In harness racing, success does not come overnight, particularly in the breeding business where the outcome of building relationships and the day-to-day hard work that goes into raising future racehorses isn’t realized for many years.
For breeder David Heffering’s Tara Hills Stud, his O’Brien Award-worthy campaign in 2023 has also been years in the making.
Established in 1996 by Heffering’s late father, Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame builder inductee Peter Heffering, the Port Perry, Ont. breeding farm has long been successful producing champions on the racetrack. But 2023 was extra special with Tara Hills Stud being a first-time O’Brien Award finalist for the Armstrong Breeder of the Year Award.
“I was excited about it,” said Heffering of the O’Brien Award nomination. “It's a big honour to be able to get that, especially as a breeder. My father loved the racing side of things, but for me, I really love the breeding side of things. There's nothing better than having a horse that does really well and goes on and makes money for other people. And that’s not saying that it hasn't been great [for us too]. The Ontario program has been great and the breeder awards are pretty special too.”
From 59 starters in 2023 leading up to the Dec. 1 voting period, horses bred by Tara Hills Stud won 169 races and earned more than $3.4 million in purses.
The top Tara Hills-bred performer in 2023 was Canadian Pacing Derby champion Tattoo Artist, who is vying for his second divisional O’Brien Award trophy and is a Horse of the Year candidate. The millionaire son of Hes Watching is out of the Artsplace mare, Stylish Artist.
“We sold that mare in foal and Eric Cherry raised that foal,” noted Heffering. “But we've had other successes this year. We had two champions in two different spots in North America.”
Tara Hills also bred Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final two-year-old pacing colt champion Storm Shadow (Bettors Delight-Fade), a winner of $375,154 in his debut season, and Ohio Sire Stakes three-year-old pacing filly champion Tarapasta (Downbytheseaside-Pasta Blue Chip), who banked $238,630.
“We had Storm Shadow win the Super Final up here and do well in the Gold program, but also with a win in the eliminations in the Breeders Crown, and then third in the final was pretty good. He never finished out of the money at all this year. And then down in the States with Tarapasta winning the Ohio final -- and that was bred by myself and Glenn Bechtel -- that was a nice bonus to our year.”
Other top earners included Storm Shadow’s older Sportswriter sister Fade Out ($121,324) and multiple Ontario Sires Stakes winner T H McMurry ($90,541), a son of McWicked out of millionairess Waasmula, bred in partnership with Brent Vincent.
Over 29 years, Tara Hills Stud has established itself as one of North America's premiere Standardbred stallion and breeding farms. Heffering attributes much of the farm’s success to the team behind the scenes, both past and present, along with its partners.
“It's a whole big team effort,” acknowledged Heffering. “I spend most of my time either in the office and get lucky enough to work on stallion deals and then I spend the other one-third of the year out making hay and the feed for the horses. I've got a great staff… That’s what makes it work is the team effort.
“Throughout the last few years, we've had good partnerships with other people, with owners and horses,” he added. “I've been with Jeff Ruch and Glenn Bechtel, Bill Donovan, Steve Stewart and Brent Vincent. We've been lucky to have all those kind of people in behind us. We're very blessed.”
Another key individual to the breeding operation and strategy has been pedigree expert Bruce Brinkerhoff, who has advised on breeding combinations and helped build the farm’s foundation broodmare band with the likes of Fade and Future Headlines.
“Just before my father passed away, we started working with Bruce Brinkerhoff, who’s great with conformation and great with pedigrees. We decided that we were going to concentrate on quality versus quantity, but within a certain price range that we could afford, you know, kind of find the diamonds in the rough.”
Conscientious of conformation and pedigree, Heffering said the Tara Hills team has been building a reputation of selling affordable yearlings with a strong track record of making it to the races and making good money.
As a result, Tara Hills yearlings have been gaining more and more attention from big stables at the sales over the past few years.
Heffering said Storm Shadow set a new high for Tara Hills in 2022 as the most expensive yearling the farm ever sold up to that point, purchased for $165,000 USD at the Harrisburg Sale by trainer Dr. Ian Moore and connections. His Papi Rob Hanover brother, TH Colby, has since topped that mark with a $250,000 USD winning bid after catching the eye of Burke Racing Stable last fall.
“It's the dream to come up with something that looks the part and that somebody really likes it, and sometimes you hit a home run and other times, you know, you may only hit a ground ball and foul out.”
While aiming for more home runs, Heffering believes his team provides a strong foundation for the horses they raise.
“We're in the selling game and it'll go on. I believe that every horse finds his way and goes on… It always just takes the right person to get that horse and how they get along with it, take care of it and I think it's a lot of horse personality and trainer personality and groom personality -- the people that love them and look after them every day. For my crew to raise them and raise them right and get them there, but then it takes the people on the other end, those grooms that love their horses and look after them and bathe them, wrap them, make sure they're doing well, that's another part and hopefully we've raised and done a good job getting the horses there and then those guys can go on and take off after that.”
In the meantime, Heffering will be taking off to Charlottetown, P.E.I. to attend the O’Brien Awards Black Tie Gala on Saturday, Feb. 3. Tara Hills Stud is nominated in the Breeder of the Year category alongside fellow first-time finalist Bayama Farms.
“Bayama has been around for a lot of years too and had a lot of success and they're due for their accolades too, so I'm sure it wasn’t an easy choice for voters,” said Heffering.
The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony, which will take place at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Prince Edward. For O’Brien Awards Black Tie Gala inquiries and ticket reservations, contact Jade Regina at [email protected].
(Standardbred Canada; photos courtesy New Image Media, Conrad Photo, Tara Hills)