What do the owner of a structural steel company and a sales director for an international software company have in common?
New Pennsylvania stallions.
If you survived the boomerang effect of that Q&A, ponder the decisions of Darryl Myers (steel-company entrepreneur) and Ralph Santella (software sales guy) to dive into the breeding business as the owners of Tyson and Enticed, respectively. The horses will stand at farms in Pennsylvania this year -- Tyson at Myers' Stone Jug Ranch in Dillsburg and Enticed at Rich Miller's Mountain Springs Farm in Palmyra -- with the same goal of making an impact in the Mid-Atlantic's stallion market.
As usual, easier said than done.
As the calendar turned to 2025, stallion farms in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and West Virginia were eyeing decisions by breeders and the start of the season a month into the future. In terms of news and/or changes, the Keystone State led the way as stallions new and old shuffled in a variety of directions. Nobody made more impact than Myers and Santella.
Bred and raced by Godolphin, Enticed brings a track record from four seasons as a stallion at Darley in Kentucky. His first crop included 23 winners in 2023 and he was ranked seventh nationally among second-crop sires in 2024 while pushing the numbers up to 44 winners, three stakes winners, a graded stakes winner and progeny earnings of $3.1 million through Dec. 10. Santella operates Ultra Championship Racing, a winner of 56 races alone or in partnership in 2024 (through Dec. 10), and in the process has acquired a few broodmares and a small farm near Penn National Race Course. He sent two mares to Pennsylvania sires last year, and one to Kentucky, and pondered the business model.
He reached out to some partners, talked it over and went through all the, "It could pay off over time," arguments. At least a few of the partners were in. Then Santella put on his salesman hat.
"I was cold-calling farms," he said. "I'm in sales, I'm OK with making cold calls. How many phone calls could these farms get about something like this?"
He tried to buy Kentucky stallions Catholic Boy (who ended up in California) and World of Trouble (sold to Brazil), talked strategy with Hunter Houlihan at Taylor Made Farm and called Darley about Enticed. The son of Medaglia d'Oro won a Grade 2 and placed in a Grade 1 as a 2-year-old and won a Grade 3 as a 3-year-old with trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. The dark bay attracted 148 mares his first year and at least 73 each year since, but he was getting pressure from newcomers in an ocean-deep stallion barn that includes Nyquist, Medaglia d'Oro, Cody's Wish, Essential Quality, Hard Spun, Street Sense and others.
"Once we talked and said we were interested, their number was reasonable, and I think I built a good relationship with them," Santella said. "They have new horses coming in all the time and thought I had a good opportunity to send a stallion to Pennsylvania. They wouldn't sell me the horse until I aligned the farm. That took longer than buying the horse, but I actually appreciated that."
Enticed joins a growing stallion operation at Mountain Springs, which includes Alejandro, Beverly Park, Eastwood,Tight Ten, Uncle Benny, Uptowncharlybrown and Well Spelled on the roster. In mid-December, Miller was completing a new stallion barn and planning his farm's first stallion show (Jan. 11). It's heady stuff for a lifelong horseman who sold the original Mountain Springs Stables and Arena -- host to rodeos, concerts, demolition derbies and monster truck competitions -- in Shartlesville in 2019. Racehorses were part of the equation going back to the 1970s at Pocono Downs, but Miller has never been this deep into the business.
The new Mountain Springs used to be Land of Believe Farm and includes two main barns in addition to the new stallion barn. Lynn and Lola Cash, whose Built Wright Stables owns Alejandro and Beverly Park, will send mares to board. Uptowncharlybrown Stud, owner of Uptowncharlybrown and Eastwood, will as well. Miller's mares add to the population and will keep Mountain Springs busy all season. The farm added staff and will get help with some of the management from the new stallion clients and their operations.
"I was supposed to be semi-retired, but I guess I can't sit," said Miller. "There's always something to do now. I do a lot of the stuff with the horses myself. I'm sort of hands-on, but that's what I like to do. I'm excited about the year. Retirement is on hold.
"If you want to breed here in Pennsylvania, Enticed has been pretty hot as a sire and his foals look like they can run. He's a really nice, well-balanced horse. Everybody that has seen him seems to be excited about him. I think he's going to do all right in Pennsylvania."
