Prolific producing mare has five starters at Plainridge

Plainville, MA — There is a very rare occurrence scheduled to happen at Plainridge Park on Thursday (Aug. 22) afternoon. Five offspring from the same harness racing broodmare will be competing on the same program that day at The Ridge. Plus, one grandson, a son of one of her mares, is also scheduled to compete.

The mare responsible for all this racing success is Tori Hall, a now 19-year-old daughter of Conway Hall-Trapeze Artist who was originally purchased to race but became a broodmare “by accident”.

Kathy Beaman and her husband Earl own Tori Hall. The Beaman’s first got involved in harness racing in the 1960’s when Earl trained horses at Hinsdale Raceway. But for most of their time in the sport, they have been primarily owners. Over the years they’ve had 37 horses, the bulk of which they bred.

Kathy Beaman looked back at how they came to own Tori Hall.

“Ivan Davies trained Tori Hall for Mike Andrews in Maine and raced her through her 2-year-old season when Mike decided to sell her. Ivan called us and said he had a real nice filly and that he thought we should buy her. My husband and I talked it over and decided to move forward with it and paid $35,000 for her,” explained Beaman.

The Beaman’s bought her as a racehorse with the long-term goal of breeding her, but the breeding happened sooner than they had hoped.

“We raced her three times as a 3-year-old and she had two wins and a third from those starts. But then she got her leg caught up in a jog cart and got injured. So, we did a lot of work with her to get her sound and tried to bring her back two years in a row, but it didn’t work out, so we went ahead and bred her,” said Beaman.

That unfortunate situation turned into a blessing in disguise as they soon found out their mare was a natural at turning out racehorses. To date, Tori Hall has been bred eight times, has produced eight foals that all raced as 2-year-olds, and all have taken marks and competed in the Massachusetts Sire Stakes.

The horses in order of foaling are EB Stoli (Cash Hall – 1:59, $20,214), Catalina Cash (Cash Hall – 1:56.4, $76,626), Pirate (RC Royalty – 1:55.1, $116,727), Tobasco (Deweycheatumnhowe – 1:55.1, $283,923), Raybarnz (Crazed – 1:53.3, $222,152), Poppy Wow (Crazy Wow – 1:55, $127,700). Pepper Wow (Crazy Wow – 1:55.4, $43,180) and Halifax (Royalty For Life) who just qualified and will be making his first lifetime start.

Her first three foals no longer race. EB Stoli was retired. Catalina Cash went to the sale at the end of her 3-year-old year and became the dam of Six Pack Mack, who is also racing on Thursday. And Pirate, who ended up getting a very bad ankle infection and had to be retired as well.

The remaining five, Tobasco (Race 10), Raybarnz (Race 7), Poppy Wow (Race 4), Pepper Wow (Race 3) and Halifax (Race 2), are all racing on Thursday.

Currently the Beaman’s own Pepper Wow (in partnership with Shirley Michaud) who is trained and driven by Ivan Davies along with Poppy Wow and Halifax who are trained by Jolene Andrews and driven by Jimmy Hardy.

Beaman speaks glowingly about all the success Tori Hall has had in the breeding shed and rightfully so.

“She is a 100% producer and very close to being a 100% producer on her first try each time. Dave Hanson has bred her almost every single time and they are just like a magic combination. We send her over there and he gets her in foal, usually on the first try. And we have a cross that we really like to use,” said Beaman.

“We like to breed to New York sires, but what’s driven all her later breedings was our connection to JL Cruze. Tori’s full sister is Topcat Hall, who is the dam of JL Cruze. So, we have tried to stay within that Credit Winner family. We used Crazed for Raybarnz, but then he got exported and we were not able to make a connection with his new farm. So, we have been using the offspring of Crazed as much as we can since.”

The Beaman’s are looking to go back to Crazy Wow next year since he’s back in New York. Beaman said they have been very happy with Poppy Wow and Pepper Wow and that seems like a good combination to go back to.

Tori Hall is currently on a farm in Winchester, New Hampshire and has a Six Pack foal on the ground with her now. Considering her very impressive record of producing, the question is how many more years will she be bred? Beaman said whatever is best for the mare.

“I really don’t know the answer to that because she is getting older. But in all of her pregnancies, she’s never had any problems so she’s easy like that. But I think it’s getting harder for her to crank out these babies year after year. So as long as she’s healthy, we’ll let her tell us when she’s had enough. And then we’ll just retire her and let her live her life out on the farm.”

“We have been in this for a long time, and we have given it our all. We really care about these horses and it’s a bonus when we get positive results. Over the years we couldn’t be happier with the hard work Ivan (Davies), Jim (Hardy) and Jolene (Andrews) have put in and the results they have gotten. I think the fact that five offspring are all racing on one day gives testament to the excellent care they have all received from all their handlers over the years. It’s a labor of love and it really does take a village,” concluded Beaman.

by Tim Bojarski, for the Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts