By Alan Carasso
Edmond 'Ed' Hudon, who with his wife Sharon bred and sold an American Pharoah colt out of MGSW & MGISP Bsharpsonata (Pulpit) for a session-topping $1.4 million at Keeneland September this past Wednesday, passed away the following morning at 4:15 a.m. following a brief illness. Ed Hudon was 80 years old.
According to Michael Callanan, farm manager at Hudon's Sierra Farm, Hudon and his wife Sharon raced horses for the better part of four decades, having bred and campaigned the likes of MSW & MGSP Surachai (Slewpy), his MSP half-brother Canyon Crest (Crystal Water) and the siblings' MSP dam Corvettin (Don B.). Having grown the California-based Sierra Aluminum into a multi-million dollar company, the Hudons purchased the old Chance Farm in Kentucky in 2006 and renamed it Sierra Farm. Callanan has been its manager since 2008
“He's been a huge influence in my life and he was that kind of person–he'd give his right arm to help someone else,” Callanan reflected Friday. “He always wanted to do as much as he could for others, he always looked after his employees. His goal in life, even when he was running Sierra Aluminum, was that if you look after your employees, they look after you.
Callanan continued, “He always wanted us to be happy. The biggest fights we'd have was when he wanted to pay us too much. He was a man of high integrity. He never wanted to sell a bad horse to anybody. He loved racing. I'm going to miss him every day. He was an important figure in my life and in my family's life and it's very tough to lose him.”
In all his years as a racehorse owner, Hudon had not tasted graded stakes success, but that changed just this past April when the Ian Wilkes-trained Nessy (Flower Alley) took out the GIII San Juan Capistrano S. at Santa Anita, a race he held in the highest regard.
“He loved that race and it was a huge milestone for him,” Callanan said. “He said, 'If I win that race, I can die a happy man,' it was that important to him.”
Sierra has also been represented in 2018 by Done Deal (Macho Uno), winner of the Iowa Sprint H. on the racing side, and by the fleet 3-year-old filly Amy's Challenge (Artie Schiller), a two-time stakes winner and multiple Grade III-placed in her young career.
Callanan believes that Hudon was aware of the goings-on at Keeneland Wednesday afternoon.
“It's hard to know, but me and my wife went in to visit with him after the sale with the bottle of champagne they give you when you sell a million-dollar horse,” Callanan said. “I took that in and he got a little agitated, so I think he knew what was going on. I'd like to hope that he did at least, but really, with him, if a horse had won a claiming race, he'd be just as happy.”
Callanan said it would be business as usual at Sierra Farm and remains optimistic going forward with horses like Bsharpsonata (Pulpit), acquired by Sierra Farm with the American Pharoah colt in utero at Keeneland November in 2016.
“We've been building a nice broodmare band for the last 10 years moving to the point where we can be commercial and race a few horses as well,” Callanan said. “From a numbers point of view, we do have to sell some horses this year. We're a 200-acre farm and we want to focus on our mares. We like to foal 20-25 of our own every year. We look for value in breeding and we like to breed our own because we think we can do it better than anybody. But it's definitely bittersweet that he's not here to share it.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.
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