SPRING HILL FARM LOOMS LARGE.

Edward P. Evans ranks among the nation’s leading breeders, with numerous top performers in residence at his 3,000-acre establishment in Casanova, Va.
Story by Lucy Acton

Casanova, Va., is no more than a crossroads, a tiny country cousin to the nearby town of Warrenton. But it is a destination well-known to legions of long-distance horse van drivers who carry precious cargo back and forth to Edward P. (Ned) Evans’s Spring Hill Farm.
A low-key presence in the Virginia countryside (“I doubt if a lot of our neighbors know what we do back here,” said farm manager Chris Baker), Spring Hill is a power-player in the world of Thoroughbred racing—producing the earners of $4,775,260 in 2004, and making Evans 10th on last year’s list of North American breeders.

Evans has ranked among the top 10 breeders in the country for the past five seasons.
Venture onto the grounds of Spring Hill, and you enter a place where quality and quantity are not an either/or proposition, and the possibility of great-ness lurks at every turn.
Evans, 63, has spent most of his adult life assembling this treasure trove of horseflesh and the 3,000 acres that surround them. And still it is a work in progress.

What is Evans’s greatest achievement in horse racing? He pondered the question, and grinned slightly before responding: “I hope that’s still to come.”
Evans has bred 72 stakes winners—a lineup that spans decades and includes 1986 Irish juvenile champion Minstrella, and the Storm Cat daughter Raging Fever, who won five of six starts, two in Grade 1 company, as a 2-year-old in 2000, and almost certainly would have taken the Eclipse Award as the nation’s champion 2-year-old filly if not for her loss in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes-G1.

Still, he is looking for his first classic winner, and first Breeders’ Cup winner. To improve his odds of that happening, Evans maintains a band of nearly 90 broodmares—any one of whom could have the master of Spring Hill smelling the roses on the first Saturday in May.

The program—and how it works
Spring Hill mares are grouped into “A,” “B” and “C” lists—with the “A”s including a roster of 35 familiar names, including Minstrella, Raging Fever and millionaire Lite Light, purchased at last year’s Keeneland November sale for $675,000, in foal to Vindication.

(A complete list of “A” mares appears below.)
Spring Hill’s mares are mostly on the young side, but many have pedigrees tracing back generations at Spring Hill. The families of Evans’s five foundation mares, responsible for much of the farm’s success, are shown in charts starting on page 24.

The whittling-down process—involving constant decisions as to who to keep and who to sell—is a testament to Evans’s horse savvy, as Baker explains it.

“ A lot of people starting out in the business say they’d like to have a band of 30 to 40 top broodmares,” said Baker. “You have to have as many as we do, in order to have 30 top mares. Mr. Evans would like to have 30 top mares, and keeping 90 is how he’s doing it. And this is done without paying top dollar; a lot of the bloodlines are developed from within.”
Turnover within the broodmare band is ongoing. “We sell 15 percent of the mares a year and add 15 percent through homebred fillies retiring from the race track,” said Evans.
Baker elaborated: “There is no specific agenda, purchase-wise. But it’s not whimsical, either. If Mr. Evans sees a horse he likes, he will look into it; if there’s good value, he may buy [the horse.”

Evans determines all of the matings himself. “He really focuses on it, and spends a lot of time on it,” Baker explained. “He will consult with me on the physical aspects. We go together to visit stallions in Kentucky, and the physical aspects are very important. We try to breed the mare to a horse who suits her best, who complements her. We don’t want to overbreed, or underbreed, a mare.”

Evans owns major interests in homebred stallions Cat’s At Home (Tabasco Cat), Roaring Fever (Storm Cat), Seeking Daylight (Seeking the Gold), Silver Ghost (Mr. Prospector) and Stormin Fever (Storm Cat), plus Pleasant Tap (Pleasant Colony, bred by his father), and shares in such others as Aldebaran, Belong to Me, Lemon Drop Kid, Pleasantly Perfect and Smart Strike. But he frequently purchases seasons in other stallions.

Spring Hill mares routinely travel to Kentucky for breeding, but almost all of the foals are born at home—and thus are Virginia-breds. That was not always the case in the past, when some but not all of Evans’s performers were born at Spring Hill.

“ When I came here the vast majority were being foaled in Kentucky,” said Baker, who will celebrate his fifth anniversary as Spring Hill’s manager this fall. “Since then we’ve built a new 32-stall foaling barn, and fenced an additional 200 acres. This is the third year in a row we’ve foaled more than 60 mares in Virginia. Of 64 mares foaling for us this year, 63 are in Virginia.”

