Sam-Son Farm to disperse racing and breeding stock

Sam-Son Farm, a legendary Ontario-based operation responsible for numerous influential champions, has announced that it will disperse its remaining breeding and racing stock over the next 12 to 18 months.

Sam-Son Farm was founded by Ernie Samuel in 1972 and to date has bred and raced 44 graded stakes winners, including 14 Grade 1 winners. Its runners have garnered 84 Sovereign Awards for championships in Canada and four Eclipse Awards.

Dance Smartly, a Sam-Son homebred, is a Hall of Famer in both the U.S. and Canada. After finishing third in the 1990 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and earning a divisional Sovereign Award, she went on to sweep the 1991 Canadian Triple Crown and to win the Breeders' Cup Distaff. She was honored as Canada's Horse of the Year that season, as well as with divisional Eclipse and Sovereign Awards. She then went on to an outstanding broodmare career, producing Grade 1 winner and Queen's Plate winner Dancethruthedawn and another Queen's Plate winner in Scatter the Gold, among others.

Sam-Son colorbearer Chief Bearhart was Canada's Horse of the Year in 1997 and 1998, and earned four other divisional titles, including the Eclipse Award in 1997, the year he won the Breeders' Cup Turf.

:: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales

Smart Strike, a half-brother to Dance Smartly, was a Grade 1 winner in his own right for the farm before going on to a career as a leading sire at Lane's End, with multiple champions and classic winners led by two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, now one of his prominent sons at stud.

After Ernie Samuel's death in 2000, his daughter Tammy Samuel-Balaz took over the reins at Sam-Son and successfully led the farm until her own passing in 2008. Today the farm is under the leadership of three owners, president Rick Balaz, CEO Mark Samuel, and Kim Samuel, along with farm manager Dave Whitford and racing manager Tom Zwiesler. The group has decided to initiate an orderly dispersal and to step back from active participation in the racing and breeding world.

“We are enormously proud of the quality and longevity of Sam-Son Farm and have enjoyed nurturing and celebrating every stage of the equine cycle from breeding, to raising, to racing, to retirement and often, returning to the breeding shed," the Samuel and Balaz families said in a release. "Our horses have given generations of our family such fulfillment and excitement over the years and we felt that the time had come, after five decades, to now share that legacy with the world. It was a bittersweet decision but one that we are committed to pursuing with integrity, transparency and respect. Our horses and our amazing, dedicated employees deserve no less.”

Sam-Son's dispersal program will debut at the upcoming Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale on Nov. 8. with a three-horse consignment led by Shared Account. The 2010 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner is the dam of 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Sharing.

“Sam-Son Farm has been an iconic name in Thoroughbred racing and breeding for nearly half a century," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr., said. "Sam-Son horses have had a profound influence in top pedigrees around the world and will continue to do so for many generations. Although saddened to see them dispersing their Thoroughbred holdings, we are honored to assist them in this process."

Sam-Son will present its remaining mares in foal at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale.

Sam-Son has won 11 races from 95 starts this season, with a racing stable including horses such as recent Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf winner Say the Word; Grade 2 Canadian Stakes winner Rideforthecause; and Grade 3 Singspiel Stakes winner Count Again.

Mark Martinez's Agave Racing recently purchased an interest in Say the Word and Count Again, who have joined Phil D'Amato's stable and are bound for California, the trainer recently told Daily Racing Form.

Sam-Son did not immediately announce plans for its other racing stock, or for its landholdings in Ontario and Kentucky.