Fox Den Farm offers a sleek unique boutique clique at Harrisburg
by Debbie Little
For over four decades, Fox Den Farm has been showing horses at the Standardbred Horse Sales Company (SHSC) yearling auction in Harrisburg, PA.
Located in the rolling hills of Frederick County, MD, Fox Den Farm is a family run, complete standardbred facility incorporated in 1967 by Tom and Linda Winebrener. Their daughter Jacqui and son-in-law Dean Michaels are the other half of the team.
“Our location, where our farm is now, is a very intense, complex site with many barns and fences and equipment, but when we moved up here, it was a bare piece of ground, and there was actually a den of foxes on the property,” Tom said. “We saw that, and just kind of went that way, and it’s served us well. We’ve named our cars Fox Den, we name our boats Fox Den, we wear coats that say Fox Den.”
Jacqui said, “It’s like Yellowstone, we wear the brand.”
Eight of Fox Den’s consignment of 18 are as agent for Elmer Smucker’s Mahantongo Farms of Dornsife, PA.
“What I would love to say about Elmer, is this is a guy who is investing in our industry,” Jacqui said. “He has got eight horses, seven different stallions: Papi Rob [Hanover], International Moni, Captain Corey Cattlewash, Sweet Lou, Bettors Delight, Bulldog Hanover. He has taken the time to buy some better mares, as he’s learning. He’s breeding to great stallions, purchasing, you know, better breeding stock, and this is our third year with him, and I couldn’t be prouder to represent his horses. And now he’s part of our family. He does come here and we keep meaning to go there, but we just cannot get that far west, away from the farm, because it is family run, mom, dad, me and my husband.”
Jacqui and Tom shared some standouts on each of the three days of the sale.
“So, Day 1, we’ve got Hip #31 for Elmer, Pa Layla,” Jacqui said. “That’s the Papi Rob filly out of Tava.”
This is a first foal out of the American Ideal mare Tava.
“Then there’s a pacing filly, [Hip #311] Pa Lila, by Cattlewash, that’s got an excellent video,” Tom said. “That’s on Day 2. She’s an outstanding mover, paces naturally.
Since Smucker prefers to prepare his own yearlings for the sale, Fox Den have not met that octet in person yet, however they are preparing a pair of Day 2 fillies, Hip #269 Stay Well and Hip #271 Nola Magnolia.
“So, one of our first-time clients Dr. Quodomine has Stay Well, that’s a Stay Hungry filly, then Logan Hawkins, a new client of ours, has Nola Magnolia, so it’s really nice to have them here,” Jacqui said. “We didn’t raise them, but they’ve been with us for about six weeks, you know, doing sales prep.
“They’re mighty fillies. I mean, when you look at their video, both of them just have some explosive speed.”
On Day 3, Jacqui mentioned Hip #761 GLS Love Sosa owned by Devin White of the Las Vegas Raiders. The GLS comes from White’s Get Live Stables.
“It’s a Six Pack, so [White] was very excited about the Hambletonian win with Six Pack [colt Nordic Catcher S] winning,” Jacqui said. “This is his first yearling colt that he’s selling with us.”
Fox Den has another colt on Day 3 that they also mentioned.
“We’re very supportive of our Maryland program and we have a lot of Maryland mares that we breed for our own Maryland program,” Jacqui said. “We represent others at Harrisburg, but this year we are selling at Harrisburg as well. We just don’t do that every year. And it’s one of the last American Ideal colts; his name is Julian. He is Hip #783.
“I know that there are two or three that sell after ours, but those are the last of the American Ideals available at public auction.”
Jacqui also pointed out an outstanding yearling selling early in the mixed sale on Day 4.
“It’s a colt, [Hip] #958 Total Blam Blam; it’s a Top Flight Angel, so it’s Delaware eligible,” she said, adding with a laugh, “I’m telling you he’s nice, locally bred, and built like a brick s—house. However you can put that nicely, you can paraphrase for me.”
Tom also had something to share about Total Blam Blam.
“This is one of the most outstanding colts in the field that I’ve ever seen,” he said. “This thing is just dynamite. And, you know, it’s in the mixed sale, and it won’t be a top dollar yearling. It is a Delaware eligible, but that would be a real buy. That would be the buy.”
Although Linda can no longer give away her famous soup that used to have between 50 and 100 visitors in a cue every day, Fox Den still prides itself as a place to meet and mingle.
“If you go on our website, you’ll see the picture of our setup at Harrisburg, and you can see we set up a little area with little tables,” Tom said. “And people sit and talk, and the auctioneers come back and spend some time with us. So, it’s a great exchange of ideas and meeting people. And, you know, a lot of business gets done back there.”
