisburg consignment selling November three through the seventh.
At the Harrisburg Sale, visit Huntertonfarm dot com. The metal
Lands Racetrack, America's number one harness track. Visit play Meeatlands
(21:31):
dot com. The Roosevelt Raceway Reunion is being organized and
will be held at the metal Lands Saturday, January thirty first.
Visit us trats dot com for more information. That's a
wrap for this week's show. Thanks for listening, and please
join us again next week
Speaker 2 (21:51):
The Harness Racing Alumni Show
Welcome to this week's Harness Racing Alumni Show. I'm Freddie
Hudson and I'm here today with Trade Martin and Bob Marx.
This week's Harness Racing Alumni Show is brought to you
by Hunterton Farm and the metal Lands Racetrack. Check out
the Hunterton Farm's Harrisburg Consignment sellen November three through the seventh.
(00:20):
At the Harrisburg Sale, visit Huntertonfarm dot com. The metal
Lands Racetrack, America's number one harness track, visit Playmeetlands dot com.
The Roosevelt Raceway Reunion is being organized and will be
held at the metal Lands Saturday, January thirty first. Visit
us trats dot com for more information.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
The Harness Racing Alumni Show with your host Freddie Hudson
and Trade Martin.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Joining us today is our special guest, the Steve Stewart
of Hunterton Farm. Steve, Welcome back to the Harness raised
Alumni Show.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Glad to be bad guys.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, Steve, the first thing I'm your say, congratuations on
the successful Lexington sale. Your consignment brought a little over
twelve million dollars.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah it's kind of crazy, but yes, it was a
very rewarding sale to say the least.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yes, Now moving on to the Harrisburg sale, you have
what fifty fifty eight horses in the Harrisburg.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Sail, Yes, sir, Yes, sir, which is about a little
bit more than we normally do. But we had a
little bit more than we normally do at Lexington. So
hopefully we'll have the same same outcome to have a
good sale. I think we will. We've got a lot
of nice horses to sell. Well, tell us about live
variety with that, tell.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Us a little bit about some of them if you can.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Well, probably the headliner and Murray Brown was very kind
in his yesterday in HRU with mission briefs yearland that's selling.
He a chimpanzee called Hip number one and he's a
chimpanzee brother three quarter brother. I guess you would say
(02:16):
to apex so and out of mission brief and so
he he said a lot of nice kind word yesterday.
He would probabvr. He definitely is a headliner of the sale.
But there's quite a few other nice ones. You know.
We've got about eight or so tactical landings and we've
got probably a third of them are Canadian bred. Horses
(02:40):
from Bulldogs to King of the North to you know,
kind of a variety of everything. So we're we're pretty
excited about the sale. It it usually does well.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
We've done.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Pretty much over the top of the horses that we
sold last year we sold at sale, and we sold
Apex for a lot of money, and then he's done
great things or whatever, almost one a million dollars this year.
And then we sold Endurance, the Captain Corey Headlining Colt
or whatever, that made about five or six hundred thousand,
(03:18):
and we sold him for a bargain basement of fourteen
thousand dollars on the same day as Apex. So and
then we sold Fragment who pretty much dominated, definitely dominated
all the races and won the New York Final and
the Big Apple Pace and unfortunately drew the unfortunately drew
(03:41):
the ten Hall and Breeders Crown this past weekend and
didn't have much of a chance against those monsters, but
he raised very well. And then we sold Ah and
then we sold a Sweet Loupe Philly that did top
phil Key, that did extremely well, won the Kentucky fire
(04:02):
Stakes finals. So we sold the Kentucky Sires Steak two
Kentucky Sire Stakes Finals horses in Harrisburg. We sold Apex,
who won the New Jersey fire Stakes Final, and we
sold the Fragment who won the New York fire Stakes Final.
So we have a lot to be proud of of
the horses we sold last year and hopefully we'll do
(04:23):
it again this year.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah. Well, you also had two of your offspring one
two British crowns, didn't they?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yes, yeah, the the age mayor pace was one. I
think twin b Shoke fresh coming up lame and the
post parade helped her. But he did very well. Always
be naughty for Greg Luther, which is always it's always
good when the big guys that spent so much money
(04:53):
do well. And Greg spent as much as anybody has
the last few years, and that was a good win
for him. And then we we sold, we raised and
sold uh yo Kelly who won, and so that was
very good. And uh yeah, we did we did extremely well.
