A dozen years ago, Tom and Nancy Hamlin took a big chance by selling all their Quarter Horses, including a champion show horse, to relocate to Central Kentucky from Iowa and focus on breeding and raising Thoroughbreds.
Beginning with one tract of land near Winchester, the Hamlins now have 225 acres on which they maintain broodmares and their respective foals and a client base that includes prominent breeder-owners Allen H. Poindexter, Cary Frommer, and Susan B. Montayne.
In the current Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, the Hamlins are enjoying the positive results of their first foray into the sales arena under their banner Wynnstay Sales. Although they have sold horses from Wynnstay Farm at auction before, including many of those foaled and raised on behalf of Poindexter, all sales were previously conducted through other consignors.
"We raise them all (weanlings) and we know them the best," Tim Hamlin said. "We have been doing this for 12 years and we decided it was time to consign them ourselves."
Midway through the Nov. 12 seventh session of the sale in Lexington, Wynnstay had sold 15 horses for $1,512,000, an average price of $100,800. Through that point, the most expensive offering from Wynnstay was Hip 631, a weanling Into Mischief colt sold for $300,000 to A. R. O. C. Racing.
"It's been great," Hamlin said. "The first three books were unbelievable. We were the fifth leading consignor by gross."
Although Poindexter is also an Iowan, the Hamlins did not know him when they resided in the Midwest, but became associated with him when they began doing sale prep for some of his yearlings.
"When he sold his farm, he spread all his mares out and we got a couple of the older ones and when the babies went to the sales, ours did well," Hamlin explained. "The next thing you know we had all his mares and we've had them since. He has 70 mares all at our farm. We keep the best and the rest he foals in Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York, and they all come back to us to breed."
Among the top runners foaled and raised at Wynnstay have been grade 1 winner Lady Ivanka, grade 2 winners Isotherm and Miss Mischief, and grade 1-placed 3-year-old filly Gio Game.
Hamlin said he and his wife are achieving big things from modest investments, citing the example of Game for More, the dam of both Isotherm and Gio Game who was bought by Poindexter for $8,000.
"We're not dealing with million-dollar mares," he said. "We're doing it the hard way. We have been blessed with having babies that bring a lot of money and go on to be really good racehorses. Our thing is to raise good racehorses."
Their show horse experience that includes having a champion in the prestigious All American Quarter Horse Congress equipped the Hamlins for working with Thoroughbreds.
"You are more hands-on in the show horse world as far as riding them and handling them every day," Hamlin said. "We are hands-on at our farm now. We do it all."
In addition to a stable work force, the Hamlins' son, Tristan, and daughter, Maddie, have assisted from time to time at Wynnstay Farm or at the sales. Maddie Hamlin resides in South Carolina, where she is preparing to attend law school and works with horsewoman Cary Frommer. Tristan Hamlin has enrolled at Ole Miss University.
"My daughter doesn't want to do what we do because it's too much work," Tim Hamlin said. "She has seen us foaling mares in the middle of the night."
While having its first sale consignment could raise the profile of Wynnstay, Hamlin said they're comfortable with the numbers they are currently working with and have no plans to expand.
"I just want to sell what we raise," he said. "I have a lot of people approach me to take mares. We have all we can handle. We just need better horses and Allen (Poindexter) keeps us in better horses."