June 2020 Member of the Month: Sharon Hudon

Sharon Hudon is the TOBA June Member of the Month.

Sharon Hudon, grand dame of Sierra Farm in Lexington, Ky., is no stranger to successful horses. After all, she and her late husband, Ed, bred several six-figure yearlings—and even a seven-figure one. But 2020 has trumped her highest expectations, as the Sierra-bred Nadal streaked to four consecutive wins, three in graded stakes, this spring.

The Hudons began their journey in California. Sharon Hudon noted, “Growing up in Oklahoma, we always had horses, so we rode and — but then, when I met Ed, we started out with that one mare and went up to where we are now.” In 1989, Hudon homebred Corvettin captured two stakes races; in 1992, she foaled multiple stakes-placed Canyon Crest (by Crystal Water).

In 1993, she yielded Surachai (by Slewpy), who won or placed in 23 out of 30 starts and earned $680,963. Surachai tallied four stakes wins, including two editions of the Dayjur Handicap, to be named the 1997 California-bred sprint champion. Eventually, the Hudons went to Kentucky. In 2002, they purchased Brook Royster’s Chance Farm, where they’d boarded their horses for years, and named it Sierra Farm.

The journey to Nadal began six years later. “We bought Solar Colony, which is his granddam,” Hudon recalled. “We bought her in 2008 and at that time she was in foal to Smart Strike.” The full sister to champion Pleasant Stage fetched $310,000; the Hudons also owned her full brother, multiple grade 3 victor Stage Colony, and stood him in California.

Now pensioned at Sierra Farm, Solar Colony had already produced the stakes-winning Lemon Drop Kid filly Reform Act. In 2011, she produced the Pulpit filly Ascending Angel; a non-winner, Ascending Angel foaled a handsome colt by Blame — later known as Nadal — in 2017.

The family of the late Ascending Angel still thrives. Hudon’s daughter, Rane, quoted farm manager Mike Callanan as saying that “they’re very easy to work with, but they are tough, too.” A full sister to Reform Act, Angel Number, is in foal to American Pharoah for 2021, while Solar Colony’s half-sister, Meister Legend (by Bodemeister), is in foal to Gun Runner. She added that “our manager was saying that Nadal used to beat up all the other colts” in the pasture.

Randy Bradshaw purchased Nadal for $65,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling sale, then pinhooked him the following March for $700,000. Nadal triumphed in the February 9 San Vicente Stakes (G2) before taking the March 14 Rebel Stakes (G2) at Oaklawn Park. On May 2, Nadal won a division of the Arkansas Derby (G1) over champion Storm the Court.

Rane Hudon recalled, “It’s always exciting when they’re in the lead like that and you’re just praying, of course, that they get a safe trip and they come back safe, but it’s always emotional.” Sharon added, “Like Rane was telling you, every time he wins, Mike gets emotional, we get emotional, and we still think that Ed has something to do with it.”

A co-founder of the Sierra Aluminum company, Ed passed away on September 13, 2018, hours before his farm sold its first seven-figure horse. Later that day, at the Keeneland November sale, an American Pharoah colt went under the hammer to OXO Equine for $1.4 million. “The reason we got emotional is because the night that that one sold was the night we knew my husband wasn’t going to make it,” Sharon shared. Another member of Nadal’s crop, the Speightstown colt Full Flat, sold to Japanese trainer Hideyuki Mori for $250,000. Fifth in the 2019 TVG Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), Full Flat won the February 29 Samba Saudi Derby Cup at King Abdulaziz Racecourse.

An early favorite for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), Nadal suffered a left front lateral condylar fracture in May and was retired. Sharon reflected, “You know, it’s unfortunate for the whole world, actually, but with the racing part of it — people that race horses, well, they know Bob Baffert was training that horse for a May 2 Derby, not a September 5. It’s hard to keep those horses happy and at their peak; to wait for September 5 or whatever that was going to be, that’s tough.” But the Sierra Farm family — from owner and manager to the night watchmen and yearling handlers — will continue to cherish Nadal’s undefeated run.