Sierra Farm

9th-Gulfstream, $40,000, Msw, 12-14, 2yo, 1m, 1:39.43, ft, 1 length. VASSIMO (c, 2, Nyquist--Bsharpsonata {MGSW & MGISP, $595,010}, by Pulpit) worked four furlongs in :49 3/5 (12/25) out of the gate at Palm Beach Downs Dec. 6 and was off at odds of 2-1 in his debut run for Todd Pletcher at Gulfstream Park Saturday. Drawn widest of all in post nine going a one-turn mile, he stalked the leaders in a three-wide third through an opening quarter in :24.11. The bay hit the gas to take a narrow advantage...

3rd-CD, $120k, Msw, 2yo, f, 4 1/2f, post time: 1:45 p.m. ET Authentic won the COVID-delayed GI Kentucky Derby in 2020, and it is fitting that the Horse of the Year's first starter, MISS MAKENNA, would do so at Churchill Downs in the days leading up to the Run for the Roses. The Apr. 26 foal, bred by Sierra Farm, is kin to five winners from as many to race out of Peggy May (Lemon Drop Kid), a daughter of Eclipse Award-winning grass mare Perfect Sting (Red Ransom) and a...

In this continuing series, TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack catches up with the connections of promising maidens to keep on your radar. Tipsy Tammy (f, 3, Arrogate--Peggy May, by Lemon Drop Kid) ran a winning race on debut. She just didn't win. Those were the words of trainer Phil Bauer, who saddled the highly regarded $600,000 Keeneland September Yearling purchase to a strong second-place finish behind 'TDN Rising Star' Impel (Quality Road) on debut at Fair Grounds Jan. 1. Sporting a pair of bullet breezes on her worktab, the...

Private Creed, a last-out winner of the $500,000 Global Tote Juvenile Turf Sprint S. at Kentucky Downs Sept. 8, added another notch to the win column in Sunday's Indian Summer S. while earning an automatic spot in the starting gate for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint S. to be run over the same Keeneland course and distance Nov. 4. Off as the second choice with the scratch odds-on morning-line favorite Love Reigns (Ire) (U S Navy Flag)--who is reportedly training up to the Breeders' Cup--Private Creed was taken...

Sierra Farm was founded by Ed and Sharon Hudon in 2006. Following the passing of her husband in 2018, Sharon took over the operation and the farm was recently sold to Matt Dorman's Determined Stud in December of 2021. Sierra Farm sold four mares at last year's Keeneland November Sale and the remaining mares moved to Greenfield Farm. Sierra farm manager Mike Callanan said that of the current broodmare band, many will point to this year's Keeneland November Sale but added that Hudon may retain several to maintain a small...

Matt Dorman, who began building a boutique broodmare band last year, officially has a new home for his Determined Stud after purchasing Susan Hudon's 216-acre Sierra Farm in Lexington. Tom Biederman's Biederman Real Estate marketed and sold the property. "It's a turnkey operation," Dorman said of the property on Mt. Horeb Pike. "I have a lot of respect for what Ed Hudon and his wife did there. Ed unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago, but they built a phenomenal horse farm. It's horse ready and it's human ready--which...

A filly by Into Mischief (hip 429) turned in the fastest furlong work of the week so far (:9 3/5) and a pair of juveniles shared the day's fastest quarter-mile time during Tuesday's third under-tack preview session ahead of next week's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. A filly by Street Sense (hip 493), consigned by Pick View, and a colt by Runhappy (hip 1266), consigned by S B M Training and Sales, both covered the quarter-mile distance in :20 3/5. Five juveniles have turned in...

MICHAEL CALLANAN, SIERRA FARM Favorite: Nessy My favorite horse was, and still is, our old boy Nessy (Flower Alley). In 2018, Ed Hudon wasn't doing very well, and it seemed every good horse we came up ended up coming up with an injury or being not quite good enough to win a graded stakes. Ed and his wife Sharon had never won a graded stakes up to this point and time was running out. Ian Wilkes had penciled in the GIII San Juan Capistrano which was Ed's favorite race at...

Chris McGrath's Value Sires series in the TDN has frequently touched on the difficulty in selling nominations to stallions in their third-year at stud, as well as to solid, established stallions standing for a moderate fee. We asked stallion managers and nominations teams as well as bloodstock agents what changes could be made, if any, to help the situation. I think that the problem is as a result of influence-breeding for sales in the thoroughbred industry. The majority of people who are breeding to sub-$20,000 stallions have mares valued around...