When the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale begins Wednesday, harkening the opening of the juvenile sales season, it will find the Hidden Brook Farm team hard at work to locate the newest prospects for its racing partnership. Among the gems the team has uncovered in Ocala in recent years are Hidden Connection (Connect) and Nay Lady Nay (Ire) (No Nay Never). Both enjoyed graded success on the racetrack before attracting seven-figure price tags when reoffered at auction at the conclusion of their racing careers.
“Knights Templar (Exploit) was the first partnership horse that we bought to race,” recalled Hidden Brook’s Dan Hall. “We actually bought her and raced her with Ed Seltzer.”
Knights Templar, purchased for $80,000 at the 2004 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, went on to win the 2005 GIII Mazarine Stakes and was named that year’s champion 2-year-old filly in Canada.
The Hidden Brook partnerships are more about a passion for the game than a business plan for the farm.
“It’s not a big portion of our business,” Hall said. “We don’t count on it to affect our bottom line. We just enjoy the sport, the racing, all facets of it.”
He continued, “The way [the partnership] has grown and kept going is basically by word of mouth from our partners that have been happy and have enjoyed doing it with us. They share with friends and families and they come on. We don’t go out of our way to market ourselves. We are buying anywhere from two to five a year, either as yearlings or as 2-year-olds.”
Over the years, the partnership has chosen to focus on purchasing fillies with an eye towards resale when their racing days are over.
Get the details on Hidden Brook Racing Partnerships
