Pin Oak Lane Farm’s roots run deep in Pennsylvania.

Dr. William Solomon’s breeding and racing operation continues to expand and thrive.
Story by Lucy Acton.
Photographs by Barrie Reightler.

Pennsylvania’s soon-to-be slots windfall has already worked its magic on Dr. William Solomon’s Pin Oak Lane Farm.

Like many Thoroughbred breeders in the state, Solomon, who is in his early 60s, was considering cutting back his operation substantially before slots were approved in July 2004. Now, he noted, he is “in the mode of moving forward with a certain amount of enthusiasm.”

Pin Oak Lane added six stallions for the 2005 breeding season, after having no additions the year before. For 2006, Solomon expects to stand eight stallions, including his flagship horse, Grade 1-winning millionaire and proven sire Lite the Fuse.

When Pennsylvania’s slots program gets underway in 2006 and ’07, it promises to boost the state’s racing and breeding industry to astronomical levels —daily purses of $400,000 to $500,000 at Philadelphia Park, and a Thoroughbred breeders’ fund worth $25 million a year, along with corresponding increases for the Standardbred industry.

No one in the state is better-positioned to reap the bene­fits than Solomon, a practicing veterinarian who is involved in nearly every facet of both the Thoroughbred and Standard­bred business—with stallions, broodmares and racing stock, not to mention the thriving operation of a quarantine station.

Pin Oak Lane, now in its 33rd year, is both vast and adaptable, occupying nearly 400 acres spread among four farms in Shrewsbury Township.

Solomon, a former president of the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, spoke with Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred editor Lucy Acton about his plans for the future and prospects for a new era in Pennsylvania’s Thoroughbred industry.

Question: What will be different at Pin Oak Lane for 2006?

Answer: We’re eliminating a few stallions from the bottom end. Seven of the horses who stood here in 2005 will stay, and we’ll probably add one more. The pool of mares in the Mid-Atlantic is not infinite; there’s the concern about diluting stallions’ books.

We need to do more on the farm, and do it better and more efficiently.
We completed a lot of upgrades for this year—building a new 16-stall stallion barn and a breeding shed, and up­grading our farm equipment quite a bit after the [slots] bill passed and it looked like there would be more money available for the industry. We took on some debt, which we’re hoping to recover.
The veterinary dimension won’t change. About half of our business is made up of broodmares—and sometimes other horses—who come here for vet care.

Q: How many mares were bred on the farm in 2005?

A: About 200 to 250 Thor­oughbred mares and quite a few Standardbreds, which is a healthy number for us.

Q: And your racing stable?

A: We probably have about 20 Thoroughbreds in training, mostly 2-year-olds, and four or five older horses. I send them either to [trainers] Lori Testerman at Pimlico or Dennis Mills at Penn National. All of them are homebreds. I want everything they can earn—purses, breeder awards, owner awards, stallion awards and anything else they can give me.
We do the breaking here on the farm for ourselves and a few clients. I would not increase the number of horses we have racing, but I’d like to do a better job of what we do.

Q: Would you describe how your farm has grown and developed over the years?

A: We started in 1973, and it grew rapidly in the beginning. Our longevity is the result of not being discouraged. This is a very difficult business. We’ve continued to change, and kept trying in the face of adversity. There’s no outside income—just the vet practice and the farm.
I’m not good at hype; I’m not a p.r. person. I try to live in a world of realism.

A lot of this business is predicated on the big score, the one big horse. And we’ve yet to get that horse—although we’ll keep trying. The closest we’ve come with Thoroughbreds is with [1992 Kentucky Derby-G1 winner] Lil E. Tee, who was foaled here.

Our focus has been on doing what works—generating enough income to keep going.
The farm employs about 20 people year-round. The payroll is around a half-million dollars. Then you have workers’ comp on top of that. There’s no doubt a farm like this is good for the state. From the standpoints of real estate value . . . land conservation. . . em­ploy­ment—all that. This is what the state envisioned when the Breeders’ Fund program was put in place.

Q: The aesthetics of your farm are obviously very important to you. It’s easy to identify Pin Oak Lane property as you drive through the countryside, because all of the buildings are painted in the same colors [ivory and dark brown].

A: I have strong feelings about working toward a certain kind of environment. There are almost 40 buildings, counting everything on the property, and many of them date from the mid-19th century. It’s a matter of taking care of what came before.
The surgical clinic is in a remodeled building on the main farm—it was the original farmhouse, built in 1850.

Flowers and shrubbery— everything—gets a lot of care and attention on this farm. It’s the details that add character to the landscape.

Q: It’s amazing how you keep up with so many different things—not only your farm and vet practice, but also the current news and politics of both the Thoroughbred and Standardbred worlds.

A: It’s not that hard, really. I’ve been doing it for so long.
People say I’m married to this farm, and it’s really true. We grow our own hay and straw, and have a feed mill—I supervise that, also.

But I have diverse interests: I play tennis and golf and ride. My emotional health is better if I’m busy, and I’ve been blessed with good health. The outdoor life is a healthy life, I believe.

Q: There’s no assistant or farm manager helping you to keep track of things?