Baker believes delivering foals on their home farm enables Spring Hill to raise a healthier individual. “They’re on their own ground, in their own environment. And it’s been proven that the land around here is a great place to raise horses,” he said.

While racing homebreds is Evans’s pride and joy, commercial breeding is also a big part of the Spring Hill operation. A Storm Cat filly out of Spring Hill’s mare Successfully (Affirmed—La Confidence, by Nijinsky II) sold for $1 million at the 2003 Keeneland September sale.

“ We sell about half of the foals born here each year, and keep half,” said Baker. “It’s not a culling process—we’ve sold some great prospects. Some are sold to offset the cost of stud fees, or they may not fit with the racing program. Mr. Evans makes the decisions from a business standpoint.”

Spring Hill’s primary market is the Keeneland September Yearling sale. “It’s the ‘now’ sale,” said Evans. “Because of the demographics of horses and buyers, any horse will sell well there.”

The farm also sends yearlings to Saratoga, Fasig-Tipton Kentucky and the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall sale.

Horses who do not meet their reserve as yearlings, or give indications that they would sell better as 2-year-olds, are aimed for Keeneland April, Fasig-Tipton Calder or the May Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sales.

Young horses destined for Evans’s racing stable go to Ron Stevens in Aiken, S.C., for their early education. Stevens has handled the Spring Hill contingent for about 10 years, and is an integral part of the program, Baker explained.

Mark Hennig trains all of Evans’s horses in the U.S.—a string that currently numbers about 70, including 2-year-olds. British-based trainer John Gosden has two Evans runners.
By the time they leave Spring Hill, however, young horses have honed their muscles on their home turf—rolling hills and huge pastures being one of the farm’s most distinguishing features.
Land—and lots of it.

Evans may have inherited his love of racing from his father, the late Thomas Mellon Evans, whose famed Buckland Farm—birthplace of 1981 Kentucky Derby/Preakness winner Pleasant Colony—was located less than 10 miles down the road from Spring Hill.

But Ned Evans created Spring Hill all on his own. “I was attracted to the land, and the fact that it is close to Washington, D.C.,” said Evans. “Of course I knew about this area because of Buckland, not that I spent much time at Buckland.”

He bought the 600 acres that was to become the core of the property in 1969, while finishing up his master’s in business administration at Harvard (his undergraduate degree in economics is from Yale).

From there, Evans settled into a routine that has varied only slightly over the years. He spends part of his week pursuing business interests in New York City—one of his most prominent roles was as chairman and chief executive officer of Macmillan Inc., a post he left about 15 years ago. Then he heads to Spring Hill for a stay of several days.

“ It’s a great place to come to,” Evans said. “I’ve had a lot of fun with it, over 30 years. I’ve had the city and country—and I guess you could say I’ve bypassed the suburbs.”
Like some other large horse farms in Virginia, Spring Hill is actually made up of several properties, segments still called by their original names—Long-wood, Spring Hill, Ingle-side, Page Meadows, Henderson and Melrose Castle (Evans bought the land, but not the castle, which was built in the 1840s and served as a way station for Union troops in the battle of Manassas).

“ As the land became available, I bought it,” explained Evans, who added the last parcel in 1991. The farm is now “big enough,” in Evans’s words: “Not that I wouldn’t buy something if it came up for sale.”

Many of the Spring Hill properties are tied to Civil War, or colonial-era, history. Evans’s home is believed to have served as a magistrate’s court house in the 1700s, and the main house at Longwood is said to be inhabited by a Civil War ghost. But it is the modern-day amenities that stand out during a tour of the property.

Improving on nature.
Nine barns, each painted white with cedar green roof and trim, are situated throughout the sprawling farmland available at Spring Hill. More than 40 miles of white painted four-board fence enclose about 800 acres of pasture.

The large fields allow horses plenty of room to move about and live as a herd, as well as helping with parasite control, noted Baker.

The broodmare barn, as might be expected, is state-of-the-art, with clerestory windows allowing for maximum natural light, and a soaring ceiling that provides the ultimate in ventilation. Four 16 by 16-foot foaling stalls are equipped with infrared heating, a trolley and hoist, and walls padded with special material made of rubber and fiberglass.
Also enhancing the Spring Hill property are 23 houses (most used by staff, and four rental properties), eight run-in sheds and 10 hay sheds.

