Harness: Klau managing an elite group of trotting stallions at Southwind Farms

It's one of those rare times in history that everyone is looking ahead. For those who breed horses on a regular basis, waiting is something they are all too familiar with, regardless of outside factors. Yet at the end of many rainbows, there is a foal, eventually a yearling, and hopefully a 2-year-old that shows up and has talent. The next generation always holds with it the promise of something better than the last.

At Southwind Farms in New Jersey, there is a virtual assembly line of trotting talent that has been built in large part on the back of the 14-year-old Muscle Hill. The Hambletonian winner has gone on to sire Hambletonian winners, as well as some of the best and most-talented horses of the last decade. Mike Klau, who manages the stallions at Southwind Farms, now sees two more trotting stallions with what he hopes will be bright futures in Walner and Tactical Landing. Klau, a veteran in the breeding business that dates himself back to Pine Hollow Farm in New York, has seen much change.

"I can remember taking Green Speed’s first crop to auction in Kentucky," Klau said of the Hambletonian-winning son of Speedy Rodney. "The breed has become more refined. I think Green Speed trotted his best mile in 1:55 and that wouldn’t be enough to win a non-winners-of-three these days.

"I think Valley Victory (a one-time Southwind Farm stallion) was a different horse and his offspring helped change the breed." Certainly the impact of Valley Victory is one of the key reasons our trotters today can go at speeds shading 1:50, some five seconds faster than they traveled 50 years ago.

Muscle Hill is a direct descendant of Valley Victory on the stallion side and his book has been filled each year since his retirement, but Klau noted a different wrinkle in the 2020 assignment. "A lot of the syndicate that owns him is European. Frozen semen is shipped to Europe for 30 mares each year," said Klau. "While those breedings don’t count against the numbers we’re allowed to breed in the U.S. we still only bred 140 mares in total. This year we’ve not replaced those 30 European breedings and he’ll be bred to 110 mares in North America." At $35,000, Muscle Hill is the most expensive stallion in North America, but Klau says there are few breedings available. "We’ve cut down the numbers because of his age and because we’d like him to be active at this level for the next six to eight years," Klau said.

Sons of Muscle Hill are attempting to follow in his footsteps, and Tactical Landing, the full brother to Mission Brief out of a Southwind Farms bred mare, has a full book in 2020, his second season as a stallion.

Walner is the first son of top stallion Chapter Seven to retire to stallion duty and his first crop of yearlings will hit the sales this fall. "We've got two fillies and two colts that we will sell in Lexington," Klau said. The Walner syndicate stands the horse at Southwind and by agreement the farm gets five breedings each year to use. "I'm very happy with the way my yearlings look," said Klau of the Walner prospects. "He's an a typical son of Chapter Seven in that he was a much bigger individual than his sire," Klau said of Walner. "The foals resemble him in a very good way."

Of the four, Klau pointed to the colt Southwind Domino, the first foal from an Explosive Matter-sired mare named Drinking Class. "She's a half-sister to Classic Martine ($1.1 million winner) that was a winner on the Pennsylvania Fair circuit. It's her first foal."

With two crops on the ground, Walner enters his third season and interest remains strong. "He's got a solid syndicate of breeders and they support him. His book is full and closed," Klau said.

"I think they will sell very well in Lexington. I know Steve Stewart has a few he is really high on," said Klau about the Walner first crop. Others have echoed those sentiments, including Walner’s former trainer. "Yes, I’ve seen a few of them and they look a lot like him," Linda Toscano said. "I hope to be training a few of them."

How many from Walner’s first crop that will have his ability still remains in the balance, but a look at other foals from the first crop shows a pair of horses from breeders who clearly want to take over the seven kingdoms of trotting. King Of The North is a colt from the $1.9 million-winning mare Check Me Out. "He's definitely the best-looking foal from the mare," said Ray Schniktter, who co-owns the mare and foal with Steve Jones. Check Me Out has had three fillies thus far, with King Of The North her first colt.

Jaqen H’Ghar put on different faces throughout the Game Of Thrones and his namesake is the first foal of Windowshopper, a full sister to the outstanding juvenile of 2017, Fashionwoodchopper. Knutsson Trotting owns Jaqen H’Ghar.

On the filly side, there’s a 2019 yearling by the name of Fashion Schooner, who is a half-sister to the $1.4 million-winning Broadway Donna. She's the seventh foal from the 2009 Hambletonian Oaks and Breeders Crown champion Broadway Schooner, but significantly just the second filly from the dam.

Walner has another first-cropper from the 2016 Hambletonian Oaks winner All The Time entitled American Beauty. Hopefully, named for the 1970 Grateful Dead album and not the 1999 movie of the same name. American Beauty is the second foal and first filly from All The Time, the full sister to $2.4 million winner Ariana G, the 2017 Oaks champion. Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld own the impeccably bred filly.

Whether Walner or Tactical Landing will be the future of trotting remains to be seen. Some have already conceded that its going to be very difficult for any to replace a prodigious Muscle Hill at the top of the trotting world.