Harness: Standardbred Horse Sale starts strong, led by Coffeeshop Hanover at $800,000

--quotes by Derick Giwner--

HIP 43 Coffeeshop Hanover sold for $800,000 to lead Monday’s first session of the 2026 Standardbred Horse Sale in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Year-over-year the average and gross soared from 2025, which left sales company president and operations manager Dale Welk thrilled at the conclusion of the proceedings.

"We're up 13% over last year and up a little over $2.6 million in gross,” Welk said. “We sold two more horses; that wouldn't make that much difference in the gross. I thought maybe with what we had in the catalog, we'd be a little above last year, but once they got started today, it was just unbelievable.

"I think all in all, all the consignors are happy. I've talked to most of them."

Coffeeshop Hanover, a Chapter Seven filly bred and consigned by Hanover Shoe Farms, is out of the Father Patrick mare Crucial, making her a sister to $1,719,521 earner Maryland. Coffeeshop Hanover was purchased by Jeff Snyder and Arthur Pronti.

"What's there not to like, right? I bought the horse with Arthur Pronti, who's my partner with Super Chapter. I really feel that she was the best-bred filly in both sales,” said Snyder. “If you take a look at the first dam and the second dam was Jolene Jolene. I happened to buy a colt in Lexington out of Jolene Jolene as well. She's a great, great-looking filly. We had a really good year with Super Chapter, Apex, Aetos Kronos and Spencer Hanover. So, we still have some funds in the bank. We were prepared to go even more for this filly, but we're very happy that we got her.

"We've been very fortunate. Arthur and I have had a lot of luck together, and with a filly like this, you're not gambling the entire amount. You know, even if she is just a so-so filly on the racetrack, she's well worth the money, you'd have to think. We've had luck selling Kadena last year at the mixed sale for $1.2 million. We had Date Night Hanover for $985,000, and they were both expensive horses. Kadena was $800,000 as a yearling. Date Night Hanover was $600,000 as a yearling five years ago. This one fits right into the picture, right? I'm glad to support Hanover Shoe Farms because they're standing Super Chapter and Apex. So, Hanover is close to our heart."

Andrew Harris bought nine horses overall during the session, led by HIP 60 Loudemetry at $750,000. A Sweet Lou colt consigned by Concord Stud Farm for Anthony Perretti, Joseph Davino and Brad Shackman, Loudemetry is a full brother to Dan Patch Award recipient Geocentric.

"It was a lot more than what I wanted to spend, but apparently Determination thought it was worth chasing, too, so the two of us battled it out. When you get two guys to go against each other like that, you're going to get a big number,” remarked Harris. “He's a gorgeous horse. I thought he was the best pacer in the sale. You mix it with Geocentric, and she was a Sweet Lou. They finally bred back to Sweet Lou, and this is the first colt out of the family. There's a lot to like there. He's a gorgeous colt. He looks the part, so the rest is, let's hope we got the right halter and the price doesn't matter later.

"Lexington went very strong, so I was being a little soft, and Bill (Pollock) didn't let me be soft today. I tried to get him to stop on this one, but he was like 'We came here to buy horses Andrew, let's keep going.' I don't ask, just take the tickets and go home and hope that we find another Brandon Blvd."

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Owner Kjell Magne Andersen scooped up a pair of trotting fillies in HIP 179 Glory Road for $700,000 and HIP 73 Book A Spa Day for $685,000. Glory Road, a daughter of Muscle Hill-Goldy Mary Fr, was consigned by Concord Stud Farm as agent for breeders Diamond Creek Farm and Order By Stable, while Book A Spa Day, by Walner and out of Hot Mess Hanover, sold from the Anvil And Lace Farm consignment as agent for Winning Key Farm. Book A Spa Day is a full sister to triple millionaire Jiggy Jog S, while Glory Road is a half-sister to the stakes-winning Custom.

