Standardbred Horse Sales Company wraps yearling sessions with level returns
by Ray Cotolo
The closing session for the yearling portion of the Standardbred Horse Sales Company’s auction in Harrisburg, PA on Wednesday (Nov. 5) followed consistent returns seen on Tuesday to leave the metrics for the 2025 sale in range of previous years’ figures.
In 2025, the Black Book Sale sent 864 yearlings to the ring that grossed $36,029,000 for an average of $41,700. These numbers come short of 2024’s sale, which grossed $37,091,000 (a 2.9 per cent decrease year-over-year) for an average of $42,830 (down 2.6 per cent) from 866 yearlings sold. However, the 2025 yearling sale rung slightly higher than 2023’s figures with a near 0.4 per cent increase in gross, though with a 5.8 decrease in average with 54 fewer horses selling in 2023. The decreases also come on the tail of the record-breaking 2022 sale, which grossed $44,356,000 from 904 yearlings sold, as well as the 2021 sale that set a record for average with a price of $54,653.
Wednesday’s session alone grossed $5,435,000 from 323 yearlings for an average of $16,827, on par with 2024’s closing session that grossed $5,560,000 from 337 yearlings for an average of $16,499.
“The last two days, especially today, really surprised me,” said Dale Welk, president/director of operations for the Standardbred Horse Sales Company. “I’m glad it surprised me. I was really a little worried about it, but we had a great day today. It’s been a rollercoaster all week this week and I hope tomorrow that we’re on top of the rollercoaster and we stay there.
“Overall, I think I’m very satisfied of where we came out. After Monday we were kind of wondering what was going to happen over the next two days, but these two days propped us right back. Monday we were down 14 per cent and we came right back. Like I said, I can’t thank everyone enough for their patience and sticking with us.”
FASHION FARMS BIDS FAREWELL
Jules Siegel turned 98 years old on Wednesday. The Hall of Fame breeding magnate and founder of Fashion Farms out of New Hope, PA, will close a 41-year endeavor in harness racing after the Standardbred Horse Sales Company’s Mixed Sale beginning today (Nov. 6). It also marks the end to one of harness racing’s most lasting and impactful partnerships between the farm and Hall of Fame trainer Jim Campbell, who began training horses for the Siegels over 30 years ago.
“They’ve been tremendous for a lot of years,” Campbell said. “Jules was buying top-bred horses and then that’s how we got started breaking them. I was down on horses; I didn’t have that many horses. It was in August of 1994 when Jules and [his late wife] Arlene approached me and asked me if I was interested in training their horses. They weren’t having very much success on the racetrack. So, as it turned out, it was a blessing for both of us.
“We were fortunate enough to end up with some really nice fillies, both on the trotting and on pacing side, and it just kind of all snowballed. We had a good collection in the racing stable and got the breeding farm going. He added sires, like Real Artist, who we bought as a yearling and Broadway Hall, who we bought as a yearling. Before them, it was Tagliabue. It all just kind of came together very nicely and they were great clients for the last 31 years.”
Campbell also fondly mentioned the pacing mare Galleria in the breadth of champions he campaigned with the Siegels. Galleria, like Real Artist and Broadway Hall, was developed as a yearling by Campbell after being purchased for just $37,000. She earned $1.8 million through four years of racing before retiring to the breeding shed. As a broodmare, she foaled 11 horses with only two that never reached the races. One of her offspring, Sandbetweenmytoes, won a Breeders Crown in such a monumental upset over Horse of the Year Tall Dark Stranger that it broke the series record for a win payoff at $409.80. He still races to this day and narrows on millionaire status at the ripe age of 8.
After a decade of million-dollar seasons alongside Fashion Farms, Campbell grew weary of the racing business. His starts dwindled from 2004 to 2007, a stint when Campbell stepped away from harness racing. He opened a pizzeria on the Jersey Shore that he ran only for about a year before selling it and restarting his training career. Jules and Arlene Siegel stayed at Campbell’s side and he ramped back up in 2007 to then have another million-dollar season in 2008. And then Campbell returned to the top of the sport again by 2009 with the Siegels in one of the most memorable Hambletonian Oaks performances of the modern era to win with homebred Broadway Schooner in a blanket photo.
“That felt really good to leave and then get to come back and then two years later you get to go out and win the Oaks,” Campbell said. “That was pretty special.”
Fashion Farms and Campbell persisted through the 2010s and into the 2020s. They remained a major player annually on the Grand Circuit with homebreds from the Siegels’ boutique broodmare band that eventually materialized in another Hambletonian Oaks win by none other than Broadway Schooner’s foal Fashion Schooner in 2022, the year Campbell also the won the Hambletonian for Scott Farber’s Runthetable Stables with Cool Papa Bell – the longest-priced horse to ever win the race. To this day, the sport of harness racing has only seen one other instance where a mare and her offspring have both won in the Hambletonian Oaks when Nan’s Catch won in 1988 and later her daughter Moni Maker in 1996.
