Circleville, OH — With the Ohio Selected Jug Yearling Sale less than 24 hours away, the consignors who know these colts and fillies best, weighed in on their selections on who may emerge from Friday’s (Sept. 15) sale as ‘the one to watch.’

Similar to the 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best, the hardworking men and women that breed, foal, raise and prepare these yearlings for auction often know the individuals best, and can offer sage advice as to why a particular yearling should be given another look.

While the sale is conducted by the Lexington Selected Yearling Sales Co., the auction is owned by the Ohio Harness Horse Breeders, a consortium of about a dozen Buckeye State nurseries that send their wares to this marketplace each autumn.

“Business is good in Ohio,” noted Ohio Breeders president Randy Haines. “All the farms have been busy showing yearlings before the sale, and the strength of the Ohio program has put many of our stallions on North America’s leaderboard.”

Joe McLead, co-owner and manager of Sugar Valley Farms in Delaware, Ohio, agrees. He noted, “Lather Up is currently the leading money-winning first crop sire of 2-year-old pacers in the country.”

McLead, who was recently elected as a director of the Hambletonian Society, also stands Downbytheseaside who was the third leading sire in North America of both 2- and 3-year-old pacers in 2022. “This speaks volumes to the caliber of racing in Ohio,” the Delaware native added.

Although money pays the bills, speed is also important to breeders and handicappers alike. In fact, an Ohio sire (or two) is listed in every age division on the North American (otherwise known as the world record) race records list for both trotting and pacing on a half-mile track.

In addition, nearly a dozen of those world champion performers have siblings selling in the sale. And because three of the five (that were sold at public auction) $300,000 Scarlet champions of 2023 were purchased at this sale, the Ohio Selected Jug Sale has emerged as the ‘go to’ sale for acquiring eventual Ohio Sire Stakes champion harness horses.

Because of this power, they come from far and wide to inspect, bid on and ultimately purchase an Ohio yearling. On hand for the show day was the multi-jurisdictional owner from New York, Adam Friedland. With his name on the registration of hundreds of Standardbreds, the astute Brooklynite is a one-third owner of recent 3-year-old Ohio champion trotter Grand Revival 3,1:53.1f-’23 ($251,007). Friedland put down his severely dog-eared catalog long enough to quip, “I’m out here to play the lottery known as the Ohio Select Sale!”

Buying unproven racehorses can be a tough game, and many will say that you must look at many, many yearlings before placing your first bid. While siblings to world champions are easily identified by their impressive pedigree pages, the other attributes indicative of performance may not be so outwardly obvious. That’s where the people that know them best can come in very handy.

People often ask, ‘which one of these colts or fillies caught the eye of their breeder or farm manager?’ For that information, we went right to the horse’s mouth, so to speak. We asked the consignors, which in many cases, is also the breeder.

Click here to view their comments.

The sale is held at the Pickaway Ag Center in Circleville, Ohio, and begins at 10 a.m. Prospective purchasers can bid online by registering at https://cci.auction/orgs/77/auctions/3434.

For more information, please visit ohioharnesshorsebreeders.com/sale-roster/ or www.lexingtonselected.com/cgi/ohio_video_sort_2023.php.