Saratoga Horse Breeding Farm Thriving

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Kristen and Matt Esler’s Thirty Year Farm, founded in 2018 in Saratoga Springs, is well on its way to becoming one of the top New York breeding outfits.

Matt Esler ran a t-shirt business at Saratoga Race Course in his teens with Kristen among his first employees. They were soon married, and on their 30th wedding anniversary, put in an offer on a property they would aptly name Thirty Year Farm. Less than a decade later, the boutique operation is home to 15 broodmares, including Evening Primrose, the dam of Cosmic Candy Girl, who finished second in her stakes debut in Nov. 13’s $125,000 Key Cents at Aqueduct Racetrack.

“I remember her from the beginning,” Kristen Esler told the New York Racing Association (NYRA). “I’m there for each and every baby that’s delivered. Evening Primrose is a wonderful mother and usually it’s quick. I was still toweling off her first colt for us when he got up and gave me a big fat lip – he popped up that fast. Cosmic Candy Girl wasn’t as fast as he was, but she was a close second. Beautiful conformation from the word ‘go.’ I enjoy all of them, but Evening Primrose is such a classy mare and a great mom.

“It never gets old to watch them find their feet and figure out how to nurse for the first time and develop that relationship with their mom,” Esler added. “It’s absolutely beautiful. You really don’t mind getting up in the middle of the night when you get to watch that happen.”

The Eslers expanded their broodmare program significantly at the 2021 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, where they purchased Achalaya for $725,000 and Evening Primrose for $270,000. 

Achalaya, by Bellamy Road, was acquired in foal with eventual multiple stakes-placed New York-bred Charlotte’s Heart [by Authentic]. She is the dam of Casa Creed – a New York fan favorite known as the ‘Mayor of Saratoga’ for his 9-5-0-2 record over seven seasons of racing at the Spa that included back-to-back scores in the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap in 2022-23.

Esler, a lifelong racing fan and a regular at the rail at the Spa, recalls the significance of seeing the equine stars of the sport up close.

“Easy Goer and Pat Day on Travers Day – I remember being so excited to see them. It was like seeing a hero,” she said of the chestnut, who counted the Wood Memorial, Belmont Stakes, Whitney, Travers, Woodward and Jockey Club Gold Cup among his Grade 1 wins in 1989. “That’s part of why we purchased the dam of Casa Creed. He stopped running when he was eight and everyone in Saratoga loved him and there’s great stories attached to him. We were so excited to purchase Achalaya. That was our first really big purchase when we decided to make a change.”

Evening Primrose, purchased in foal to Justify, ticked a necessary box for Esler.

“I was not leaving that sale without a Galileo mare,” Esler said. “He’d had so much success as a broodmare sire, and I wanted some foreign blood. I am very cognizant of too much in-breeding, and I thought that it might be helpful in developing sturdier animals.”

The chestnut mare, bred and campaigned by Coolmore in the care of trainer Aidan O’Brien, hails from a strong family as her third dam is Reine-de-Course mare Weekend Surprise, who produced the pair of multiple graded stakes-winning influential stallions A.P. Indy – a Hall of Famer – and Summer Squall. Her second dam, Weekend Storm, produced multiple Grade 1-winning $3 million earner Court Vision, who captured the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Thirty Year Farm has seen their investment pay off in a big way at recent sales, in particular with Achalaya.

The aforementioned Charlotte’s Heart sold for $720,000 as Thirty Year Farm’s first offering at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale when purchased by Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation. Achalaya has since produced a New York-bred Curlin filly that brought $500,000 at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling Sale.

Thirty Year Farm enjoyed tremendous success at this year’s Keeneland September Yearling Sale in selling a pair of registered New York-breds for a combined total of more than $1 million.

Hip 207, a Constitution colt out of Walking Miracle, sold to Case Clay Thoroughbred Management for $675,000; while Hip 231, a filly by Life Is Good out of Achalaya, went to Repole Stable for $350,000.