Santella credited Miller, Rodney Eckenrode from Equistar Training and Breeding, Paul O'Loughlin at Northview Stallion Station and others with helping answer questions. Santella grew up in Brooklyn and went to Belmont Park, Aqueduct Racetrack, and later Penn National, with his father. The introduction stuck as Santella stayed a fan, started a racing partnership and now balances horses with his full-time job for Accruent, a leading provider of workplace and asset-management software.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Santella traveled frequently. Now, he can do much of his sales work via online meetings, phone calls and other communication methods. The change allowed him to purchase a farm, build up Ultra Championship (which has horses with Anthony Farrior, Elisha Perez, Anthony Aguirre and other trainers) and work on a breeding program.
Enticed fits the next step. He is out of It's Tricky, a Grade 1 winner and millionaire; his second dam is Grade 3 winner Catboat. The family includes hard-hitting multiple track record-setting Maryland-bred Northern Wolf. Fourth dam, stakes winner Glenorthern, was bred in Pennsylvania by Linnie Scott and her dam Glenora was bred in Virginia by Theodora Randolph. Enticed will stand for $5,000 live foal.
If nothing else, he and the other Thoroughbreds in Santella's world are a welcome break from corporate America.
"Saturdays and Sundays I visit the horses," Santella said. "Enticed is already spoiled. He's a big, friendly, gorgeous horse. He's a treat to be around. I absolutely love the horses.
“There’s always something
to do now. I do a lot of the stuff
with the horses myself. I’m sort of hands-on, but that’s what I like
to do. I’m excited about the year. Retirement is on hold.”
– Rich Miller, whose stallion list is growing at Mountain Springs Farm
The new Mountain Springs used to be Land of Believe Farm and includes two main barns in addition to the new stallion barn. Lynn and Lola Cash, whose Built Wright Stables owns Alejandro and Beverly Park, will send mares to board. Uptowncharlybrown Stud, owner of Uptowncharlybrown and Eastwood, will as well. Miller's mares add to the population and will keep Mountain Springs busy all season. The farm added staff and will get help with some of the management from the new stallion clients and their operations.
"I was supposed to be semi-retired, but I guess I can't sit," said Miller. "There's always something to do now. I do a lot of the stuff with the horses myself. I'm sort of hands-on, but that's what I like to do. I'm excited about the year. Retirement is on hold.
"If you want to breed here in Pennsylvania, Enticed has been pretty hot as a sire and his foals look like they can run. He's a really nice, well-balanced horse. Everybody that has seen him seems to be excited about him. I think he's going to do all right in Pennsylvania."
Santella credited Miller, Rodney Eckenrode from Equistar Training and Breeding, Paul O'Loughlin at Northview Stallion Station and others with helping answer questions. Santella grew up in Brooklyn and went to Belmont Park, Aqueduct Racetrack, and later Penn National, with his father. The introduction stuck as Santella stayed a fan, started a racing partnership and now balances horses with his full-time job for Accruent, a leading provider of workplace and asset-management software.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Santella traveled frequently. Now, he can do much of his sales work via online meetings, phone calls and other communication methods. The change allowed him to purchase a farm, build up Ultra Championship (which has horses with Anthony Farrior, Elisha Perez, Anthony Aguirre and other trainers) and work on a breeding program.
Enticed fits the next step. He is out of It's Tricky, a Grade 1 winner and millionaire; his second dam is Grade 3 winner Catboat. The family includes hard-hitting multiple track record-setting Maryland-bred Northern Wolf. Fourth dam, stakes winner Glenorthern, was bred in Pennsylvania by Linnie Scott and her dam Glenora was bred in Virginia by Theodora Randolph. Enticed will stand for $5,000 live foal.
If nothing else, he and the other Thoroughbreds in Santella's world are a welcome break from corporate America.
"Saturdays and Sundays I visit the horses," Santella said. "Enticed is already spoiled. He's a big, friendly, gorgeous horse. He's a treat to be around. I absolutely love the horses. The stress relief I find hanging out with the horses is second to none -- OK, maybe my bulldog."
Santella knows the pitfalls of the stallion business, but also looks toward yet another expansion of a model that has grown from racehorses to broodmares, young horses and now a stallion.
"There aren't many places to keep mares anymore and that's a big issue," he said. "For the folks who want to have a broodmare or two, there are a limited amount of farms to send your mare to and most of those are full. I'd like to see that improve, but if this goes well maybe the next step is a bigger farm.
Darryl Myers, who spent $175,000 to acquire Canadian champion Tyson at Keeneland in November, already owns two farms but sees a few steps to take before filling the stalls with outside mares. His entry into stallion ownership somewhat mirrors that of Santella.
"I wanted something that would be good in Pennsylvania to breed my own horses to if nothing else," he said in December. "I spend so much money sending horses to Kentucky every year. That's a big cost -- stud fees, transportation and everything else -- and I wanted to try to keep it in Pennsylvania and try to race more in Pennsylvania."
