Hidden Brook Team Ready to Restock at 2-Year-Old Sales

[Wandering Eyes]

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.

“When we first started out, we did a little bit of both, but the residual value on a colt, there is none, unless it is a real stallion potential,” Hall explained. “We just decided to stick with the fillies. So sales revenue is a big part of our success story. A Grade III-winning colt isn't really worth anything at the end of the day and a Grade III-winning filly could be worth $200,000, $300,000 or $400,000.”

Hidden Brook purchased Hidden Connection for $85,000 at the 2021 OBS June sale.

“We had some money left over, so we were still shopping in June,” Hall said of finding Hidden Connection late in the sales season that year. “Fortunately we found her and it all worked out great.”

The filly immediately began to repay the partnership, winning her debut at Colonial Downs by 7 1/2 lengths and attracting a new investor when Black Type Thoroughbreds purchased a 40% interest based on a value of $600,000.

“We did take some money off the table when she broke her maiden as a 2-year-old, which we have done a few times, where we could sell a piece, but still remain in control, just because of the obvious risk of the game,” Hall said. “We think it's wise to tell our partners to do that.”

In her second start, Hidden Connection won the GIII Pocahontas Stakes and in her third start, she finished fourth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. She ultimately hit the board in an additional five graded events, including a runner-up effort in the 2022 GII Fair Grounds Oaks, and earned $851,808. Sent through the sales ring at the 2024 Keeneland November sale, the 5-year-old mare sold for $1.5 million to Spendthrift Farm.

Teaming up with First Row Partners to increase its buying power, the Hidden Brook partnership acquired Nay Lady Nay for $210,000 at the 2018 OBS March sale.

“Nay Lady Nay breezed well enough, she galloped out well, we liked her on the end of a shank,” Hall said of the filly's appeal.

Nay Lady Nay would go on to win the 2019 GII Mrs. Revere Stakes and 2020 GIII WinStar Matchmaker Stakes and finished third in that year's GI Flower Bowl Stakes. Along the way, her year-younger full-brother Arizona (Ire) won the 2019 G2 Coventry Stakes and was twice Group 1-placed.

After earning $485,180 on the racetrack, Nay Lady Nay returned to the sales ring at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton November Sale where she sold for $1.7 million to Juddmonte Farms.

“We got really lucky there,” Hall said of the result. “Her full-brother emerged after we bought her and her sire went on to become very successful after we bought her. And she was obviously a good race horse herself. We were fortunate that everything came together and we ended up with that very good result at the end of the day.”

Now on the eve of another juvenile sales season, Hidden Brook is back at it again. After a four-day breeze show Wednesday through Saturday, the OBS March sale will be held next Tuesday through Thursday.

“We are coming up to the 2-year-old sales now, so we recently sent out a mailing to fund raise for this particular partnership,” Hall said. “So depending on how much money we raise, we will buy one or two fillies at the 2-year-old sales and whoever is in that partnership will own a piece of each of them.”

“We raise our money beforehand,” Hall continued. “I know some other models don't. They buy the horse and then mark the horse up and then attempt to sell it off. We don't. We raise it beforehand. And by doing that, we don't have this big mark up. We just charge a 5% purchase commission and a 5% selling commission at the end of the day. That's it. There is no mark-up.”

Of a price threshold, Hall said, “I think $280,000 is the most we've ever spent on a horse. We are typically in that $100,000 to $250,000 range. A lot depends on whether our group is partnering with another group where we might stretch a little bit. In recent years, we have taken that partnership and maybe partnered with another partnership, just to give us a little more buying power, a little more strength.”

Hall expects to find plenty of competition when he goes to raise his hand at OBS next week.

“I think it will be more of the same that our market has been in all facets,” he said. “The good ones will be hard to buy. It's our job to keep looking and see if we can find another Hidden Connection.”

Still, Hall said the partnerships are about more than just their results on the racetrack and in the sales ring.

“A big part of it for me is the friendships we've made, getting to know these people, their families and their kids, that I wouldn't have gotten to know without these partnerships,” he said. “That's the best part about it for me.”

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