By Justina Severni
Michael Evans's Sheltowee Farm brings a consignment of 11 into the Fasig-Tipton October Sale. Evans, the son of horseman James Earl Evans, grew up on Spendthrift farm. The lifetime horseman now owns and operates Shetlowee Farm alongside his wife Marsha and sons Michael Evans II and Travis. Sheltowee does a little bit of everything in the industry, including breeding, pinhooking, lay-ups, rehabilitation, and racing. The consignement headed to the October sale is mixed between horses they've breed and pinhooking ventures.
One of those pinhooking ventures who got a major catalogue update was hip 176. The Tale of that Cat filly, who Evans purchased for $30,000 earlier this year as a short yearling at the Keeeneland January Sale. The chestnut is the second foal out of dam Double Jackpot (Broken Vow) , and is a half-sister to the multiple stakes winning juvenile Stays in Vegas (City Zip).
“She's done everything we'd hope she would do, she looks to be really quick,” Evans said. We're really happy coming into the October Sale and we got an update as far as another stakes with with Stays in Vegas. I”m pretty happy where she's at.”
Hip 994, a Majestic Warrior colt out of a half-sibling to MGSW Grand Adventure (Grand Slam), is another pinhooked offering from Sheltowee. He was originally purchased for $27,000 as a short yearling at Keeneland January.
“The Majestic Warrior colt is very nice and racy and looks to be really light on his feet,” Evans offered.
Evans said that Sheltowee's pinhooking ventures generally look for either weanlings or short yearlings to sell as yearlings.
“We usually go weanlings to yearlings, but we will go yearling to 2-year-olds of we'll do weanlings to yearlings and, if we really like them and don't get what we want, we'll race them,” he offered.
Sheltowee's consignemnts are either horses they've pinhooked or horses that either they've raised or bred themselves.
“We only sell the horses that we either raise for clients or ourselves, or something that we've bought to pinhook,” Evans commented. “Overall, our consignement is pretty strong for the sale. We have some really nice Ohio-breds that we bred, so we have a little bit of what everybody may want and we've go three and maybe ever four standouts.”
Sheltowee Farm has about 180 horses on over 700 acres of property they manage. They also have horses in lay-up and rehabilitation along with mares and foals on their 183 acre farm on Athens Walnut Hill Pike in Lexington. The operation also has about 15 horses in training. Son Michael Evans II, who recently took out his trainer's license, has about half of Sheltwoee's horses in training and Tim Hamm and Steve Margolis condition the rest.
Evans noted that Sheltowee is a true family operation from top to bottom and that the efforts of his wife and sons have made the farm as successful as it's been in recent years. “We've got one hell of a team,” he said.
The Fasig-Tipton October Sale will begin its four-day run Monday Oct. 19 at 10 a.m. at Newtown Paddocks.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