Enter Tyson, a son of Tapit whose racing career included four wins in 10 starts over three seasons. As a 4-year-old in 2023, he earned the Canadian older male championship by taking the Seagram Cup-G2 and Dominion Day Stakes-G3 at Woodbine. In addition, the Kentucky-bred finished third behind Bright Future and Proxy in the Jockey Club Gold Cup-G1 at Saratoga. When the gray horse made the catalog at Keeneland, Myers and bloodstock agent Ed Price went to work.
"We ran this horse by quite a few people before we purchased him," Myers said. "We were looking at a couple others [Florida stallion Rogueish for one], but I think in the end Tyson was the best choice for us."
As a son of leading sire Tapit, whose sons at stud include Essential Quality, Flightline, Frosted, Tonalist and others, Tyson will get attention from breeders. The 6-year-old's female family adds further power. His dam Honouring won once in two starts and also produced Whitewalker, a winning full-brother to Tyson. Second dam Teeming produced six other winners including Grade 1 winner Streaming and Modeling, the dam of champion Arcangelo. Third dam Better Than Honour packs the biggest punch. The Broodmare of the Year produced champion Rags to Riches, Breeders' Cup Marathon winner Man of Iron, Grade 2 winner Casino Drive and Belmont Stakes-G1 winner Jazil among others.
"He's got all the pieces that fit together," said Price. "He's by a very good sire, from a very good female family and he was definitely a runner. He's starting with all the right credentials anyway."
Tyson will stand at Myers' Stone Jug Ranch in Dillsburg. Myers and his wife Jill live in Florida mainly, but the
Pennsylvania native has bred and owned horses in the state for several years. They bought the original Stone Jug Ranch property in 2018 and raised Scottish Highland cattle -- and horses -- restoring an 1800s stone barn and adding paddocks, sheds, round pens and everything else a Thoroughbred operation needs.
The cattle business got smaller (there are still a few) and the horse business grew enough to where Myers purchased a second farm nearby in June. The owner and founder of a structural steel company in Dillsburg, Myers built a breeding shed, stallion stalls, paddocks and more. Some of the property is still in crops, but Myers expects that to be pasture in time and also sees room for expansion in terms of stallions, boarding mares and foaling for clients.
For now, it's about the horse. Tyson spent a month with Sally Thomas in Kentucky, but arrived at the new farm in early December.
"He walked off the trailer like a pro and seems happy to be here," Myers said a few days after Tyson arrived. "He was proud and walked in like he belonged. He's a very smart horse for sure and is phenomenal looking. People keep asking me why I don't put him back on the racetrack, but he proved himself."
Trained mainly by Josie Carroll in Canada, Tyson will stand for $3,500 live foal, with a discount for multiple bookings and special consideration for Pennsylvania-foaling mares and stakes-producing mares.
Myers grew up going to the races at Penn National, said he won a handicapping contest as a 14-year-old and may or may not have helped his high-school teachers handicap races. After jobs as a paper boy and a cook at Howard Johnson's, he became a welder and started a business out of his mother's garage. Now, Myers Steel Works employs 25 people and takes on projects big and small for retail stores, churches, warehouses, office buildings, hotels and more.
"We've built a lot of stuff in our time, and I've been an entrepreneur all my life," said Myers. "Stallions are a little bit new for me, but I'm good with mares and other horses and we've hired some good people now. The program is good in Pennsylvania and it's almost hard to be in it with mares and not be in the stallion side of it too."
Rodney Eckenrode watched the racing at Aqueduct in early December and smiled as horses by Munnings -- Poster in the Remsen-G2 and Muhimma in the Demoiselle-G2 -- swept the two season-ending juvenile stakes. Out in the barn at Eckenrode's Equistar Training and Breeding in Annville, Pa., Zozos -- a son of Munnings -- got ready for his first season at stud.
The dark bay won seven races and earned $1,011,463 over three seasons. He won three times as a 3-year-old and finished second to champion Epicenter in the Louisiana Derby-G2. At 4, Zozos won the Ack Ack-G3, Hanshin and Knicks Go stakes all at a mile. His 2024 season ended after three starts, but he finished third in the Churchill Downs-G1 on
Kentucky Derby Day. Eckenrode wasn't necessarily planning to add a stallion for 2025 until Zozos crossed the radar screen.
"Jamie LaMonica told me about him, and I asked what it would take to buy him; I was not going to drive down there if I couldn't afford him," Eckenrode said. "He got back to me, it turned out I might be able to afford him and I went to look at him. I loved him and feel really good about him."
