Roysters sell Chance Farm to Calif.-based Hudons

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Brooke and Lindsley Royster have sold their Chance Farm in Lexington to their longtime boarders Edmond and Sharon Hudon.

The private deal transfers three tracts of land, totaling 216 acres, to the Hudons, who have boarded horses at Chance Farm since 1989. Sharon Hudon said they will change the property's name to Sierra Farm, after Ed Hudon's Riverside, Calif., company Sierra Aluminum.

The Hudons race primarily in California, where their stable includes talented 3-year-old Searcher, who was to undergo surgery Thursday after fracturing a leg; that injury took him off the Kentucky Derby trail.

The Roysters operated Chance Farm largely as a commercial facility. Among Chance Farm graduates are Preakness and Belmont winner Tabasco Cat, who was raised there, and Earth Star, who brought $1.2 million at the Keeneland September yearling sale in 1994.

The Hudons currently have 22 horses, including nine mares, on the Kentucky property. In the past, they have used the farm as a base for their stable of homebreds, who were raised to race in California with trainer Grant Hofmans. Sharon Hudon said they will continue to race a California string but may also branch out into Kentucky's auction world.

Plans are for the Hudons to take the farm over in September, when the Royster family expects to relocate to Virginia.

"It will be mostly a private farm," said Hudon, who added that some of their 12 mares in California will relocate to Kentucky after being bred to the Hudons' California stallions, Stage Colony and Surachai. "We want things to stay the same there, because there's more meaning at that farm for us than just raising horses. We've always loved that farm. Surachai's dam, Corvettin, is buried there. Brooke has done well with the farm, and hopefully we will, too."

Jump Start won't stand till 2003

Overbrook Farm announced Thursday that its A. P. Indy colt Jump Start, winner of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special and second in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes, will not stand at stud until 2003.

Jump Start's racing career ended when he sustained a condylar fracture during the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last year. Jump Start underwent surgery to repair the fracture, and Overbrook had expected to stand the now 3-year-old in Lexington this year. But, according to an Overbrook release, the farm will delay Jump Start's stallion career on the advice of Dr. Robert Copelan, who made his recommendation after considering the recovery period necessary after the surgery, the time needed to test-breed the colt before standing him, and the colt's young age.

Jump Start will stand in 2003 for a $5,000 fee.

Adena debuts juvenile auction

Adena Springs South, Frank Stronach's Ocala, Fla., farm, recently announced that it will host its first juvenile auction on March 21, and Adena management hopes the event will serve as a showcase for more than the horses.

"This is a way to show support for our stallion program, and the training farm is also a great facility," said Jack Brothers, Adena's director of breeder services. "It's a nice time to introduce the facility and our whole program."

The Adena Springs South training operation is one of three farms Stronach owns in Ocala. It covers 454 of about 4,800 total acres under the Adena Springs banner. The other acres are devoted to stallions and mares.

There are about 225 horses in training with Danny Vella at the center, according to general manager Mark Roberts. The property encompasses the former Lin-Drake Farm, which Stronach acquired in 1996. He has since added a seven-eighths-mile training track and six-furlong turf course, as well as three barns.

"Frank is very strong on raising young horses in Florida," said Roberts. "He feels that's a natural migration, for horses to move south in the wintertime."

But the training center that visitors on March 21 see may just be a preview. Stronach is considering building a new training facility - possibly including a 1 1/8-mile dirt track with a one-mile turf course inside it and a 1 1/2-mile turf gallop nearby - on one of Adena's larger parcels of land.

"It's just a possibility, not set in stone," said Roberts. "But it would be a facility second to none."