by Dave Briggs

This year’s Lexington sale will be one of your final chances to purchase a yearling from All American Harnessbreds. After nearly 40 years in business, the operation is leaving the standardbred breeding game at the pinnacle of its success. The farm’s general manager, Rob Tribbett, said it simply was the right time to make the exit due to the pending retirement of key farm staff.

“It’s different than some other dispersals where someone passed away or it slowly went down,” Tribbett said. “We are probably having our best year ever on the track. So, it’s bittersweet – we love the business and we love the people and the horses, but it’s just time to do it.”

All American owner, Fred Hertrich III, said the four-phase dispersal plan was set in motion when longtime farm manager Beverly Webb and her second in command, Debbie Pinder, said they were both interested in retirement.

Tribbett said All American will exit the standardbred breeding market at the end of 2025.

He said All American yearlings will sell this year both at Lexington and Harrisburg as normal. The in-foal mares will be sold in the mixed sale portion of this year’s Standardbred Horse Sales Company auction in Harrisburg, PA, along with the majority of the farm’s stallion share interests.

“Then, in 2025, we’re holding over our weanlings of this year to sell them as yearlings as we normally would next year,” Tribbett said. “Then, next year at Harrisburg, the remaining barren mares, barren of ’24, will be sold at the mixed sale in ’25 along with the balance of the stallion shares that we’re holding over to breed those mares next year.

The objective is to have a complete dispersal of the farm by the first week of November, 2025.

In Lexington this year, All American will sell nine yearlings.

“As we’ve done in the recent past, they’ve been carefully selected for that sale,” Tribbett said. “We have four from Downbytheseaside and we’ve always been huge fans of the stallion and still are. We’re excited to have those for sale, including one that we’re selling on Day 2. Traditionally, his horses always sell on the last day of the sale. We do have some others as well, but we actually have a Downbytheseaside out of See You At Peelers that’s a very nice colt [Gentlemans Club, Hip #138].

“It’s a very nice individual. I actually purchased that mare with the goal of breeding her to Downbytheseaside.

“On Day 1, we’re also rolling in there with the ‘Papi Rob’ brother to Captain Albano [Papi Albano, Hip #63]. That one really doesn’t need any explanation.

“Then, we have a Chapter Seven sister to Buy A Round [Buy Another, Hip #7] and a ‘Captain’ brother to Act Fast [Captain Phillips, Hip #59]. So, there’s three of the top performers of the year and we’re rolling in there with those and they are all out of young mares. It’s not like they’re 20-year-old mares and they’ve had enough good horses. They’ve all had two or three previous foals and have had horses make over $500,000 already. So, we’re very excited about those three.

“Then, Day 2, we’ve got the ‘Seaside’ out of Peelers, but then we also have a Papi Rob filly [American Story, Hip #190] and a Walner colt [Dynamo, Hip #255] that we feel physically stack up and look like very athletic individuals.

“We picked these horses from our crop to be down [at Lexington] because we’re proud to be able to show them to people. We’re excited about them.”

All American will then sell 22 yearlings at the Standardbred Horse Sales Company auction in Harrisburg, PA before moving to the 2025 phase of their closure plan.

As for the industry itself, both Hertrich and Tribbett said they are bullish on it.

“This was the time to exit because, selfishly, the market has never been better, the industry in my estimation has never been better,” Hertrich said. “So, as a result, it’s a great time to pull the plug.”

“We think the standardbred business is super healthy,” Tribbett said. “Obviously, the Freehold [Raceway closure] news was disappointing, but if you look at it across all the jurisdictions, I think the money in New Jersey has been reaffirmed. Ohio is rocking and Indiana. Kentucky continues to rise and Ontario and New York, Pennsylvania.