Breeder Hansen being rewarded for faith in stallion Hansen
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There is no denying that Kendall Hansen has put in the legwork to help prove out his namesake stallion, the champion juvenile Hansen, in his lone U.S. crop before being sold to Korea in late 2013.
The northern Kentucky-based pain-management doctor expanded his broodmare band to breed or co-breed 37 of Hansen’s 102 registered foals in his debut crop. Twenty-five of those horses would later be offered at auction by the doctor himself, who was often in attendance with the stallion’s collection of trophies earned during his racing career.
The human Hansen also did his part to support the stallion as a buyer, purchasing six Hansen foals under his own name for a combined $335,000. Some were added to the racing stable, others were pinhooked, and even more were purchased privately.
The work paid dividends for both iterations of Hansen in the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes on Saturday, when Fast and Accurate secured a spot in the Kentucky Derby with a three-quarter-length score. It was the first North American graded stakes win for the equine Hansen and secures a return to the classic race for the doctor five years after his namesake finished ninth.
Fast and Accurate, out of the placed Green Dancer mare It’s Heidi’s Dance, was bred in Pennsylvania by John Penn. He was offered at the 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale but was bought back for $24,000. The colt was secured by Hansen the following year for $85,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. spring sale of 2-year-olds in training.
“He looked too good at the sale,” Hansen said. “I wanted to get him to Pennsylvania and win some Pennsylvania stakes. I had an Ohio-bred Hansen and an Iowa-bred Hansen, so I wanted to try and win some big stakes for him, but I never dreamed we’d be winning against wide-open Kentucky-breds.”
The doctor has had some success with his plan to divide and conquer with statebreds.
Hansen bought into the Iowa-bred Han Sense after he sold for $125,000 at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale and watched him win his maiden on debut in the Iowa Cradle Stakes at Prairie Meadows and place in a pair of graded stakes as a juvenile. Hansenation, an Ohio-bred colt, finished fourth in the Rushaway Stakes on the Spiral card after winning an allowance at Mahoning Valley Race Course by 10 3/4 lengths.