Getting ready for huge Amish Standardbred Sale

It was just about one year ago that the richest harness racing Standardbred Road Horse stallion of all time was sold at the Mid-Ohio Memorial Trotting Horse Sale in Mt. Hope, Ohio for $1.375 million. His name was Lordy Lordy (Muscle Massive).

Will there be another million-dollar seller this year?

The Memorial Trotting Horse Sale is set once again for Friday, May 26 and it is expected to draw more than 10,000 people to the event, primarily Amish families, enjoying the festivities, the horse sale itself, the booth displays of the latest tack shop equipment and most of all, the food, most of which is all cooked by people from the Amish community.

It’s like a county fair without all the rides and games of chance, but they do have a huge indoor arena where they set up basketball courts, bounce houses, rock walls and other events for the younger crowd to be entertained during the sale.

The parking lot will be filled with more than 1,000 horse and buggy’s along with a few cars and plenty of horse trailers. Inside some of the barns will also house hundreds of electric bicycles that the young Amish youths use to get around.

No one knows the sale better than 27-year-old Mark Yoder, who is also the editor of the Standardbred Journal. It is the leading Road Horse Magazine of not only the Amish community in the Mt. Hope area of nearly 70,000 people, but it has also become one of the leading Road Horse magazines in the country and it only began production in 2021.

The magazine, along with a weekly podcast that Mark Yoder hosts, is run by a 501c3 non-profit organization with the intention of infusing funds into encouraging horsemanship, education and added-money purses at Roadster shows.

Many of the articles written are by top harness racing journalists include Kim French and Debbie Little. Leading industry people also write including Steve Jones, Jessica Schroeder and others.

Mark Yoder grew up just one mile from the sales barn that was owned by Robert Hershberger. He’s the man that came up with the idea to start holding the Mid-Ohio Memorial Trotting Sale.

“His farm was our home away from home and as kids and teenagers,” Yoder explained. “It was the neighborhood barn, and we all use to go out there in the evenings. I also learned a lot about the Standardbred and Road Horse business from Mr. Hershberger over the years.”

Just this past weekend there were some Open Houses held at the sales barn for the larger farms that wanted to showcase their consignments for interested buyers.

“This sale has really become the biggest event of the year in the Amish community,” Yoder explained. “Now we have these Open Houses where the bigger farms do displays of their top horses for the public. It’s become a big party.

“There was an Open House last Friday held by Green Acres Stable,” Yoder said. “And Dublin Valley Farms ordered 120 pizzas and it was not enough, so they ordered more, and everyone was happy. The Amish do love to eat. Another Open House this past Saturday morning hosted by Slate Acres, and it was a breakfast, and the food was excellent, and they ran out too. We now have hundreds of people coming to these events a week before the sale.

“These Open Houses are taking place two weeks before the sale,” Yoder added. “This sale on May 26 is all everyone in the Amish Community is talking about for weeks now. It’s crazy. People are talking about the best horses they say. They are spreading the word throughout the community. And here, word of mouth, is how news is spread.”

The 2023 Mid-Ohio Memorial Trotting Sale catalog is available online by clicking here.

This year, the Sales Committee has teamed up with Harnesslink.com and will broadcast the sale live on the Harnesslink Facebook Page by clicking here. Harnesslink will also have a very special booth display at the sale where someone will win a free breeding to the popular stallion, Royalty For Life.

The driving of sale horses starts at 8:30 am and the live auction begins at 1:00 pm.

Will there be another horse at the sale that will bring $1 million?

“I don’t think so this year,” Yoder said. “There are some very nice horses in this sale, but maybe not one that will bring that much.”

Who does Mark Yoder think are some of the top horses in the sale?

“The #1 horse in the sale (Midnight Celebrity),” Yoder said. “He’s a really nice horse from Illinois. He is a stallion and stood at stud last year for the first time. He’s by Popular Sun, who is a hot sire right now. eHe

“Another top horse,” Yoder said. “Is #5 (Hawkeye Kayla). She is owned by Chester Kauffman. This is the guy from Independence, Iowa who drove all the way out to see his mare sell. She is a really nice mare, sired by Ozzy Ozzy.”

Other horses that Yoder felt would fetch a good price at the sale included #13 (Harvard Yard) a mare who is by Donato Hanover and sells in foal to SD Rocketeer and #31 (Massive Koz) a stallion by Dream On Koz, who is said to be a big, flawless looking horse.

The sale features many horses bred by top stallions in the harness racing industry. Included are horses and mares bred by Conway Hall, Father Patrick, Kadabra, Mister Cantab, Muscle Hill, Muscle Massive, Sebastian K, Yankee Glide and many others.

And how did things turn out for the people who purchased Lordy Lordy for $1.375 million last year?

They announced later than afternoon at the sale that 100 shares in the stallion were being sold for $16,000 each and a limited number of single breeding’s were to be sold for $4,000 each.

It was said that by the end of the week, all 100 shares were sold, and a lot of single breeding’s sold too. That represents a $250,000 profit made and they own the stallion outright.

In the following week there will be more written about this special sale in Ohio and the live Facebook Feed from Harnesslink.com.

by Steve Wolf, for Harnesslink