By Katie Petrunyak
The first thing you notice as you pull up to Hidden Brook Farm’s yearling division is how, on either side of the doors leading into the indoor walker, dozens and dozens of nameplates are lined in neat rows, serving as the honor roll of horses bred, foaled, raised or sold by Hidden Brook. Ask farm manager Sergio de Sousa about any one of the names you see listed there and he will have a story.
Take, for instance, Tell a Kelly. The daughter of Tapit was consigned by Hidden Brook at the Keeneland September Sale the year that her sire’s first crop were sophomores. At the time Tapit was showing plenty of promise, but a lot of his winners were grey. Tell a Kelly, a pretty chestnut with a flaxen mane, only sold for $45,000 after many buyers told de Sousa that only the grey ones could run. The next year the filly won the 2010 GI Debutante S. at Del Mar.
Then there’s Firing Line (Line of David). He is known for running second to American Pharoah in the 2015 GI Kentucky Derby, but de Sousa remembers him from when he grew up at Hidden Brook as a yearling. Across the road from Firing Line’s paddock, their neighbor Beau Lane had a nice Giant’s Causeway colt who came to be called Carpe Diem and also ran in the 2015 Derby.
A portion of the honor roll wall at Hidden Brook | Katie Petrunyak
“I wonder if they ever looked at each other at the Derby and said, ‘Hey, remember me? I was your neighbor!” de Sousa speculated with a grin.