“When you look back on it, in the 31 years, there’s been a lot of great races and great horses and it’s something that I will never forget and I’m sure Jules feels the same way, too,” Campbell said.
Retirement for Siegel always seemed around the corner according to Campbell. Arlene passed away in 2010 and Jules continued with Fashion Farms, which came to be because Arlene told Jules that he “cannot do nothing” after leaving the pharmacy business. But Campbell said after Lexington this year that he felt the shouts of retirement may be “real this time.”
“Jules would get, when things weren’t going well, he’d get mad and say, ‘I’m getting out of the business’ and then he’d go out and have a horse race well and it was all forgotten,” Campbell said with a laugh. “I guess a lot of us are like that, too. You know, you have a bad day and you hate whatever you’re doing and the next day you have a good day and you love it again. It’s human nature, I guess.”
Fashion Farms will disperse its broodmare band in today’s session of the Mixed Sale and its horses in training in the Friday session.
“Fashion Green is selling; Practical Man… they are two really nice horses,” Campbell said. “I’m going to miss those two a lot. There are a couple of 2-year-old trotting fillies that showed some promise this year, too. There are some decent opportunities for somebody, if they are looking for some quality racehorses.”
The chapter closes with Fashion Farms for Campbell, but the New Jersey-based trainer plugs forward. With a stable of about 10 at Gaitway Farms in Manalapan Township, Campbell added one to his roster on Wednesday – Hip #685 Wrong Sounds Right. The Tactical Landing colt, out of the Broadway Hall mare Broadway Jo Ell, went to Campbell for $35,000.
ALL EYES ON MIXED SALE
The Standardbred Horse Sales Company has built mixed sales loaded with star power over the last few years. Last year’s mixed sale shattered all sales records with the auction of 3-year-old trotting colt Amazing Catch, who left the ring after a fierce bidding war between Andrew Harris and Greg Luther that slammed at a mark of $1.85 million – the most ever spent on a standardbred in an auction.
Along with the Fashion Farms dispersal, the 2025 Mixed Sale also features the continued disbanding of the partnership between Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld with several of their mares going through the ring and the dispersal of Fair Winds Farms in-foal mares among other breeding offerings.
“I think there’s just anticipation, first of all,” said David Reid of Preferred Equine. “Second of all, the quality of the Fabulous Fillies in there [selling Friday], that are not included in the dispersal, are strong, and then the racehorses – the overall numbers are down, but the quality is the same. It’s a compact, tight-quality group of horses, so it’s exciting for sure.”
The Black Book Sale has seen several dispersals from farms over the last few years, providing buyers rare opportunities to grab regal pedigrees. Last year began the first of a two-year dispersal of Fred Hertrich III’s All American Harnessbreds and a few years prior saw the dispersal of White Birch Farms go through the ring, all at a time when generations crest and ready to turn over to the farms budding in the wings.
“I think each dispersal had its own circumstances – some age, some estates, some health,” Reid said. “Unfortunately, those operations are not going to be passed along. They are forced to disperse, so now it’s up to our fellow industry breeders to step up and accumulate the stock and improve their broodmare bands, if they feel as such. It’s the nature of the business. We’d probably prefer not to have a couple of them have the dispersal, but it is what it is and we can’t change that. From Preferred’s point of view, we’ve just got to manage the market and handle it the best we can for the best outcome for the sellers.”
With the dispersals on offer, Welk said he’s noticed at least double the activity for online bidding on this year’s Mixed Sale. Reid also mentioned that the opportunity to buy some of these offerings has attracted global interest.
“I think you’re going to have exposure from around the world,” Reid said. “There’s probably Europeans that are going to be interested. I’m not sure about the Down Under interest, but between North America and the U.S. and Europe, there will be strong interest in the mares. It’s a very strong sample of pacers and trotters. You can make the case that it may be even stronger on trotters. The overall numbers of trotting broodmares are up a little bit, so we’ll see how that flows into the marketplace, but there’s lots of quality here. Lots of first-time opportunities to get into certain families. The thing with the dispersals is that it does offer a very unique opportunity, as those families have been protected for a long time, so it’s going to open up opportunities for a lot of breeders. I think they are paying attention and I think they recognize that.”
The first of two sessions for the Black Book Mixed Sale opens today (Nov. 6), at 11 a.m. (EST). Hips number 951 through 1471 will sell.