The Eslers also enjoyed local success this summer at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Yearling Sale with Hip 522, a Street Sense filly out of Evening Primrose, who was hammered down for $400,000.

Thirty Year Farm has recently made three important additions to their broodmare band, an investment Esler attributes to the good people they’ve surrounded themselves with, including Thirty Year’s property manager and farm advisor Jeff Raine and Hedgewood Farm’s Carson Asbury, along with a strong farm staff led by farm manager Lolly LaRue.

“The beauty of it all is the trust network that we’ve built,” Esler said. “People who have been with us from the beginning that have taken care of us and guided us.

“Once we had the people in place, we felt a lot more comfortable making the higher-end purchases that you’ve seen recently,” Esler added. “We’ve changed and grown because I believe in the people that are here.”

One of those key people is Lolly LaRue, who joined Thirty Year Farm in 2022 after having previously worked with Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga (THS).

“Today, our people have more than 100 years of horse experience combined,” Esler said. “We have people that have been in the industry a long time and then we have people like Lolly – she had a strong horse background but not in thoroughbreds, so she went to Taylor Made in Kentucky for three weeks and they gave her a great training and have been a big help to us.”

LaRue, a Saratoga Springs High School graduate, grew up in horse country, and was taking riding lessons by the age of eight.

“I loved horses ever since I could remember. I rode all through high school – English, Hunter Jumper – but I stopped in college with back issues,” LaRue said. “I got a bachelor’s degree in psychology thinking I was going to be a therapist. I got about three-quarters of the way through that degree and realized I needed to be around animals.

“I’m an introvert and I craved getting outside and missed being around the horses,” LaRue continued. “My senior year in college I had to do an internship and went to Peaceful Acres in Rotterdam where I was able to combine my psychology background and working with horses. But coming here was a second opportunity. I love the therapy side, but my connection to horses is how they make me feel and that relationship with them. I love being responsible for them and caring for them. It’s been a wild ride to get here, but it’s been amazing.”

LaRue said she relishes the hands-on time with the young horses at the farm, teaching them the ins and outs of what they will experience in their life as a racehorse.

“We’ll work with the weanlings on getting them to stand out in the aisle and getting groomed individually, picking up their feet and seeing how they handle things,” LaRue said. “We get them started on going for walks and then we’ll start trailer training them as well. I like a confident horse, one that wants to do the things you need them to do because they trust you. It’s early but those little lessons start to add up so that they’re in better shape when we start prepping them next year.”

LaRue and the farm staff also provide these future equine stars the significant preparation required to be ready for a yearling sale.

“Our model is building up from 60 to 90 days out depending on the horse, building up with round penning and hand walking,” Esler said. “The most we’re doing is 20-30 minutes of walking in the fields, up and down the hills and no more than 20 minutes of walking or jogging on long reins in our long pen.”

LaRue says the best part of her job is when she takes the time to groom a horse.

“Those moments between just you and the horse is something I’ll never take for granted. I’m very lucky to be outside and working with these animals every day,” LaRue said.

She credits the Eslers for being great leaders and mentors and appreciates the assistance of two young staff members, local teenagers Anna and Adelina Farone, that come in to help when time allows.

“They are the most hard-working people I know – they kick my ass at mucking every day and they’re twice as fast as me at everything. It’s fun to watch them grow up and I hope they stay,” LaRue said.

The Esler’s pride themselves on celebrating their success with the entire team.

“When one of the horses we bred enters – for at least their first race – I take the whole team out and have a great afternoon. It’s so sweet to have them in the paddock and take pictures. It’s emotional for myself and them,” Esler said.

One of those emotional moments came when Cosmic Candy Girl debuted on July 31 at Saratoga, splashing to a one-length second over a muddy and sealed track.

“We were all there cheering her on running through the mud – screaming and hooting and hollering – there’s nothing like being able to share that with the team,” LaRue said. “Even the part-time teenage girls that come in a few times a week were there. They were the ones that walked her through the fields in the 90 degree heat and got to see her do that – there’s nothing like it.”