Harness: Royalty For Life sold, new career in Ohio

It may be the end of the 2021 harness racing breeding season in North America, but the Standardbred breeding business is flourishing with today's (June 22) announcement that the top trotting stallion, Royalty For Life, has been sold and is moving to Ohio.

Standing the 2021 breeding season at Tara Hills Farm in Canada, Royalty For Life has been reported to have been sold for excess of $1 million and will stand stud at Dublin Valley Farms in Fredericksburg, Ohio.

Euro Stall SE is the reported purchaser of the stallion. No official word on what Royalty For Life's stud fee will be in Ohio. Brokering the deal was JC International out of Auckland, New Zealand.

Dublin Valley Farms, owned by Robert Hershberger, already stands the stallions Enterprise, Volstead and Nothing But Class.

Now Royalty For Life joins the stallion roster, but it's for a different reason that farm owner Robert Hersherger is excited about.

"I do not know how well he (Royalty For Life) will be accepted as a harness racing stallion for next year," Hershberger explained. "But as a Standardbred stallion standing to breed for show horses and roadster horses, he should be outstanding.

"I think that this will be a different twist for the Standardbred industry." Hershberger said. "The roadster horse show business has grown by leaps and bounds and is now the hottest equine sport. It has been around for quite some time in competition, but in the last year or so it has really taken off. Recently a Standardbred mare was sold for $230,000 as a roadster horse.

"It's exciting for the roadster show horse world," Hershberger added. "They are the ones who will really want to breed to him. He will be the hottest thing to happen here in Ohio and the driving horse world. The show horse world is a new angle for the Standardbred in North America. It is a huge deal here in the USA the last couple of years.

"We can't wait to get him and breed him for the show horse people and the Standardbred harness racing people too. Royalty For Life is going to make a big splash. This is another great new venue for the Standardbred horse."

For more information about Royalty For Life at Dublin Valley Farms visit www.dublinvalleyfarms.com or contact Joe Yoder at 330-473-5863.

Royalty For Life raced only at ages 2 and 3, compiling the excellent record of 14 wins and seven placings from 30 starts for earnings of $1,620,166 -- an average of $54,000 per start.

As a 2-year-old he displayed tremendous early speed, winning seven times from 14 starts.

He captured the $328,000 International Stallion Stakes at Lexington in 1:54 4/5, five New Jersey Sire Stakes events and finished runner-up in both the elimination and $600,000 final of the Breeders Crown.

Royalty For Life really came into his own as a 3-year-old, winning seven of his 14 starts and a whopping $1,277,130 in stakes earnings. His victories included the $1.2-million Hambletonian in straight heats of 1:52 and 1:52 2/5, the $686,000 Canadian Trotting Classic in a stakes record equaling 1:54 4/5, the $360,000 Zweig Memorial, the $294,000 Stanley Dancer Memorial in 1:52 and an elimination of the $527,000 Kentucky Futurity.

Royalty For Life is a most interestingly bred horse as he is the richest son of the former top young trotter RC Royalty (3, 1:55 2/5), one of the best of the progeny left by the champion American sire Credit Winner (1:54).

-edited release (By Steve Wolf)