by Ellen Harvey, Harness Racing Communications

Harrisburg, PA — Day three of the Standardbred Horse Sale was topped by a trotting filly, hip #564, Arwa Hanover, a daughter of Andover Hall and the Balanced Image mare Always A Starlet.

USTA/Ellen Harvey photo

Arwa Hanover sold for $110,000, the top price during the third session.

“She’s a beautiful filly, gorgeous,” said Dr. Bridgette Jablonsky, manager of Hanover Shoe Farms, who bred and consigned the filly, purchased for $110,000 by Jeff Gural of New York. “Probably one of the nicest trotting fillies we had in the whole sale and she was placed right. Historically, the last two days, if you have a stand out horse, you get paid very well for it. I think it was a combination of her looks, her video and she has a great family and I think that all combined to make the price very, very good.”

Millstream Farm in Kentucky raised and consigned the second highest priced horse of the day, Soul Shout, hip #570, a son of Conway Hall and the Lindy Lane mare Angelholm Hanover who sold for $105,000.

“He is very, very solid and I would call him a typical Conway Hall,” said Claudean Cone, proprietor of Millstream Farm. “Conway throws great length and he’s got it. He had a beautiful gait — typical Conway. So if you liked the Conway Halls, you’d have to like him.

“His personality is all boy, but he’s well mannered. The name just popped in to my head. We try not to name then until we get to know their personalities. Sometimes the names are well received (by their new owners) and sometimes not, so we’ll see.”

North America’s leading moneywinning driver ($14.48 million and 531 wins) Tim Tetrick was at the sale to buy two Pennsylvania-sired fillies.

“I bought a The Panderosa filly (hip #660 Rumor Mill) and a McArdle filly (hip #698 McPlay Girl), both Pennsylvania-bred,” he said. “My family will train them back home (in Illinois) and if they’re any good, they’ll come out this way to Scott DiDomenico or Jimmy King in Delaware. I bought five last year and they did pretty good, they all made it, made about $200,000.”

Dr. Paul Spears, president of the Standardbred Sales Company, has kept an eye on the Canadian market segment.

“There have been 130 Ontario sired horses sold so far for a gross of just over $3.5 million and an average of $27,000,” he noted. “Last year it was a total of 224 horses were sold for $4,338,000 for an average of only $19,000. So the performance of Ontario horses is still better than it was last year, and a fair number of the Canadian buyers told me they were buying horses that were U.S. eligible to race down here. New York is a special favorite for them from what I’ve heard personally.”

The middle market seems to remain strong, said Spears.

“The middle market, I think what we saw is simply a continuation of what happened at Lexington and what happened the first two days,” he said. “Buyers don’t have that many more alternatives (to purchase horses).

“The Canadian Sale (Forest City yet to come) is going to be attractive mainly to Canadians. U.S. buyers have the next couple days to get what they need and with the total number of yearlings at public sale in the U.S. being down so much the demand is going to be there because of decreased supply.

“Part of the reason is that the lower market is gone, it just doesn’t exist anymore. The horses that used to be sold for the county fairs, for the smaller guy and that kind of thing, those sales are gone. Everyone is competing for the horses sold on Wednesday and Thursday and the prices, I think, are going up accordingly.”

Through the first three days of yearling sales, the overall average is $39,807 for 782 horses sold. The average through Day 3 last year was $34,195 for 848 horses sold. This is an increase of 16.4 percent overall for three days.

Trotters have averaged $42,033 this year and pacers $38,022.

The sale resumes Thursday at 10 a.m. with the final day of yearling sales. For more information, or to see the live video stream, go to www.theblackbook.com.