Saint Liam’s family is among Virginia’s finest
Saint Liam was born too soon.

A foal of 2000, he came along before his breeder, Edward P. Evans, decided to start keeping nearly all of his broodmares at home to foal. For the past three seasons, Evans’s mares have enjoyed the luxury of a new foaling barn that is among many choice amenities at their owner’s 3,000-acre Spring Hill Farm in Casanova, Va.

If Saint Liam had been born there, he would have been a Virginia-bred. And the Old Dominion would have been hailed far and wide for giving the world a Breeders’ Cup Classic-G1 winner and prospective Horse of the Year.

Instead, Saint Liam traveled in utero to Kentucky, where his dam, Quiet Dance, gave birth to him and then was mated to Kentucky sire Forestry. Geography is destiny, as far as The Jockey Club is concerned: A horse is considered bred in the state where he is foaled.

But Virginia deserves its share of bragging rights.
Evans, whose Spring Hill Farm has ranked among the top 10 breeding operations in the country in each of the past five years, could choose to locate his horse business anywhere in the world. Thirty-five years ago, he began buying property in Casanova, near Warrenton, and has never seriously looked to expand beyond that area. Evans treasures his land, which he considers exceptionally good for growing horses.

As a breeder, Evans has built up a legacy that includes at least 72 stakes winners, led by 1986 Irish juvenile champion Minstrella (a half-sister to the granddam of Saint Liam) and multiple Grade 1 winner Raging Fever. But Saint Liam, sold by Evans for $130,000 at the 2001 Saratoga Yearling sale, is the fulfillment of a long-held dream—the first to represent Evans with a victory in a Breeders’ Cup race.

Evans owns nearly 90 broodmares, all with exceptional credentials. Of special pride are Spring Hill’s “A” list of mares, a ranking that consists of approximately the top third. Naturally, Saint Liam’s dam Quiet Dance (by Quiet American) is on that list. Purchased by Evans for $75,000 at the 1994 Saratoga Yearling sale, Quiet Dance earned some distinction on the race track, as a stakes winner and Grade 2-placed earner of $224,240.

But the 13-year-old mare has been a world-beater in the breeding shed, having produced as her second and third foals, respectively, Saint Liam and graded winner Congressionalhonor. (The result of Quiet Dance’s mating with Forestry, mentioned above, Congressionalhonor strengthens the family’s ties to the region, as he enters stud this season at the Lyman family’s Maui Meadow Farm in West Chester, Pa.) Quiet Dance had a filly by Tiznow in 2005, and is due April 1 to the cover of A.P. Indy.

The depth of Spring Hill’s broodmare operation is illustrated by the fact that Saint Liam’s 18-year-old granddam Misty Dancer (by Lyphard), purchased by Evans for $230,000, in foal to Silver Hawk, at the 1996 Keeneland November sale, does not have “A” status. Misty Dancer’s only claim to fame so far is Quiet Dance, as Spring Hill farm manager Chris Baker pointed out. “It’s a combination of her age, and the overall quality of the broodmare band [that makes her a ‘B’ mare],” said Baker. “But the game isn’t over yet. She could move up at some point.” Misty Dancer has a just-turned yearling filly by Maryland stallion Seeking Daylight and in April is expected to produce a full sibling to Quiet Dance.

The two mares, remarkably identical in looks, are pictured on the cover of this magazine—awaiting their soon-to-be-born Virginia-bred foals.