Apex didn't do as well as we wanted and and
(05:15):
Maryland didn't do as well as we wanted to do.
But uh it always seems like, uh uh we do well,
whether whether all the ones do as we say, the
Lord gives you what you need, not what you want sometimes.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Well, as you know, as as you know, I'm a
little partial right now to the King of the North
Coast because he connections with one of your colts over there.
How how do your King of the North look at
I think I got five of them so in at Harrisburg.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, they look very good. You know, the one Joey
de v Philly is small, but she's a very nice
took a very good video. We're selling one with our
partners Terra Hills out of Cali's Keepsake that we saw
this weekend when we were up in Canada.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
He's extremely nice. He's extremely nice. Cult and and then
several other ones, first Poles out of Alison and Hanover
and and so yes, well well represented with King of
the North also, which is a good thing. It's always
good to have Canadian horses selling at Harrisburg. They the
(06:21):
Canadians will will attend much more. I think it's somewhat
of a convenience factor or whatever, and I think it's
somewhat of a historical factor that they support. They really
attend and support Harrisburg sale in a good way.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, Now I was looking at your consignment at the
Harrisburg Sale. And do you know that you have a
bulldog Hanover Trotter.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I have a bulldog, Hanniver Trotter. No, I didn't.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I know. I know it's a mistake. But it looks
like they have under Draten Cults they have a bulldog Hanover.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Oh do they really?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, I've often, I've often thought to myself that it
would not be very easy to put a catalog together
when you think of how many different locations you have
to put horses and keep the hip numbers correct and
and the whole nine yards.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So it uh, it's really an amazing uh effort that
they do and how few mistakes they make.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, I know, I know, Like for your last catalog, Uh,
every everyone was waiting. They got the catalogs at the
last minute. So Bob was very nervous about that. Correct.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Well, you know it, uh, And it's and it's not
easy to get the catalog you know, there's a double
edged sword there in the fact that you know, you
want to get the catalogs to the people as fast
as you can, but the problem is that but you
don't want to get them so fast that you leave
out a lot of the updates, especially for the two
(07:54):
year olds. So it's it's kind of a balancing act
there when you're trying to, uh, when you are trying
to you know, accommodate the sellers and the buyers're correct.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Easy and I would hate to be the person that
has the proof free to catalogs.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well. The one thing that that both sale companies do
an excellent job of is that they send you know,
they send proofs to everybody, all the consigners or whatever,
and then we will then send the proofs to for
us if if we don't own the yereland or whatever,
send it to the owners because it's a lot easier
for them to catch a mistake when they're talking about
(08:34):
their their offspring. Then stay the other way. But you're
you're one hundred percent right. It's not easy at all
to uh keep up with it and then what they're
eligible to and and uh, yeah, it's you could refer
to it as being a nightmare. But luckily these people
have done it so many years now that that's kind
of like us preparing the islands for the sale. It
(08:58):
you worry about it, but it's pretty much gets taken
care of.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, now the other thing I'm going to come talk
about is Kentucky racing. It just seems like Kentucky is
just taken off bigger than bigger than anyone could ever imagine.
I was just looking at you. Every race is forty
at fifty thousand dollars today and I guess tomorrow also.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
So yeah, they well, where it's where where they'll not hole,
but where it is filled in, so to speak, is
corbyin the track that's racing now. You know it used
to be that we it was over with when you
got to Lexington and then the first of October there
was no more racing. And then so you got Corbett.
(09:42):
You got o grove that goes pretty much starting the
end of April and it goes till July. And then
you start, you know, right after the the end of July,
you start with the Red Mile to go to the
first week in October, and then they go from first
week in October until fully the middle of November. And yeah,
(10:02):
you see the overnight persons. You see the uh excuse me.
