The broodmare Ready to Unleash had two graded stakes winners, Brickyard Belle and Joe Shiesty, within an hour of one another Oct. 3, and could have both as starters at the upcoming Breeders' Cup at Keeneland. And no, she doesn't represent a huge, perennially successful operation that continually turns out multiple Breeders' Cup starters a year, and routinely sends its mares to top-dollar leading sires. She was a bargain $8,000 purchase into the six-strong broodmare band of Hall Stables, the modest operation of siblings Sam and Katie Hall, who bred Brickyard Belle. They describe themselves as the biggest fans, other than his owners, of Joe Shiesty, who was bred before they owned the mare.
"It's just very surreal," Sam Hall said. "I feel like we were so small at the point in time Brickyard Belle was foaled. We only had three or four mares—we're up to six now. To have a mare that is going to have, hopefully, two horses in the Breeders' Cup, and to have bred one of them! To have that kind of success or luck, it's really surreal. You feel like it's not supposed to happen that way. It's a testament to one of the really great things about this sport and this game. You've got millionaires with massive operations doing well, but then you've got the really, really small type of racing stables—once in a while, you get to compete with the big guys."
Hall Stables, which boards its mares at Scarteen Stud near Georgetown, Ky., is a passion project for the siblings, Wisconsinites who both have young children and demanding careers outside of horses. Sam, a practicing litigation and appellate attorney whose work takes him across the country, is primarily responsible for overseeing the racing operations. Katie, who holds two master's degrees, is a professional researcher of freshwater policy and has traveled the world taking on a variety of issues in the field. She is primarily responsible for overseeing the stable's broodmare and breeding operations.
"It's definitely a passion project," Katie Hall said. "Really, it was Sam and his best friend (Joe Trawitzki) who got into the entire thing, and kind of I was the little sister in the back wanting to be part of it. It started like most fans—getting to go to the Kentucky Derby. What started as a bucket list item turned into (many years) of attending ... as you get immersed in this industry and this sport, you gain a respect for these horses, and you just want more of it."
Sam began dabbling in ownership syndicates before the siblings eventually dipped into the broodmare market, hoping to breed their own runners. Sadly, earlier in the venture, Trawitzki, who had helped open the door, died of pancreatic cancer in 2022, at 44. In his memory, Hall Stables now partners with the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer Fund, a Wisconsin-based organization that seeks to fight childhood cancer. A portion of all earnings from the stable's runners is donated to the MACC Fund.
One of those runners was Hall Stables homebred Jet Sweep Joe, foaled in 2022 and named in Trawitzki's honor. He placed in three stakes in his 2-year-old season and gave the siblings a taste of the big time when he finished ninth in the 2024 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T) at Del Mar.
One never would have thought that a mare purchased for just $8,000 late in the 2023 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale would provide the next connection to one of the sport's biggest weekends. Ready to Unleash, a winning More Than Ready mare, was 14 at the time, and was offered open after a late cover the prior season.
"You know there's tradeoffs (to be) able to go in and find value," Katie Hall said. "She's an older mare; there's a tradeoff there. ... That allowed us to capture the season for a really reasonable price."
Additionally, the mare's 2017 foal, Johnny Unleashed, was multiple stakes placed, including a second in the Shakertown Stakes (G2T) in the fall of 2022.
"We had never owned a mare that had produced graded-stakes black-type," Sam Hall said. "It was Johnny Unleashed that really attracted us to her, for a couple of reasons. First, he ran in April as a 2-year-old, which for the homebreds we do keep, if they're able to (run early), we do like to do that. He ran well at Kentucky Downs, a unique track with huge purses, that was attractive. And then he finished second in a graded stake at Keeneland, losing only to Golden Pal. ... She was not in foal when we bought her, which from our perspective was good. We'd rather have an open mare, and you're not paying a premium for a stud fee, and then we could do an early cover right away. If she would have been in foal, she would have been more expensive and out of our price range."
The Halls sent Ready to Unleash to grade 1-winning sprinter Yaupon , then standing his second season at Spendthrift Farm, for $30,000, hoping to produce a quick and precocious foal. The young Brickyard Belle was foaled in March 2024, and originally, it was intended that she would race in the Hall colors.
"We don't realize that's going to be a potential sales horse; we're assuming this is a homebred," Sam Hall said. "When we breed, we're predominantly focused on breeding to race, unless the reality would dictate otherwise."
As Brickyard Belle was growing up at Scarteen, the circumstances began to dictate otherwise. Her half brother Joe Shiesty, a son of the War Front horse Air Force Blue and bred by Rodney Orr, began to emerge on the scene as a 3-year-old in 2024, winning the William Walker Stakes that spring at Churchill Downs, boosting the family's value.
Joe Shiesty's rise had several effects. First, the Halls began considering the War Front line as a cross for Ready to Unleash, who is currently in foal to the sire's son Omaha Beach for her 2027 foal. Meanwhile, the young Brickyard Belle became a viable commercial prospect and was offered as a weanling at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, where her pedigree updates and her physique merited a spot in the early days of the catalog.
"She was built really, really well," Sam Hall said. "She looked like she was going to be fast and early, but she also had just this amazing temperament, with my twin daughters loving on her and stuff. She always had just such an excellent disposition, and handled the sales grounds really, really well. Her walk looked great. We were excited, both because of the page updates and because she definitely looked the part."
Brickyard Belle sold for $160,000 to Evergreen Bloodstock, the most the Halls have ever sold a horse for. She was pinhooked at the 2025 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $200,000 to Tami Bobo, and then sold on for $600,000 at this year's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training to Case Clay Thoroughbred Management. The Halls say there are no regrets about selling when they did, reasoning that waiting longer offered no guarantees of the filly bringing the same prices, or becoming the graded stakes winner she is today.
"For a horse to do what Brickyard Belle has done, so many things have to go right," Sam Hall said. "It's like a perfect storm when you think of the dozens and dozens of people who have laid hands on the horse. I'm a big believer in destiny, so to speak. If we would have kept her as a homebred, I don't know what would have happened. She's a talented horse, but she got into the right hands for her."
Now owned by Brickyard Belle Racing, Beggs and Flowers, and Briles Family Stable, Brickyard Belle won her debut at Saratoga Race Course for trainer Miguel Clement. She then won the Oct. 3 Matron Stakes (G3T) and could next potentially start in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T) Oct. 30 at Keeneland.
Less than an hour later, Joe Shiesty earned his third stakes victory this year, and sixth overall, for trainer Eric Foster and his family racing stable, Lonnie Reynolds, Vicki Mills, and Donald Coomes by taking the Woodford Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland. He thus established himself as a major candidate for the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) at that same track on Oct. 31.
"How cool is it to have put together the initial stages of a horse who is now at the best weekend of the year?" Katie Hall said of the family's early work with Brickyard Belle, also affirming the siblings as part of the cheering squad for Joe Shiesty. "For us, it will be so exciting to watch that race, so much joy and excitement. Even though we don't own her, we had a part in that."
