Ola Yoder, the founder and owner of the uber-successful Kountry Wood Products in Nappanee, Indiana has put the same amount of effort, forethought and savvy into his harness racing breeding program that he has into his cabinetry business, and it is paying off.
Yoder’s list of broodmares and stallion investments reads like a “who’s who” of the Standardbred industry, and as an astute businessman, Yoder has a clear vision of what he wants to accomplish in his 79th year.
“Growing up, we farmed with horses, draft horses,” explained Yoder. “I had always been around horses and, in 1997, I got into the draft horse business a bit and then, in 2016, I started buying roadsters, but I’m a businessman and was looking to make a profit, and that didn’t happen with the roadsters. So, in 2018, I began investing in Standardbreds, first by purchasing some broodmares.”
Yoder also invested in stallions, purchasing shares of Lazarus N (Bettors Delight), Bulldog Hanover (Shadow Play) p, 4, 1:45.4 ($2,789,271) and the stallion Enterprise (Chapter Seven) 3, 1:52 ($389,282), who stands at Dublin Valley Farms in Ohio.
“When I first got involved, I purchased some mares that were just okay and I quickly learned that their foals were just mediocre on the track,” stated Yoder. “It wasn’t going to be a profitable venture unless I started improving the quality of the mares I was buying.”
True to his word, Yoder began upgrading his stock, purchasing five quality mares from the White Birch Farm, and later, in 2020, the mighty mares Shartin N (Tintin In America) p, 6, 1:46.4 ($2,667,563), Lyons Sentinel (Captaintreacherous) p, 4, 1:48 ($2,325,124), Plunge Blue Chip (Muscle Mass) 3, 1:49.4 ($1,596,841), and Custom Cantab (Mr Cantab) 4, 1:52f ($1,036,153), Peaky Sneaky (Bettors Delight) p, 3, 1:48 ($803,211), and Uffizi Hanover (Well Said) p, 2, 1:50.3 ($767,258), among others. He also purchased and developed a state-of-the-art farm in Wakarusa, Indiana and has turned it into a first-class breeding facility under the moniker Kountry Lane Standardbreds.
“With the breeding farm, our goal is to have great yearlings to sell,” offered Yoder. “We don’t really want to get involved in the racing end. It’s been my experience that it’s better to concentrate on one thing and do that one thing well. We want to be a top breeder and focus our efforts on that aspect of the Standardbred business. We will let the folks at the sale tell us what our babies are worth and that will help dictate who we breed the mares back to in the future. We’ve done our best to establish a top broodmare band here and are confident in that.”
Yoder’s stallion interests now include the Walner stallions Temporal Hanover 3, 1:52.2 ($991,847) and King Of The North 3, 1:50.3s ($1,370,242)—who spends half the year in Australia. King Of The North is managed by Tara Hills Stud in Ontario, while Temporal Hanover resides at Premier Acres in Middlebury, Indiana, who also handles the stallions Capt Midnight (Captaintreacherous) p,3, 1:48.3s ($662,286) and You Know You Do (Muscle Hill) 3, 1:53.2f ($541,030) for Kountry Lane Standardbreds.
Raised in Tuscola, Illinois, Yoder was one of 12 children and learned early on that hard work, coupled with honesty and integrity, paid off.
“My mom and dad did everything to raise their children right,” Yoder told writer Colleen Callahan in a feature in The Standardbred Journal. “My dad was a farmer and a very humble man. He taught me accountability at a young age. If I wronged somebody, he taught me the power of an apology. He taught me the definition of integrity—doing the right thing in the worst of conditions. They are some of the greatest lessons I have ever learned.”
Those lessons have obviously paid off well for Yoder, who will sell eight yearlings at the upcoming Lexington Selected Yearling Sale at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion during the first, second and fourth sessions.
“We really excited to have three of our best babies selling the first day,” said Yoder. “We’re hearing nothing but very good things about the Shartin N, Plunge Blue Chip and Custom Cantab babies.”
Hip No. 42 is Kountry Meadow, a daughter of Chapter Seven, out of Plunge Blue Chip 3, 1:49.4 ($1,596,841), who aborted her 2022 foal by Walner and was bred back this season to Chapter Seven.
“She’s a very nice filly, with great confirmation and as this was the first foal, the mare was very professional,” confirmed Yoder. “We sent her to New York to get bred and then she foaled at Anvil And Lace Farm in Kentucky. We like to keep our foals, the ones we consider Grand Circuit quality, in Kentucky so that they get dual eligibility. I was just tickled to see how great this filly looks.”
Shartin N’s foal, a daughter by Captaintreacherous named Caroline Kountry, sells as Hip No. 61, while Custom Cantab’s first foal, a colt by Muscle Hill named Kountry Shoe, sells as Hip No. 108. She has a Swan For All sucking by her side and was bred back to King Of The North this season.
“Shartin N’s filly is just outstanding and Custom Cantab’s colt is quite nice and has a great way of going,” noted Yoder. “We keep the mares here for 180 days and split up their time between here and Anvil and Lace. For instance, we’ve got Shartin N and Lyons Sentinel here until the first of the year.”
Selling in the second session on Tuesday, Oct. 3 is the first foal out of Winndevie 3, 1:53s ($863,257), a daughter by Gimpanzee (Chapter Seven) 4, 1:50 ($2,792,478), who is known as Windy Kountry and who sells as Hip No. 269 at Lexington. Winndevie was bred to King Of The North this season.
Kountry Joal, Hip No. 768, is a son of Chapter Seven out of Whispering Oaks (Father Patrick) 2, 1:54 ($306,744). This mare has a two-year-old daughter and full sister to Kountry Joal named Just Kountry, Q2:04.1s, who just began his racing career and was a $82,000 purchase by the Alabama Harness Associates LLC at the 2022 Lexington Sale.
Another of Yoder’s top mares is the Mcardle daughter Belclare, p, 3, 1:55.1f ($47,877), a proven broodmare that finds her seventh foal, Kountry Grace (Lazarus N) selling as Hip No. 801 at Lexington. Belclare is also the dam of Captain Victorious (Captaintreacherous) p, 3, 1:48.3f ($469,143); High Baller (Captaintreacherous) p, 4, 1:50 ($182,004); Paddy All Day (Western Ideal) p, 3, 1:52.4f ($123,347); Counterparty Risk (Captaintreacherous) p, 3, 1:53.2f ($100,036); the three-year-old Be The Captain (Captaintreacherous) 3, 1:55.2 ($35,490); and the two-year-old Kountry Diamond (Lazarus N) p, 2, Q1:57.3s.
At the 2023 Ohio Selected Sale on Sept. 15, Yoder sold two yearling fillies by Enterprise—the first for $13,000—Kountry Behave, out of the unraced Muscle Hill mare Please Beehave; and Kountry Muck, out of the Credit Winner broodmare Credivida ($6,000), sold for $9,000.
“One thing, when I buy mares, I like to look at the pedigrees and their racing history, and I also study the history of their family’s racing history and pedigrees to see if they’ve had a lot of success,” concluded Yoder. “Buying some in a group can be tricky and I’ve learned now how to buy mares with a little more quality.
"Also, as a broodmare owner, you have to try to match them with stallions that will give you the best results—the foals—so that you can generate the interest in them that people will want to buy. We raised all of our foals to sell, we don’t buy anything back, we concentrate on breeding them, not on the racing side of things.”
(With files from Kountry Lane Standardbreds; Photo of Shartin N pictured in foal)