You see all the redevelopment money that is raised for
even as four year olds are Philly Puzzel one. The
fifty thousand dollars four year old trot yesterday and uh
for Phillies, and and there was only six of them
(10:23):
in it. You know. I mean that that will change
because so many of the mayors are now you know,
have headed this way the last couple of years to
where the numbers will increase. But uh. But the other
thing that the other the other thing that nobody really
talks about is that that everybody can you know, feel
(10:45):
with envy or whatever some of the some of the
money that that's get raced for it at let at
in Kentucky. But one thing it does do I think
that helps everybody is all of our horses are due
to eligible. So if you captain Treacher's as an example,
and they are due eligible where the mayor lives in
(11:06):
the state of Kentucky for six months the pregnant year,
that that offspring is also eligible to Pennsylvania because of
captain living there and then being eligible in Kentucky because
of the mayor. Did it also freeze up a lot
of spots or the ability for people to make money
in Pennsylvania because otherwise all of those captains would all
(11:30):
be racing in Pennsylvania whatever and really flogging up the
ability to make money in Pennsylvania. So with if you
use Captain Treacher's as an example, a lot of those
come to Kentucky where it really helps the guys that
aren't dual eligible to not have to race against those horses.
So it really to me it's some of the other
(11:55):
people that have forces in other states can complain about,
oh well, Kentucky is is the place to be, but
it also helps them too in the sense that it
doesn't it takes a lot of the competition away from
the locals.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, it doesn't. It also have tier race there, like
you have multiple tiers for like two year olds, three
year olds.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Tuck well. For the only place that there's four different
tiers is the Red Mile. The other two tracks pretty
much you're in there with the forty thousand dollars legs
and one hundred or two hundred thousand dollars finals and
so the other two tracks. But the other two tracks
don't attract nearly the number of horses as the Red
(12:36):
Mile does for the simple reason that so many of
the big trainers want to race on a mile track,
and then the really good ones will leave Red Mile
and go to the Breeder's Crown or they'll go to
Indiana and race in those races, or they'll you know,
so they will leave the Red Mile and not go
to Corbyn, so there's not as much participation in Corbyn.
(12:59):
Then the same thing as uh And it's the same
way with huh the you know the track in uh
in western Kentucky that they don't they you don't have
as as much competition or whatever. And some of it
(13:19):
has to do with uh uh them racing earlier in
the year whatever, where some horses aren't ready and and
since most of the horses are dual eligible that racing Kentucky,
a lot of those may be racing in the Pennsylvania
Sires Stakes early, you know, you know, to me, to me,
a lot of people will outside of Kentucky will somewhat complain.
(13:40):
But I don't think it's a bad thing that you
spread these horses out, you know, But it used to
be that, you know, you only you had the Grand Circuit,
and the Grand Circuit was all the best horses went
on a circuit and they went from you know, the
Coin Illinois, to Springfield, Illinois, to Indianapolis. And now you
know that you've got horses making money everywhere and I
(14:01):
think that's a bonus and I think that's what really
grew the industry.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
And the other thing is the hire stakes is for two,
three and four year olds.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, and that's that's something that we really wanted to
try to do and most most jurisdictions don't have races
for four year olds and we thought it was very
good to uh to to have that and uh, I
think it's I think it's really a plus for Kentucky
bread that you you can and you'll see it a
little bit where or a three year old that is
(14:33):
Kentucky eligible will sell for more money at the upcoming
Harrisburg sale if they're if they're selling as a race
horse because of the money, I think you can race.
I want to say with Oak Grove and Corbyn and
the Red Mile. Now I think you u a oh uh,
(14:54):
a four year old Kentucky elogis I think in race
for nine hundred thousand dollars each horse, you know, at
each division or whatever. So that's a tremendous amount of
money for a four year old just to race. And
I think there's like eleven races if you race in
all of them and the finals or whatever. So Corbin
(15:16):
does not have a final, So what they do is
they have three legs of fifty thousand. I think there's
four legs of thirty five thousand at the Red Mile
for four year olds. But then the big money for
four year olds is earlier in the year at at
Oak Grove where they have a two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars final. They have two divisions or two separate
(15:38):
series or whatever starting I think the end of April.
So it's a you know, Kentucky just about does about everything.
We don't have breeders awards, so all our money goes
to purses. We don't have any money that is held
back for breeders or whatever. We pretty much just give
it all to the purses. And you can see that
(16:00):
why there's so much money to race for.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, and the other thing I'm going to point out,
if you have a horse that's dual eligible as a
you know, four year old, he now has a shot.