The farm makes its own hay (supplemented by commercial suppliers in varying amounts), and also raises bedding.

Cattle is a secondary, though thriving, business—also grazing the land are a herd of 100 commercial Black Angus and a small herd of registered Belted Galloways.
With the remainder of the vast acreage in woodland, Spring Hill also takes on some of the qualities of a nature preserve. Gracing the land are seven large ponds, stocked with bass, bluegill and catfish. Three large streams (known as runs)—Gupton’s Run, Turkey Run and Cedar Run—make their way through the property.

Care and handling.
Overseeing the entire operation is Chris Baker, 42, a Maryland native who has a background befitting his current role.

Baker’s education in the horse business began at an early age through his father, Raymond N. Baker, who maintains a small breeding farm in Calvert County but is a patent lawyer by profession.

A graduate of the University of Maryland, Baker gained extensive experience in the breeding division at Lane’s End in Kentucky, and worked for several top trainers, including Richard Mandella, Neil Howard, Neil Drysdale and Doug Peterson, before establishing a public training stable in Kentucky from 1997 to ’99.

He was employed at Vinery in the fall of 2000, when friends alerted him to the job opening at Spring Hill. “It seemed like a great opportunity,” said Baker. “And it has been. In addition to the physical improvements Mr. Evans has made, the farm itself has such charm that it grows on you. I don’t want to say this sentimentally, but the beauty of the land itself goes beyond what’s here.”

He and his wife, Diana, who is an equine therapist, met at the 1996 Breeders’ Cup at Woodbine. They have a 5-year-old daughter, Emma Kate.

Structure and organization are key to Spring Hill’s success. “We’d never be able to achieve anything like this without our dedicated staff,” said Baker. Main assistants include broodmare manager Kenny Edwards, broodmare foreman Tippy Grimsley, yearling manager Willie Brogan, grounds manager Kevin Byich, maintenance foreman Jesse Adams, and office administrators Shan--non Aukema and Carol Goshorn. The staff swells to around 40 in the summer, with a solid core of about 30 workers year-round.

Dr. Calvin Rofe of Mayo and Rofe in Middleburg, and the Old Waterloo Equine Clinic in Warrenton, serve as farm veterinarians.

Spring Hill’s feeding program is conducted in consultation with Dr. Steve Jackson of Kentucky-based Blue Grass Equine Nutrition.

Jackson visits the farm quarterly, as Baker explained it, and inspects every horse for condition. “He formulates a ration for each horse type, and incorporates pasture and hay analyses into his formulations,” said Baker.

“ The new land [fenced near the new broodmare barn after Baker’s arrival ] was cropland—which enabled us to plant blue grass and orchard grass.
“ The main farm was historically dominated by fescue, and in the mid-1990s we had a serious fescue toxicity problem. Through intense management we have been able to dilute the fescue,” Baker continued.

Broodmares are moved closer to the broodmare barn on fescue-free pastures after weaning and remain in groups according to foaling dates through foaling.

Height and weight of each young horse are measured on a monthly basis, from birth until departure from the farm, explained Baker. “It’s a great tool for us,” he said. “You might look at a foal and think he’s on the small side, based on the others he’s turned out with. Then you look at the records, and see that he’s right where he’s meant to be, based on his age and development.”

For farrier care, Spring Hill relies on the father/son team of Eddie and David Watson for foals, weanlings and yearlings; Russ Hite cares for the broodmares.
“ You can’t pay too much attention to the quality of the hoof. That’s what enables a young horse to develop,” said Baker. “We try to make them athletes every step of the way.”
Foals and weanlings are trimmed every three weeks. “We try not to overdo trimming,” Baker explained. “The goal is to keep the foot balanced—a good, solid sound foot. We’re aware of the aesthetics, but not enslaved to them.”

The entire yearling crop is x-rayed in February or March by Dr. Spike Pierce of Kentucky-based Rood and Riddle Equine Clinic. “We address any developmental problems that show up—OCDs (osteochondritis), chips or other orthopedic issues,” Baker continued. “And we pursue any sort of surgery that Dr. Pierce and Dr. (Larry) Bramlage recommend.”
Still the most important member of the Spring Hill crew is Edward P. Evans himself, said Baker: “We all have specific roles, but it starts with Mr. Evans, and the vital role he plays. He’s the only one who can’t be replaced.”