Northern Dawn Consignment Ready For Upcoming Yearling Sale - August 30th

Northern Dawn Consignment showing Yearlings at 2022 CTHS Premier Yearling Sale.

It has been just over six years since Sherry McLean stepped out on her own and opened Northern Dawn Farm in Hillsburgh, Ontario. After more than 20 years working for the famed Gardiner Farms managing stallions and broodmares, McLean was already considered one of the most knowledgeable in the business.

McLean brought the graded stakes-winning Ogden Phipps horse Reload, closely related to the wildly successful Gardiner stallion Philanthropist, to stand at Northern Dawn, collected some of her own well-bred, inexpensive mares and welcomed a stable of top clients. Now Northern Dawn is one of the biggest consignors at the Canadian Premier Yearling Sale and horses bred and/or raised at the farm are winning races with great frequency.

The latest success story for McLean is Foolish Games, Reload’s newest stakes winner who took the Thunder Bay Stakes at Woodbine for a partnership including trainer Michelle Love, who bought the filly from the 2021 local sale for $17,000. Foolish Games was bred by Joey Gee Thoroughbreds and raised by McLean, who has a half-sibling to the stakes winner in this year’s sale on August 30.

McLean also notes that four two-year-olds bred by Northern Dawn are already winners this year and that three-year-old sprint sensation Patches O’Houlihan, by Reload, was raised at her farm for Frank DiGiulio Jr. “I have twenty-two in the sale this year, said McLean, who sells for various clients including her good friend Denny Andrews. “My emphasis is that these horses are raised to be ready to run. There are yearlings in my consignment for everyone’s taste and pocketbook.”

There are plenty of yearlings by Reload, a son of Hard Spun, in her consignment. From just four crops, Reload has sired Grade 2 stakes winner Candy Overload, who won the Forego Stakes at Turfway Park earlier this year, plus four other stakes winners and in 2023, he has 29 winners of over $1.2 million.

“Reload has been doing very well,” said McLean. “He’s getting quality racehorses. They are good-bodied with good hips and shoulders. I love their attitudes, too. They don’t mind the work as young horses. I have been very fortunate to have Reload here.”

Among the Reloads that McLean has entered in the sale is a colt from the mare Lovely Cersei, who has already produced a stakes-placed runner by the sire. McLean also sells a filly by Reload out of her prized mare Saint Judy, who has produced stakes winner Rockcrest (over $500,000 in earnings) and this year’s debut-winning juvenile Chasing Bourbon.

Hip number 220, a filly out of Spani Lou, who herself is half-sister to Horse of the Year Lexie Lou, is sure to attract attention. The filly’s full brother, Red River Rebel, is a multiple stakes winner and the two-year-old full sister, Joya De Oro, was an impressive debut winner at Woodbine recently.

Also in the Northern Dawn consignment are offspring of another leading Canadian sire, Souper Speedy. “I have a lovely filly from Dance in the Snow and a very nice individual, a filly, from My Pal Ariana, who has had three foals and three winners since I bought her.” And McLean is keen on colts by American stallions Higher Power and Funtastic. This is the first crop of Higher Power, a son of Medaglia d’Oro who won the Pacific Classic (G1). McLean’s yearling by the sire is the first foal of Freedom Quest, a mare by Pioneer of the Nile. Funtastic, winner of the Grade 1 United Nations Handicap, is off to a good start at stud and he is the sire of a colt out of Foxy Cleo, dam of four winners.

McLean is hopeful this year’s sale continues on the same trajectory as the 2022 auction when there were increases across the board. “We all need to keep driving forward. The Mare Purchase Program has been great; it has brought more mares to Ontario. But we have to keep working together to support and promote our Ontario-bred and -sired horses.”