Rather than just have there's no stake races in Pennsylvania
for him, he has stake races in kentuckte.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's definitely a bonus and it's something
that we tried to and it's worked. I think it's
worked very well for those four year olds that you know,
a top four year old can make money just in
overnights and going in you know, some of the age
pace and age races or whatever. But that that gets
(16:37):
pretty pretty dicey or pretty difficult or whatever. So if
you can run off to Corbyn, let's say, in the
fall and race for three legs for fifty thousand dollars,
is a nice thing to have.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
All right. See with that, I'm going to close the
show out. But I have one question for you, And
I asked this question now of all our guests. If
you woke up one morning and you found out that
you're now the czar of harness racings, what's the first
thing you would do?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
If I was the bizarre of harness racing. What I
would do is is get probably about ten more people
to help and form form somebody, people that would that
I could lean on to. Okay, Freddie, I need you
to contact so and so, and I need and and
somebody came up with a really good idea for saying
(17:28):
and I need somebody to investigate that. And so you know,
I've always said it's not so much the czar is gonna,
you know, be somebody with a thumbs up, thumbs down
and control, be one hundred percent in control of the industry.
What you would want is somebody that would disseminate all
(17:49):
the good ideas that we have. Everybody has a lot
of really good ideas for how to improve harness racing.
The problem is where do you go with that idea?
If you go to the USTA, the USTA will sell says,
you know, we're a record keeping company, and we don't
you know, we don't have the funds to manage the
(18:10):
ideas and investigate all the different things that we can
explore to make the the industry better. And I think
that if you had a the office of the Commissioner
or whatever you want to call it, and you don't
have to call it azar, you don't have to call
a commissioner. Everybody gets hung up on words and h
(18:34):
what you do is but it would be a place
where somebody could call somebody and say, hey, we need
to look into as an example, let's let's pony it.
Let's partner up with the four H where the four
H whatever, and we could help them whatever and get
some mayors to the four H kids or whatever. Instead
(18:55):
of brushing on a cow, and when a ribbon or
whatever you you, we incentive them to get involved with
buying a brood mare breeding the mayor selling one. And
all you have to do is is that one kid
that buys the thousand dollars mayor whatever, and she ends
up being the damn of so and so. And then
what happens is that young child or a young teenager
(19:20):
takes the horse to the Airisburg sale and sells the
yearlind for seventy five thousand dollars. And that makes a
pretty good headline for the four H group or whatever.
And the reason why you want four H is when
when the state houses decide or the governor decides, hey,
(19:40):
we want to take your money from the slot machines. Now,
all of a sudden you have another contingency of kids
or whatever the show up at the state house and say,
wait a minute, you know we love harness racing. And
just because you think that they're all a bunch of
rich people or whatever, you get the young people in
(20:01):
there that that can carry a lot of weight and
make a lot of noise that the state houses when
they want to come take your take our money and
that's always our fear or whatever. And so the more
broad base we have and you you have the four
h and all of those you know their power that
they have. That's just one one example of if you
(20:25):
had a tzar where somebody could work with, you know,
and it's nationwide and it's you know, every state has
four h and and they already have pigs and chickens
and whatnot that they take to the fair. But if
they got involved in harnet and so they have places
to have a horse, that would be and you know,
(20:45):
the parent would love to have the horse that didn't
cost a lot that might end up selling for a
lot of money instead of a blue ribbon at the fair.
So that's just one example that I would if I
was there to try to implement.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
All right, Steve, it's oh the pleasure to have you
on the show.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Thank you. It's always fund it on top.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
This week's Harness Racing Alumni Show is brought to you
by Hunterton Farm and the Metal Lands Racetrack. Check out
the Hunterton Farm's Harrisburg consignment selling November three through the seventh.
At the Harrisburg Sale, visit Huntertonfarm dot com. The metal
Lands Racetrack, America's number one harness track. Visit play Meeatlands
(21:31):
dot com. The Roosevelt Raceway Reunion is being organized and
will be held at the metal Lands Saturday, January thirty first.
Visit us trats dot com for more information. That's a
wrap for this week's show. Thanks for listening, and please
join us again next week
Speaker 2 (21:51):
The Harness Racing Alumni Show
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