by James Platz

Hunterton Sales Agency arrives at this year’s Standardbred Horse Sale with a slightly different consignment, and that is by design. The group is led by Hip #103 Voguish, a Gimpanzee filly out of the top Muscle Hill mare Jolene Jolene. Steve Stewart admits selling the half-sister to Dan Patch Award winner Venerable and Crucial at Harrisburg came down to strategy and optimizing consignments both here and weeks ago in Lexington.

“Why are we selling Jolene Jolene’s filly in Harrisburg? We sold three or four top Gimpanzees at Lexington and we didn’t need to add another one,” Stewart said. “We sold the sale topper for $800,000, another for $200,000 and another for $185,000. You begin cannibalizing yourself. There are very few Gimpanzees to begin with, so why put them all together in one sale?”

While it is convenient to sell at Lexington, where the grounds are 20 minutes from Hunterton’s operations in Paris, KY, the farm has consigned at Harrisburg for 25 years. As business has expanded and prospered, Stewart says having the option to sell in November helps to maximize their offerings.

“Normally we sell a majority of our yearlings in Lexington, except this year,” he said. “This year is kind of a unique situation, and I think it’s going to be this way from now on. We have so many good ones that we need to start dividing them between the two sales. As an example, normally we sell two, three or four on the first day at Harrisburg. This year we have 14. That gives you a pretty good indication of the direction we are going. It helped us having options, and Harrisburg gives us options.”

The Hunterton consignment consists of 57 yearlings led by 23 trotting fillies, 13 trotting colts, 11 pacing fillies and 10 pacing colts. Voguish is one of only seven Gimpanzee yearlings in the sale, and Stewart believes she is the caliber horse that could top the sale. Jolene Jolene’s first four foals have brought $725,000, $600,000, $210,000 and $200,000 respectively.

“I’ll put her up against anybody, maybe even Lexington,” he said. “She’s a sister to Venerable. Her two sisters are as good as it gets. Crucial’s first foal [Chapter Seven colt Charlie K Hanover] sold for $475,000 at Lexington [this year], so it’s a very desirable family, to say the least.”

Among the selection of trotting pedigrees, Hunterton features four babies each by Tactical Landing and Walner, and seven apiece by Ontario sires Green Manalishi and Muscle Mass.

“We’ve got quite a few Tactical Landings and Walners,” Stewart said. “We have [Hip #357 Blue Heron] a wonderful Archangel brother to the fastest 2-year-old filly of the year, Allegiant. We’ve done well with Archangel, and here we come with the brother to Allegiant, which is kind of cool. We are well represented with Canadian yearlings. And we’ve got a Face Time Bourbon filly [Hip #97 Gilda Bi first foal] to sell. As usual, we pretty much have a little bit of everything.”

Although Hunterton is heavy on trotters, their pacing offerings are no slouches, with horses representing the programs in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Ontario and Ohio.

“We’ve got a nice Sweet Lou filly, Hip #118 [Sweet Beach Inn], that sells first day out of Benearthebeach,” Stewart said. “We’ve got a couple of nice Huntsvilles, one is out of Al’s Girl [Hip #106 Vexed], she’s a three-quarter sister to Sandbetweenurtoes, who made a million. That’s a very nice filly.”

At Lexington, Hunterton led all consignors in gross sales, with 111 yearlings fetching over $10.6 million. Stewart is looking forward to his Harrisburg contingent selling this week.

“I think Harrisburg is a very good sale and we look forward to it every year,” he said. “Obviously, Lexington will have a higher average, but there are just as many good horses that come out of Harrisburg. I think overall the sale will be very good.”