An October open house for breeders drew similar opinions, and those end-of-season results can only help. Four other Munnings juveniles -- Amor Patriae, Art Fair, Delray and Ramify -- won maiden races in the first half of December. For more, Eckenrode provided a pedigree lecture.
"He's a total outcross to A.P. Indy," Eckenrode said. "Americans are so darn trendy. They all want to go to the same horse and before we know it our gene pool is going to be a little puddle. And I think we're going to see Munnings become a sire of sires."
And then turned the page to conformation/running style.
"He was a sprinting-type miler," Eckenrode said of Zozos, who raced for trainer Brad Cox. "If you're going to improve regional mares, you need to make them faster. I don't think it's as easy to get it done adding distance. I think this horse will make a contribution to that.
"My clients are excited and happy about it and that's where I'm at. I want to have a nice produce for my clients and myself."
Priced at $2,500, Zozos joins Smarty Jones, who turned 24 this month and bred 19 mares in 2024, and Brody's Cause, who bred 32.
“He was a sprinting-type miler.
If you’re going to improve
regional mares, you need to make them faster. I don’t think it’s
as easy to get it done adding distance. I think this horse will make a contribution to that. ”
– Rodney Eckenrode,
about new stallion Zozos
A second-year stallion operation near Gettysburg, Pa., Cabin Creek Farm will stand Il Villano, Imposing, Magic Spoon, Red Vine and Somelikeithotbrown this year. Maria Vorhauer, who managed the Dana Point Farm breeding farm near Allentown in the mid-2000s, steers the ship.
Il Villano raced in the region for Chuck Russo and trainer Susan Crowell, winning five times including the Chick Lang at Pimlico and Dave's Friend at Laurel. From 20 foals over seven crops, he has sired 16 runners and 11 winners. Imposing stands his first season. He was unraced, but is a son of leading sire Gun Runner and champion Untapable. Fellow rookie stallion Magic Spoon won his only two starts, one the Golden State Juvenile Stakes at Santa Anita. The 4-year-old is a son of Good Magic. A veteran by comparison, Red Vine started at stud in 2017.
His 23 runners include 15 winners. New York-bred champion Somelikeithotbrown won 10 races (eight stakes) during six seasons on the racetrack. His first foals arrive this year.
Pennsylvania-bred Beren, who won a dozen races over five seasons on the track, retires to stand alongside his sire Weigelia at Wyn Oaks Farm in Delta, Pa. Beren won seven stakes and earned $944,890. Both are listed as available for private contracts. They're joined by Command Post, a son of Harlan's Holiday.
Pennsylvania-bred Winchill leads the stallion roster at Linda Merritt's Monte Cristo Farm near Oxford, Pa. Formerly the racing/breeding base of Charles and Luisita Cuprill, the farm just to the north of Fair Hill, Md., will also stand Bullet Butch, Fast Draw Kid and McQueen's Bullitt. A son of Tapit, Winchill has sired stakes winners You Must Chill, Winning Time and Honorable Win and had 26 winners from 44 lifetime starters through Nov. 8.
Peace and Justice, who stood at Blackstone Farm with several other now relocated horses, moves out of Pennsylvania to New York . . . Pin Oak Lane Farm's Cloud Computing led the 2024 sire list in Pennsylvania with Enticed jumping into the second spot. Cloud Computing horses earned $3,971,901 through Dec. 10, paced by $377,000 from Pennsylvania-bred Grade 2 winner I'm Very Busy. A son of Maclean's Music, Cloud Computing covered 45 mares in 2024 and is standing at $3,500 (with discounts for multiple mares) for 2025.
While the rosters at Maryland's main commercial stallion operations Northview Stallion Station and Country Life Farm don't change much for 2025, the state welcomes Warrant, who stood the 2024 season (his first) in Pennsylvania. The son of Constitution bred 49 mares at Blackstone Farm and joins the more-established Blofeld at Murmur Farm.
"We really like the horse and our goal is to make him a big-time stallion," said Randy Gullatt, a partner in Kentucky's Twin Creeks Farm which bred the 7-year-old chestnut. "We raced Constitution and made him a stallion in Kentucky and bred quite a few graded stakes winners (including Grade 1 winner and sire Tiz the Law) by him. Warrant is the favorite physical we've ever raised at the farm. We're a big believer in him."
Gullatt ticked through various conformation qualities -- "excellent bone, great size, great balance, soundness" -- and hopes regional breeders continue to notice. Gullatt expects Warrant's first foals to help sell the idea when they arrive this year.