A: It’s all me. Although I do have wonderful office help: Susie Gochenour, who has worked in the office for 33 years, and Ann Schultz, who has been a large part of the farm’s success. Ann is an excellent horsewoman, as well. I usually give her the top yearling to groom for the Standardbred sale, because I know she’ll turn out the horse to perfection.

Q: Without making this too much of a one-sided opinion piece—because some people obviously disagree with you—let’s discuss some of your hopes for Pennsylvania’s racing and breeding industry after slots revenue becomes available.

A: I’m proud of the fact that, right now, Pennsylvania’s Breeding Fund rewards $5,000 claimers as well as stakes horses. This gives local owners and trainers a chance to survive; it’s good for the racing economy and for the state of Pennsylvania.

In the future we’re going to have to do more for Pennsylvania-breds racing against Pennsylvania-breds on an overnight basis. It’s going to be hard for Pennsylvania-breds to compete initially [after purses are raised to much higher levels].

Some people would tell you restricted competition is one of the seven deadly sins.
Nothing catches a horse owner’s attention more than the ability to win a big purse in a restricted race. That’s the fundamental idea behind the Maryland Million, which has been very successful. The more we can make the business exciting for people of modest means, the more the industry will grow.

We also need to make it more enticing for people to keep their mares in Pennsylvania year-round, and breed to Pennsylvania stallions. There’s one school of thought that says Pennsylvania doesn’t need stallions—people can always send their mares out of state for breeding.

Can you have a major breeding industry in a state without a base of commercial stallions? I don’t think so. I think you have to look after the industry from every dimension. That’s what the racing legislation in Pennsylvania intended.

The better horses will still earn the most money. No one has to worry about that.
Pennsylvania has an opportunity to be a major racing state and a major breeding state, but it won’t happen unless we make it possible for more people to get on board.

Changes should be implemented in the Pennsylvania Breeding Fund before the money starts to flow.

Q: Obviously, you have worked to bring commercial stallions into the state.
A: We have been blessed to have good relationships with several Kentucky farms—Overbrook, Adena Springs, Fred Seitz/Brookdale—who have enabled us to bring in horses who don’t quite fit in Kentucky, but have proven to be acceptable in this region.
Very few stallions succeed and continue to be successful year after year.

The Maryland Million has been great—it’s a model among sire stakes programs. Pennsylvania should look toward something like that to invigorate the stud farm part of the industry.

Q: It’s been a lot of hard work over a lot of years. Do you ever think about retiring, maybe turning some of it over to your children?

A: Both of my children are involved in their own lives. My son, Christopher, works for JPMorgan in New York and owns a few horses with his dad.
Patricia, my daughter, was a successful equestrienne when she was younger. She’s an attorney who now spends her time raising her children.

She and her husband live in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., but they have a 150-acre farm next to mine. Patricia owns a number of horses with me. They’re down here every weekend, so I get to have my grandchildren—who are 1 and 3 years old—with me a lot.

We have all of this diversity and experience, and we are poised to take advantage of a slots bill that is the most generous toward the horse industry that we’ve ever seen, or probably ever will see. It’s difficult to say that it’s time to quit. Pin Oak Lane’s 2006 stallion roster.

These seven horses are expected to stand at Pin Oak Lane in 2006, along with one additional stallion to be announced.

Appealing Skier, 1993, Baldski—Jealous Appeal, by Valid Appeal. Multiple graded stakes winner of $579,610. Full brother to multiple stakes winner Miss Jealski; half-brother to Grade 1 winner Trippi, stakes winner Jealous Forum and graded-placed Jealous Crusader. Sire of three stakes winners, including graded star Chispiski, in first three crops.

Certain Storm, 2001, Storm Cat—La Affirmed, by Affirmed. Unraced. Full brother to graded/group winners Caress (dam of Sky Mesa), Country Cat and Bern­stein; half-brother to group winner Della Francesca. From the family of champion Outstandingly.
Coastal Storm, 1999, Storm Cat—Pearl City, by Carson City. Unraced.

Dam is Grade 1-winning half-sister to Grade 1 winner and leading sire Hennessy, from the family of champion Hold That Tiger and classic winner Editor’s Note.

Lite the Fuse, 1991, Buck­a­roo—Annie’s Dream, by Droll Role. Multiple Grade 1 winner of $1,036,882. Pennsylvania’s current leading sire. Eleven stakes winners.
Pin Stripe, 1996, Mr. Pros­pector—Too Chic, by Blushing Groom (Fr). First crop are 3-year-olds. Full brother to champion Queena (dam of Grade 1 winner Brahms) and Grade 1-winning stakes producer Chic Shirine. Dam is Grade 1 winner; third dam is champion *Monade.

Wheaton, 1990, Alydar—Ter­lingua, by Secretariat. Win­ning half-brother to leading sire Storm Cat. Half-brother to graded winner and stakes producer Chapel of Dreams. Dam is a Grade 2-winning half-sister to champion Royal Academy. Sire of nine stakes winners. Nation’s leading sire of 2-year-old winners (23) in 2004.

Will’s Way, 1993, Easy Goer—Willamae, by Tentam. Mul­ti­ple Grade 1 winner of $956,400. Sire of Grade 1 winner Lion Tamer in his first crop. Two graded stakes winners in 2005.