by Matthew Lomon

While they weren’t around in 1878 when Dean Wilson’s ancestors first purchased the Ontario farm they currently call home, Wilson and his wife Ashley are both lifelong horsepeople with a discernible passion for the sport, its history and its equine athletes.

On Monday (Nov. 6) at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex, the Wilsons will be making their debut as independent sellers at the Standardbred Horse Sales Company’s yearling sale.

Ashley, who has worked at previous iterations of the Harrisburg event with Icy and Westwind Stables, was relieved that an unfamiliar hurdle didn’t start the trip off on the wrong foot.

“The big hurdle was the border,” she said. “We had never really tackled that before, so that stressed me out a lot, especially with some of the stories you hear but we came through really easy.”

Over the years, the family-first farm has produced several notable names, including Willy’s Home Run, Jack N Abs, Masstercraft, D A McDreamy, and Tribal Dancer.

The pair decided it was time to try Harrisburg partly because of a dilemma most buyers and sellers face regardless of the industry.

“We had bought a share in Captain Crunch and we bred two mares to him, so we have two of our own Captain Crunches to sell,” said Dean. “We tried selling them online last year but that didn’t work very well when people can’t see them, so we felt that to get the best price for them we should bring them down to Harrisburg to sell them.”

The Harrisburg catalogue also presented a valuable opportunity for Ontario farms.

“One of our borders has two really nice Muscle Masses that used to top the sales up in London for the past two years,” said Dean. “He wanted to come [to Harrisburg] because there’s not a lot of Ontario-bred trotters in the sale and he felt that we could capitalize on that.”

This year’s London Classic Yearling Sale went quite well for Dean and Ashley Wilson Farm, resulting in the sale of 33 yearlings.

The Kerwood, ON operation now enters Harrisburg with a much smaller catalogue of four yearlings, but one that values quality over quantity.

“All four of them are really nice colts,” said Dean. “The Muscle Mass out of Lady Bling, Lookatmegoamigo [Hip #432], his video looks great. That mare’s colts always make really nice videos. He had a 2-year-old brother Jack N Abs that made it into the [Ontario Sires Stakes] Super Final up in Canada, and also won a Gold over the summer and made some nice money there.”

Their second Muscle Mass offspring is Hip #475 Beau Bear.

As expected, their two Captain Crunch offspring earned high praise for their impressive stature and familial pedigree.

“The Captain Crunches are both big, beautiful animals,” Dean said. “D A Love Boat [Hip # 402] has a half-sister named Ann who’s racing in a final in the Harvest Series on Monday night, and she’s looked really fast and promising, qualifying real early with her great speed. Love Boat, himself, looks the part and will certainly catch a lot of people’s eye.”

Heading in with a smaller consignment can feel daunting, especially when competing with industry heavyweights, but the Wilsons said they know they can be successful because they’ve seen it first-hand.

“We’re not like Hanover that’s for sure,” Dean said with a chuckle. “We’re hoping that we’ll get some viewing with just the four. We were initially a little worried about having a smaller number, but we came down with Icy last year and they had nine, which all sold for an average of over $100,000.”