by Matthew Lomon

Layered into the cool demeanor of Kevin Greenfield is a sense of pride ahead of the upcoming Lexington Selected Yearling Sale in Kentucky.

The co-owner and president of Hickory Lane Horse Farm is eager to share his yearlings at this year’s sale, starting Oct. 2. Altogether, the Findlay, OH-based operation is selling a group of 15, all of which are agent horses. Hickory Lane’s 2023 catalogue features babies from Tactical Landing, Captaintreacherous, and Chapter Seven.

“Overall, the environment is fairly healthy,” Greenfield said. “I have a pretty small, but strong consignment, and I feel optimistic that we’ll have a lot of participation and attendance, and, in turn, generate plenty of interest.”

Before Greenfield and Co. purchased Hickory Lane Farm in 1996, it originally served as a training operation. Since then, Ohio’s leading standardbred program has grown into a significant player in the North American harness racing landscape.

Greenfield himself is the syndicate manager for Tactical Landing, who is the sire to seven of his farm’s 15 consignments this year.

“There’s two Tactical Landing spawns that stand out, the colt out of Courtney Hanover [Hip #331 Landing On Time], and the other from Dazzling Diva [Hip #605 Shes A Hot Asset],” Greenfield said.

The award-winning lawyer also recommended a few yearlings outside of the Tactical Landing tree, including two pacers.

“Then, I have a nice Chapter Seven—Burberry [Hip #309 Count Seven],” Greenfield said. “We also have two pacers that are fairly nice, the Cattlewash—Dancinwiththestarz [Hip #603 Tom Horn], and the Captaintreacherous filly out of Lioness Hanover [Hip #424 Shes Captivating]. The Muscle Mass filly [Hip #824 Crown Me Laurel], is another one I like.

“Those are some of the highlights. I know that’s about half, but these are the ones that really stick out.”

This year’s band of sires features plenty of newcomers.

“You have a lot of new sires this year with Cattlewash, Papi Rob Hanover, and Tall Dark Stranger, especially on the pacing side,” Greenfield said.

Greenfield, being the respected horseman and lawyer he is, offered some advice to buyers from Ontario.

“Then you’ve got Green Manalishi S, [there] aren’t very many in Lexington, but I think is potentially a really good sire,” Greenfield said. “If I were a buyer in Ontario, I’d be really looking at those. That horse has every right to be a good stallion. Hopefully he’ll do well for his owners.”

For Greenfield and Hickory Lane, the yearling sale is a chance to celebrate Ohio’s burgeoning harness racing scene.

“I’m an Ohio breeder by nature, that’s where I’m located,” he said. “To be excited about Ohio would be an understatement. We have a tremendous program. It’s solid, it’s well supported at every level. Our Ohio sale was up 11 per cent from a record sale the year before and that aspect is really important.”

Greenfield, a past president of the Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association, believes the Buckeye State would be the center of harness racing if not for two reasons.

“There are only two drawbacks I see to Ohio becoming the center of harness racing,” Greenfield said. “One is most of the power trainers are out east and don’t want to come to Ohio and two, we don’t have a seven-eighths-mile track. If we were in Pennsylvania, or somewhere closer, we would be having all those eastern trainers coming to our sale, but most don’t because it’s too far a ship from what I hear. From that standpoint, it benefits all the Ohio people because they race for a lot of money.”

The state Greenfield calls home has produced two of the best competitors on the North American circuit in the 6-year-old trotter It’s Academic (bred by Greenfield) and 4-year-old pacer Bythemissal.

The 2023 edition of the sale can’t come soon enough for Greenfield and Hickory Lane Horse Farm.

“How can you not be excited about the sale?” he said. “Tactical Landing has the two fastest 2-year-olds in North America, it’s been a dream come true. He’s got Allegiant, the fastest filly and Karl, the fastest colt. A lot of people don’t realize that.”