"I predict the foals are going to look like him and if they do, people are going to want to breed to him again," he said. "The breeding folks all keep screaming that they want soundness, yet over and over you see everyone trend to the fragile but very fast horses. To me, this horse gives you great bone and great soundness."
“We didn’t get any new stallions
just because we have a solid group
and we’re trying to get some
mares to some of them. These
horses are all homegrown stallions. That’s not an easy thing to do.”
– Northview Stallion Station’s
Paul O’Loughlin
Warrant won three times as a 3-year-old in 2021, including victories in the Oklahoma Derby-G3 and Texas Derby. At 4, he placed in the Santa Anita Handicap-G1, Brooklyn-G2, Prairie Meadows Cornhusker-G3 and Fair Grounds' Louisiana-G3 (the latter behind Mandaloun and Midnight Bourbon). At 5, he won the Isaac Murphy Marathon going 11⁄2 miles and placed in two other stakes.
Warrant stands for $4,500 and will get support from Twin Creeks, partner Uptowncharlybrown Stud and others.
His neighbor Blofeld continues to climb the regional stallion ladder with 86 covers in 2022, 99 in 2023 and 76 in 2024 after never getting beyond 35 in his first four seasons. His first four crops have yielded 56 winners from 67 starters (through Dec. 10) and he ranks first by average earnings per runner ($101,485) on the Mid-Atlantic's active sires list. The son of Quality Road stands for $5,000.
Northview did not add a stallion for the 2025 season, but said goodbye to three -- Irish War Cry, who moved to Arkansas; Madefromlucky, who moved to Indiana and Hoppertunity, who moved to Louisiana.
Regional leader Great Notion returns at age 25 and was booked full by mid-November. Northview will limit his mares once again in hopes of preserving the Elusive Quality horse's longevity. He set a personal record with $5,991,493 in progeny earnings in 2023 and was nearly there again with $5,929,729 this year through Dec. 19. Great Notion's 2024 leaders included Grade 3 winner Coastal Mission (a West Virginia-bred) and multiple Grade 2 winner Future Is Now (a Maryland-bred) plus Maryland Million winners Brilliant Ice and Starstruck Notion.
"He's our Dubawi (Ire), our Northern Dancer, our Into Mischief," said O'Loughlin in December of Great Notion. "It's cool to see him come out. He doesn't look his age. He'll be 25. I could talk about him all day. He's winners. He'll probably breed 30, 35 mares. That'll depend on how he is. Is he starting off well? Is he stopping the mares? He doesn't breed any maidens or any mares with spotty breeding records anymore."
Others at Northview included Endorsed, a son of Medaglia d'Oro and half-brother to 2023 Horse of the Year Cody's Wish whose first foals arrive this year; Engage, a son of Into Mischief whose first foals race this year and include a $115,000 yearling at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic; Galawi (Ire), a son of top international sire Dubawi whose first foals also race this year; the established Golden Lad, whose daughter Caprice won five of six in her juvenile season, four stakes; and Uncle Lino, whose 2024 winners include Pennsylvania Nursery victor Crab Daddy and Maryland Million Nursery hero Do It for Michael.
"We're pretty solid," O'Loughlin said of the farm owned by the Golden family. "We didn't get any new stallions just because we have a solid group and we're trying to get some mares to some of them. These horses are all homegrown stallions. That's not an easy thing to do."
Country Life stood pat with Mosler, Friesan Fire and Divining Rod. Anchor and Hope Farm comes back with Bourbon Courage and Holy Boss.
Cupid muscled his way into the Maryland (and Mid-Atlantic) sire ranks from Kentucky and covered 52 mares at Atlanta Hall Farm in 2024. The son of Tapit was the only regional sire with a Grade 1 winner in 2024 and trailed only Great Notion by progeny earnings with $4,178,744 through Dec. 19. That Grade 1 winner, Carson's Run, supplied $1,256,100 of the total.
Like most things Maryland Thoroughbred, the stallion/breeding side was awaiting some progress on the racing front as the new Maryland Jockey Club was poised to take over management Jan. 1 and an announcement was pending about the site of a new training center.
"It makes our job harder," said O'Loughlin, speaking for many. "You can see smaller groups around here breeding to race. It has to be that way. At this stage, in the Mid-Atlantic, the more winners you get, the more recognition you get. The history that's here at this farm . . . the Goldens kept the farm here, stayed in the stallion business. It's a wonderful place. We could use a boost from the racing side."
