Hopeful Farm was established in April 2004 (game time) with five inital horses - two 4 year old colts, two 3 year old fillies, and a two year old colt. Included in that inital 5 was our foundation stallion Handsome Man.
We had moderate success with our racers in our first year. We were very new to the busines of horse racing, and we made plenty of mistakes. However, that year Handsome Man excelled and was eventually nominated for the Eclipse Sprinter of the Year. He carried our farm with his racing success from 2004 - 2005 after which he was retired to stud.
We haven't had a surplus of champions in our barns; however, we have made our success by the careful training and placement of our racers. We hardly ever enter a horse in a race where we know that they will not be competitive, and our strike rate backs it up. We have the ultimate patience to wait for a horse to mature before starting his or her career, because we do not want to ask them too much and recieve poor results. We would rather wait a few months and give them some time to mature than to have them start and finish last in their field.
During the 2005/2006 Breeding Season, Hopeful Farm became a Racing & Breeding Establishment. We had just finished our 2nd year of racing, and with Handsome Man retiring as a champion sprinter/miler we had an excellent breeding stallion prospect. But like racing, we were very new at breeding horses.
We also decided to retire one of our 3 year old fillies, Vice President, so we could breed her to Handsome Man. However, we also decided to purchase a couple more mares to add to our program. So we decided to purchase Maxzene's Affair and Lady Lava from Bally Doyle. Those three mares would become our foundation mares until 2010 when we would revamp our Breeding Program. In our first year we bred 9 foals - leasing out 6 mares from Endless Vista (5 list mares, and 1 game game).
Since then we have 58 foals in 7 breeding seasons. In our early foal crops, we had moderate success with a few stars as of late. With Perfection from our 2nd foal crop emerging in 2011 as a elite G1 sprinter. And with Count Kane and Inside Scoop as emering champion 2 year olds in 2011.
Currently we have nine broodmares in our barn - and we believe that they are the best broodmares that we have ever owned. Included are Triple Crown Winners, Eclipse Winners, World Record Holders, Breeder's Cup Winners, and proven producers of champions. Our breeding policy is that we will breed quality foals from quality mares. It is not about the number of foals we breed, but the quality of foals.
Not to be outdone - our Breeding Stallions are world class. Handsome Man has been with us since we opened our Farm in 2004. He was our leading racer and now is a proven stallion as our foundation stallion. Joining him in 2011/2012 Breeding Season is his first son to stand at stud - Perfect Picture the champion miler/sprinter and winner of the 2011 Breeders Cup Sprint. In addition, a few years ago we purchased Congenial the champion classic racer from KRF Stables, who is an underrated sleeper stallion.
[Photo: Owner Chelsey T astride our mare Led Astray]