Hartley, De Renzo Move Operation Into New Dimension

For the past 26 years Randy Hartley and Dean De Renzo have been formidable pinhookers, buying yearlings and sending them through their breaking and training program before reselling them as 2-year-olds, usually with good success.

Graduates of either their training program or sales consignments include two-time classic winner Silver Charm, champion Xtra Heat, and at least seven additional grade 1 winners as well as dozens of other graded winners. At the same time, they have been active in the Florida breeding industry by standing stallions at their Ocala farm.

Now Hartley and De Renzo are moving their business model into another phase, which will add to their pinhooking operations that will continue. They have been buying well-bred weanlings and top broodmares with plans to enter the high-end breeding game.

“Randy and I have been in business 26 years and we’re stepping up our program,” a relaxed De Renzo said from the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale barn area following the Feb. 27 under tack show. “With our pedigree, it’s about time for us to do that. We have shown our longevity, having gone through the tough times and good times and withstood it all.”

De Renzo said the transition came about after the two decided they wanted to step up their program. In doing so, they cited some of the industry’s biggest names to try to emulate.

“We sat down and had some meetings and talked about where we would like to be in the future and we said we’d like to be like Stonestreet and we’d like to be like WinStar and have our fingers in every part of the market,” De Renzo said. “I think we’re on the right track and feel tremendously confident about it.

“We bought big-pedigreed mares with sire power and we bought young mares in foal to horses like American Pharoah  , Pioneerof the Nile  , Medaglia d'Oro  , and graded stakes-winning mares."

De Renzo said the consignors’ offerings at Fasig-Tipton reflect their emphasis on quality, with well-bred fillies that have residual value should their racing careers not pan out. Colts with strong female families also are on offer since quality bloodlines are desired in future stallion prospects.

“All four of the fillies we have here have graded stakes in their first dam and all have a future past their race career,” he added. “Buyers like what we’re doing. They say you have the best pedigrees in the book. That’s by design. And we own all eight of the horses that we have here.”

De Renzo said the mares are maintained at Chris Baccari’s Seclusive Farm in Kentucky, and their resulting offspring will be sent to Hartley and De Renzo in Florida to be prepped for the sales.

“Chris does an amazing job taking care of those horses. He’s a workaholic," De Renzo said. "When they get weaned, we’ll bring them down to our farm to get ready for the next stage, the next stage, and the next stage.”

Like most aspects of the horse business, stepping up their game has stretched Hartley and De Renzo’s pocketbook but they feel it’s worth the risk.

“It’s been a little hard because we had to step up the game financially,” adding with a laugh, “but we’ll just eat peanut butter until we get there.”