Younger Steinbrenner Shows Horse Sense With Sharon Brown

Not long after his son had bought Holy Bull’s dam at auction for $13,000, George Steinbrenner wanted to know why.

Sounding like the executive who often has questioned the moves of the many managers of his New York Yankees, the elder Steinbrenner testily said, “I thought we were done buying these cheap mares.”

Hank Steinbrenner looked his father in the eye and said, “She’s not a cheap mare, Dad.”

George Steinbrenner is not likely to challenge his son over horse matters again. When Hank bought Sharon Brown, her son, Holy Bull, was a 2-year-old who had not run a race. Now Holy Bull has won the 1994 horse-of-the-year title and is heavily favored to add to that reputation today in the $300,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

The Steinbrenners will be watching with almost as much interest as Holy Bull’s owner and trainer, Jimmy Croll, because every time Holy Bull wins another race, Sharon Brown’s value increases.

Sharon Brown, at 15 and in foal to Seeking The Gold, a hot sire characterized by Hank Steinbrenner as “one of the top stallions in the world,” is already worth considerably more than she cost.

Last fall, the Steinbrenners consigned her to an auction of breeding stock at Keeneland. The bidding reached $400,000, then stalled. The next bid of $425,000 was Hank Steinbrenner’s. He had bought back his own mare.

“We were prepared to let her go if the bidding got to $500,000,” he said. “But not for $400,000, and now we think that even $500,000 is too little.”

Croll, who has been credited with making all the right moves regarding Holy Bull’s racing career, is slightly sheepish about selling Sharon Brown for $13,000. The 74-year-old trainer inherited both Holy Bull and the dam after his client of 37 years, Rachel Carpenter, died in August 1993.

“One of the things I had to do after I got all of Mrs. Carpenter’s horses was to weed out her mares,” Croll said. “It came down to putting either Sharon Brown or another mare, Above Suspicion, in the sale. I was going to keep one and sell the other.

“Above Suspicion was by Great Above, Holy Bull’s sire, but that had little to do with the decision. Above Suspicion was six years younger than Sharon Brown. Sharon Brown was in foal to Bet Big, who’s been no great shakes as a sire. So the age difference was what swayed me. I kept Above Suspicion and sold Sharon Brown.”

Above Suspicion, who was unable to get in foal last year, will be bred to Silver Hawk this year.

“If that mating turns out all right, I’ll come out not looking so dumb,” Croll said. “But I’m looking pretty stupid right now.”

At the Ocala, Fla., sale in the winter of 1993, Sharon Brown and two other mares sired by Al Hattab were in the catalogue. Because of his fascination with Al Hattab bloodlines, Hank Steinbrenner was interested in all three.

Al Hattab, who was also owned by Carpenter, was winning stakes for 3-year-olds in Florida in 1969, but Croll questioned the colt’s stamina for the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Derby.

Instead, Al Hattab developed into a solid grass runner, one of the best horses that Croll has trained.

Croll arranged the mating of Great Above and Sharon Brown in 1990. What he hoped to get was a good grass horse. What he got was Holy Bull, who has won 13 of 15 starts and earned $2.4 million, at distances of up to 1 1/4 miles, all on dirt.

After buying an Al Hattab offspring the first day of the Ocala sale, Steinbrenner stayed over the next day because Sharon Brown was available. As a racehorse, Sharon Brown won only three of 32 starts and never so much as hit the board in a stakes race. But her four offspring before Holy Bull won races, and one of her fillies, Winnie D., was a stakes winner.

Hank Steinbrenner said that the bidding last year on Sharon Brown might have been affected by a rumor.

“There was talk that she had an aneurysm,” he said. “It was a false rumor. We even had her checked by a clinic there, to prove that she was all right. But the damage had been done.”

The younger Steinbrenner, 37, worked for a couple of years in the Yankee front office, but since 1987 has been vice president of the family’s Kinsman Stud farm in Ocala.

George Steinbrenner has run two horses in the Kentucky Derby, with no luck. In 1977, his Steve’s Friend, looking like a possible winner an eighth of a mile from home, wrenched a knee, apparently jumping a shadow on the track, and finished fifth. In 1985, Eternal Prince, a colt with good speed, was taken out of his game when he broke poorly. He finished 12th in a 13-horse field.

“I’d put Hank up against anybody when it comes to knowing pedigrees,” George Steinbrenner said.

Because Great Above was only a fair miler and Sharon Brown had trouble winning at any distance, it’s easy to say that Holy Bull is a horse who has outrun his pedigree.

“There’s a misconception about that,” Hank Steinbrenner said. “One of the reasons I like the Al Hattabs is because of Black Tie Affair. He was able to get a mile and a quarter.”

Black Tie Affair, the gray who won the Breeders’ Cup Classic and was voted horse of the year in 1991, is a son of the Al Hattab mare, Hat Tab Girl.

Jimmy Croll might have picked the wrong mare in allowing Sharon Brown to be sold, but Holy Bull can compensate for such mistakes. Holy Bull, to be retired from the track after this year, will start his stallion career in 1996 at Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Ky., and Croll has reportedly been paid $750,000 by the farm for a 25% breeding interest.

And on Hank Steinbrenner’s desk at Kinsman Stud, there’s an adjustable sign. It says “Genius In” when he’s there, “Genius Out” when he’s not.