Machmer Hall: A Family Affair
January 6th, 2002by Jude T. Feld
By a veterinarian, out of a veterinarian, Carrie Brogden was bred for Thoroughbred racing. The pretty 29-year-old expectant mother has built commercial breeding operation Machmer Hall the old fashioned way, with hard work.
“The perception is that you have to be a big-time person to be an owner,” Carrie says. “That’s not true. If you learn the commercial market, you can be successful.”
Craig & Carrie Brogden Playing With The Babies
After her parent’s divorce, Carrie’s mother, Sandra Willwerth, was living in Virginia and had just a couple of mares left.
“We were shuttling the mares back and forth to Kentucky during breeding season,” Carrie said. “It was getting to be kind of a hassle, so Mom decided we should move here and buy a little farm.”
The Paris, Kentucky farm was named Machmer Hall after a building that honors Carrie’s great-grandfather who was once Dean of the University of Massachusetts.
“We board about 28 mares here now,” she stated. “Half ours, half outside clients.”
Carrie has a definite recipe for success.
“I think it’s extremely important to learn to match the sire’s physical attributes to those of the mares,” she shared. “You need to breed the individual. If you breed a mare that’s 14 hands to Miswaki, you are not going to be happy with the foal.”
“Everybody runs to the same stallions,” she continued. “So you need to think out of the box. When you see that Will Farish is supporting Belong To Me with Weekend Surprise and mares like that, you had better take notice.”
A good team of professionals is also essential.
“Who you choose for a blacksmith and a veterinarian is very important,” Brogden relates. “They can make a big difference in the development of your foals.”
Craig Brogden, Carrie’s husband manages the farm and does most of the hands-on work with the mares and their babies.
“He has his finger on the pulse of the commercial market,” Carrie said. “His insights are essential when I work on matings because he has the knack of knowing what sires are going to be marketable.”
“Craig and I really enjoy walking around the farm checking on the mares and seeing how the babies are developing. It’s a lot of fun for us.”
A true animal lover, Brogden must separate her emotions from her business sense.
“I love sales,” she says. “I really love sales, especially Keeneland sales. But it’s hard when I really like an individual but I need to sell them because that is the business we’re in. You try not to get emotionally involved, but being female makes it difficult.”
Carrie’s involvement doesn’t end at the fall of the hammer.
“I use Daily Racing Form Stable Mail to keep track of all of my families,” she stated. “That way, I know when one of my mare’s babies is running or what a half-sister or brother is doing. It can make a big difference where and when we sell a horse.”
The fact that Thoroughbred racing is indeed “The Greatest Game” is not lost on Carrie.
“I go every morning and look at the horses in the fields and say to myself, ‘I can’t believe this is my job!”
