Within a span of seven months, a Standardbred racehorse has gone from being claimed for $15,000 to being sold at public auction for $300,000.
Nine-year-old trotter Newtown Choclatier had been racing in the conditioned and claiming ranks at Hoosier Park with limited success in 2016. He was claimed by Benita Simmonds on Sept. 3 for $15,000 and failed to garner a cheque for his new connections in four attempts at Hoosier.
Clearly, others have found some lucrative potential in Newtown Choclatier.
As shown below, the black stud son of Chocolatier was sold at a horse sale on Wednesday, March 22 in Seymour, Iowa. With his looks, gait and breeding potential, Newtown Choclatier sold for $300,000.
Iowa's Matt Skinner -- representing a group of owners -- was the underbidder on the horse. He told Trot Insider that Newtown Choclatier had as many as four individuals bidding over $200,000.
"We wish we would have bought him," said Skinner, who marveled at the horse's gait, trotting form and power.
According to Skinner, the previous record paid for a Standardbred driving horse at auction was $140,000. That horse was Ozzy Ozzy, a son of Kadabra bred by Ontario's Warrawee Farm.
As a yearling, Newtown Choclatier was sold under the name of Southwind Valiente. He was a $47,000 yearling purchased by a group led by trainer Greg Peck.
"I renamed him after my boy's favourite candy store in town, Newtown Chocolatier (of Newtown, Penn.). Eight years later I walk into the driver's room and Travis Cullen is showing this video to all the guys," Peck told Trot Insider. "I said, 'I guess I am alright in picking stallions; Muscle Hill, Holiday Road, Merchandiser and this one.'"