Diversy Harbor Becomes Rising Star for Glen Hill Farm
6th-SAX, $57,750, Msw, 3yo, f, a6 1/2fT, 1:13, fm.
+DIVERSY HARBOR, f, 3, by Curlin
1st Dam: Motokiks, by Storm Cat
2nd Dam: Matoki, by Hail to Reason
3rd Dam: Salmon Lake, by Tom Fool
Diversy Harbor, sent off at 5-1 in this unveiling, was shuffled back in the field going down the hill while racing off the rail behind fractions of :22.03 and :43.88. Second to last at the top of the lane, the bay filly was angled out some 10 wide by Gary Stevens and unleashed a furious late run to fly clear to a 2 3/4-length victory. Bird in Love (GB) (Byron {GB}) was second. Diversy Harbor, who RNA’d for $95,000 as a Keeneland September yearling before being purchased privately by Glen Hill Farm, is a fourth generation Barbara Hunter-bred. The filly is a half to Keertana (Johar, MGSW & MGISP, $1,031,938); and to Snow Top Mountain (Najran, MGSW & GISP, $525,303). At the dispersal of Hunter’s Brownwood Farm during last year’s Keeneland January sale, Keertana sold for $1 million to Denali Stud, agent, and Snow Top Mountain brought $950,000 from Audley Farm.
Motokiks has a 2-year-old Elusive Quality filly, named Educating and also owned by Glen Hill Farm, as well as a yearling filly by Kitten’s Joy. She was bred to Lemon Drop Kid last spring. Click for the brisnet.com chart, brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree or VIDEO. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $33,600.
O-Glen Hill Farm. B-Barbara Hunter (KY). T-Thomas F Proctor.
Sunday was a banner day at Santa Anita Park for Glen Hill Farm and trainer Tom Proctor. The connections racked up three wins on the card, highlighted by Diversy Hill’s “TDN Rising Star” performance. Proctor trained Diversy Harbor’s half-sisters Keertana (Johar) and Snow Top Mountain (Najran) to multiple graded victories for owner/breeder Barbara Hunter. Although Hunter’s contingent was dispersed at last year’s Keeneland January sale, Proctor was able to bring another Motokiks filly into his barn when Glen Hill purchased Diversy Harbor privately. “We basically bought all the remaining horses Mrs. Hunter had privately,” Craig Bernick of Glen Hill Farm explained. “We looked at Diversy Harbor as a yearling and she was way too crooked. They tried to fix it and they made it worse, so she wasn’t really one you could buy. She was actually a throw-in on a deal. We really bought the package because of [Educating, the younger-half sister by Elusive Quality] who is a 2-year-old now. Diversy Harbor has moved forward really well since we got her so, obviously, we’re thrilled to have her.”
Although Diversy Harbor boasts an impressive pedigree and had been improving nicely in her works, Bernick was not expecting such a formidable performance. “Tom [Proctor] usually needs a race with his horses and usually he runs them on the dirt,” Bernick said. “This filly’s siblings were really good grass horses, so I guess he just skipped over the ‘give them a race’ part. When they crossed over the dirt, she didn’t look like she’d get anything done, but when [pilot] Gary [Stevens] moved her out, she quickened really well.”
Diversy Harbor is just the latest Glen Hill runner to excel over the sod. Although the farm is known for recent grass horses such as multiple Grade I winner Marketing Mix (Medaglia d’Oro), the farm’s connection to the turf goes back decades. “I wouldn’t say we target grass pedigrees, but we’ve kind of been good at it for a while,” Bernick commented. “My grandpa [Leonard Lavin] had Relaunch, who had a lot of grass horses, and he had some shares in Roberto and bred some stallions that we bred after Relaunch died, including Repress, who was grass, and it just seemed like our good horses were grass and when we go to the sales we seem to pick out grass horses because they’re a little more affordable for us than dirt horses.”
If yesterday is any indication, the future looks bright for Glen Hill Farm. Between Diversy Harbor and homebred Chelios (Distorted Humor), who graduated impressively over the dirt a race later, the operation could be looking at a profitable year on all surfaces.