"She was one of the nicest fillies in the sale. The pedigree and the individual, we loved everything about her,” said trainer Lucas Wallin about Glory Road. “I'm very fortunate to have an owner like Kjell in the barn. He invests so much money every year. Last year he bought Climatic Hanover, then he bought a very nice colt in Lexington this year, and now this filly. Every trainer doesn't have owners like that, so I'm very grateful.

"Everyone probably saw that she was a fantastic individual, and obviously it was maybe a little bit more of a deeper group in Lexington than here. You had four, five or six that really stood out and it looked like everyone went for them."

Like Snyder did with Coffeeshop Hanover, Andersen also remarked about future broodmare value with Book A Spa Day.

"She's got such a great family. I'm also trying to get a little bit of a broodmare band myself, and of course, regardless of what she does, she's going to have residual value down the road,” said Andersen, who had also tried to purchase Coffeeshop Hanover as he owns Climatic Hanover. “And being a full sister to Jiggy Jog, what else can you ask for?

“I thought I had her at $500,000, but we had to go a little bit more than that, but it's okay. Somebody was bidding $10,000 in between there, so I said, ‘You know, you know what? I'll bid $10,000 on the last one and see what happens.’ We got her. It was a lot of money, but with the residual value, you always get something back for it, and these fillies, they're top fillies, so it's good.”

Another group that was active, as Harris mentioned, was trainer Luc Blais and owner Serge Godin’s Determination stable. While they missed out on Loudemetry, they did acquire HIP 96 Mr Sean Hanover, a Captain Corey-M Diddy colt from the Hanover consignment, for $675,000, and HIP 91 Finest Chapter, a Chapter Seven-Fine Tuned Lady filly from agent Concord Stud Farm for $550,000.

"He looks like a laid-back horse, and I think that's the Captain Corey in him. He's a gorgeous horse,” Blais said about Mr Sean Hanover. “When I saw him the first time I liked him, the second time I liked him and the third time I liked him. I had a good feeling."

In regards to Finest Chapter, Blais remarked, "I think that's a good family. I liked the individual. She looked sporty, not too big, not too small, I like that. I like the sporty side of horses now."

One other big ticket filly at $660,000 was HIP 168 Empressofwalnford, a daughter of Walner-The Empress Ice who was purchased by Ake Svanstedt for Swedish connections. Empressofwalnford was consigned by Preferred Equine Marketing, Inc., as agent for breeders Dr. Stephen Dey III and David Reid.

"It was a little more than I expected, but it was okay,” Svanstedt offered about the price. “If they have a good family, they have value as a broodmare. They don't need to be so good at the track. If they are good at the track, it's even better of course. The breeding made the price go up.

"She has a nice video and she's a good-looking horse. She has a very good family."

As had been the theme from others, the power in the market for trotting fillies caught Welk’s eye as well.

"Trotting fillies, you can't go wrong with them. If their legs are going the right way, they're after them,” he said. “And what's nice about it, it's usually two or three people, but there's maybe a dozen people that were after them. It was two or three people that bought them, but they weren't just bidding against each other.

"With everything that's going on, and I know there were discussions today about the handles at racetracks and stuff, they still buy them and they're still buying big, you know, and that's great. I've been doing this for over 50 years now. I went through the big heydays in the 80s when you could sell anything for a phenomenal amount of money.”

Welk was optimistic about the rest of the week’s offerings as well after the hot start left some people still looking for yearlings.

"I think we're going to be good. Maybe we won't be up 13 or 15% each day, but I think we're gonna be up. I think the reason I say that is because a lot of people got shut out today,” he remarked. “I've had guys, you'd normally come in here with six, seven, eight slips, they'd come in with one, and that's exactly what they said, 'I couldn't buy anything.' So, there's money left, and of course, the crowd was phenomenal. I think it's the biggest crowd we've had in the last three or four years. The parking lots were packed, the small arena was packed, and I went in the back before and they were still showing horses."

Two more yearling-only sessions remain on Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 a.m. (EST) before the event switches to the mixed sale on Thursday and Friday at 11 a.m.