by James Platz

Steve and Cindy Stewart will bring one of Hunterton Farm’s largest consignments to Lexington this season, with 115 yearlings selling over the course of the five-day sale. A group of 19 will pass through the ring opening night, and throughout the week, and the Paris, KY breeder will feature babies from a variety of sires eligible to several programs.

“We don’t stand any stallions,” Steve said. “We breed to everything, which has served us well. I think it does us well that when people come here, they know it’s not just three or four stallions. If you can’t find it here, you can’t find it anywhere. We’ll sell sale toppers, and we’ll sell some of the lowest priced horses. We have a little bit of everything.”

Hunterton will have a good supply of Tactical Landing fillies and colts. With 13 in the consignment, Steve has been bullish on the son of Muscle Hill since he entered stud duty. Tactical Approach, this year’s Hambletonian winner, was bred by Steve and Oakwood Farms.

“I’ve always believed in him,” Steve said. “Basically, he’s doing what his father and grandfather did. Muscles Yankee started slow with his first crop and then the second crop took off and won the Hambletonian with a horse we bred [Trixton]. He’s following in Muscle Hill and Muscles Yankee’s footsteps. I felt like he was going to do that. We bred right along. We really haven’t backed up at all. We’ll have a lot of Tactical Landings coming over the next few years.”

While Tactical Landing’s progeny will garner attention due to the success of the two crops currently racing, the headliner of Hunterton’s consignment is the sire’s sibling, two-time Dan Patch Award winner Mission Brief. Her first three foals brought $400,000, $725,000 and $550,000, respectively. This year, her Gimpanzee filly, Kadena, Hip #48, will be one of the stars of the Monday session.

“That’s the mare that just keeps on giving,” Steve said. “She’s just got a tremendous filly. When people see her, it’s very hard for them to keep their cards close to their vest. She’s very nice. We have several very nice Gimpanzee fillies. The other one is Demystify, Hip #118. She’s really a nice filly also.”

The second foal from O’Brien Award winning Trixton mare Evident Beauty, Demystify is a half-sister to Prominence, a Father Patrick freshman filly with a beaten time of 1:54.2 this season.

Other yearlings that Stewart highlighted include Youcandoit Kemp, Hip #9, a first foal Chapter Seven filly from a sister to Snow White and That’s All Moni. Ascendance, Hip #21, is a Pennsylvania and Kentucky eligible filly by Captaintreacherous that is a sister to Highalator and JK Higher Power, dam of Joyride Hanover. Grande Via, Hip #45, a dual-eligible colt by Muscle Hill, is the first colt from Megadolce, sister to Trotter of the Year Bella Bellini. Also in the roster is Mount Mikinley, #Hip 62. The dual-eligible Always B Miki colt is out of Shebesailin, a sister to Dan Patch Award winner Perfect Sting.

Stewart is not sure how Walner colt Lexicon, Hip #57, will be received by buyers. Out of Donato Hanover mare Sarcy, the colt is a half-brother to Tactical Approach and near-$800,000 winner Double Deceiver.

“What’s interesting about him is that the mare’s good enough to produce a Hambletonian winner, but when you look on the catalog page, he’s No. 2,” Steve said. “That doesn’t happen very often. She produced Double Deceiver, who made about $800,000 and is in Europe now. This colt is small, and is about the same size as Double Deceiver. So she has produced two top horses. One little, in Double Deceiver, a horse that trotted in 1:50. Then you have the Hambletonian winner who is a great big colt and a Tactical Landing. Now we’re coming with a Walner. You would think the Walner would be in-between, but he’s not.”

Last year, Hunterton led all consignors with 21 yearlings sold on the first day for a gross of over $5.1 million. That fast start allowed them to bring in just shy of $10 million in gross sales with an average of $103,844 while selling 96 horses. Steve isn’t focused on breaking those totals in 2023, but says his clients have loaded the consignment with quality stock, resulting in the expanded offerings.

“That’s not what we aspire to do, see how many we can sell,” Steve said. “Success leads to more horses you might say. A lot of the clients and our partners have more horses to sell, which is not a bad thing. A lot of the clients in our sales are playing at the top level and we’ve been rewarded.”

Steve also believes that Lexington is poised for another big year. He cites the current trend in purses paid as
reinforcement.

“The top end is going to be crazy good,” he said. “The horse economy to me is extremely strong. All you have to do is go on the USTA website where it shows how much more money we are racing for purse-wise year to date. I think the other day it was 11 million dollars, so right around three per cent more just in the United States, not including Canada. I think our business is a very simple business. Money in, money out. Ron Burke, David McDuffee, Determination, any money they make they’re putting it all back in. Where else can you get the return on the investment?”