For TK Stable, All Intents and Purposes

by Lucas Marquardt
Last summer, TK Stable LLC’s Kevin Hulse got a huge thrill when Devious Intent (Dixie Union–Hafifah, by Machiavellian) handed dual champion Groupie Doll a rare defeat in the GIII Gardenia S. at Ellis Park. It was the first graded win for Hulse’s relatively upstart operation, and the first for Devious Intent, who Hulse purchased as a stakes-winning racing prospect for $75,000 at the 2012 Keeneland November Sale. 
The win, naturally, greatly increased Devious Intent’s cache, and when she returned to the ring yesterday at Fasig-Tipton, her stock was valued by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings at $350,000. 
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Hulse said after watching Devious Intent sell. “We could have put her in foal and sold her next November, or kept her and sold foals out of her, but she’s such a nice filly that I truly wanted a nice farm to get her that has availability to the kind of stallions she should be bred to.” 
When Hulse learned the mare was purchased by Stonestreet, he laughed, “Oh, perfect–I think she’ll be just fine.” 
Hulse and his wife Tammie have been involved in racing and breeding for five years. Back in 2010, they made some noise at Keeneland November when, in their second year in the business, they purchased the stakes-winning colt Glint (Sharp Humor) for $340,000 as a racing prospect. 
Glint didn’t pan out the way Hulse hoped, but he had much better luck a year later at the sale with the purchase of Travel Advisory (Stormy Atlantic), a $90,000 pick-up who ran second in the 2012 renewals of the GIII Transylvania S. and GII American Turf. 
“We were beaten by Silver Max both times,” said Hulse. 
The Hulses were back at November in 2012, and, with the help of bloodstock agent Jared Hughes, selected Devious Intent. 
“Jared also bought a Scat Daddy 2-year-old filly for me named Allanah who won [last year’s] Cincinnati S. at Turfway, so we’ve had a lot of success together,” he said. Allanah was a $185,000 KEEAPR purchase. 
For her new connections, Devious Intent put together a record of 8-2-2-1 and earned over $140,000. 
“Kellyn Gorder trained her, and he did an exceptional job,” Hulse said. “She had been trained by Bret Calhoun, and it’s pretty hard to improve a mare off Bret Calhoun. The key is that we just took our time with her.” 
He admitted that Gorder was, understandably, a little reluctant to take on Groupie Doll in the Gardenia, however. 
“Kellyn’s pretty conservative, and he said, ‘Geez, Groupie Doll?’” said Hulse. “I said that I liked the filly and to not worry about it. If she lost, it wasn’t going to be a reflection on him. She’s a champion–we should lose. But she was feeling good, and we said, ‘Let’s do it.’ She ran an exceptional race.” 
In total, Devious Intent was first or second in 9 of 17 starts and earned $279,041. 
TK Stable has a small farm on Paris Pike in Lexington near Millennium Farm. “We currently have seven broodmares, and of the seven, four are stakes winners,” said Hulse. “And the other three throw really good physicals. I’ve got a Harlan’s Holiday mare that’s bigger than Zenyatta, and her foals are just outstanding.” 
Hulse said TK breeds both to sell and race. “Like with Devious Intent tonight, we had a pretty high reserve on her, and it wouldn’t have bothered me to take her home,” he said. “You have to support your horses. But it would have been two or three years before we saw any return on investment in her, and our motto is that, if we have a mare worth $200,000 or more, we’re going to sell.” 
Hulse owned a Nebraska-based powerline construction company called MidPlains Power, but sold the operation and resigned as CEO to focus on the horse business.