Midnight Lute led a procession Oct. 7 that ended one chapter for John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale Farms and started another.
The dark bay sire of champion and five-time grade 1 winner Midnight Bisou was the first of Hill 'n' Dale's 13 stallions to step into their new home at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, a historic, nearly 1,400-acre jewel of a farm southeast of Paris, Ky. One by one from four vans, the stallions sauntered and pranced to their stalls on one side of a 31-stall limestone barn that once served as a training barn. Within minutes after a groom walked Lost Treasure into his stall and unhooked the shank, everyone involved with the relocation gave a collective sigh of relief. The barn was peaceful with only the occasional nicker breaking the more predominant munching of hay and rustling of bedding by elite sire Curlin , leading sire Kitten's Joy, champion Good Magic , leading fourth-crop sire Violence , Army Mule , Bayern, Flintshire, Kantharos , Maclean's Music , Stormy Atlantic, and World of Trouble.
"I'm thankful for the professional team here that was fully prepared in case anything went awry, but as you can see, they got off the van and started eating hay. It is a bit remarkable after being at one place for so long, they can get on a van, go to a new farm with a new environment, and be so peaceful. I think we can attribute it to the class of the horses and the unique, laconic setting of the farm that is very natural."
Relocating the stallions was the final step in Hill 'n' Dale's move from its former home along North Yarnallton Pike in Fayette County, about eight miles northwest of Lexington, which is now owned by Don Alberto. Sikura first visited Xalapa about a dozen years ago, and it left an impression that never faded. A couple of years ago when a deal that would have expanded the Fayette County farm fell through, he inquired about Xalapa and discovered it was on the market with the owner eager to sell.
Xalapa's history stretches to 1827, according to a feature on the farm published in Keeneland Magazine's Summer 2020 edition. The farm had once been owned by Thomas Buckner, whose son Henry had served during the Mexican War and when he returned named the farm after a small town whose name loosely translates to "the happy land." In the early 1900s, the land passed to Edward Simms, a co-founder of Sinclair Oil Co. As a Thoroughbred breeder during the 1920s, Simms was considered in the same league as icons John Madden, Arthur B. Hancock Sr., and Col. Phil Chinn. Simms built a one-mile training track and the stone training barn with its high ceilings, expansive windows, and wide breezeway that could serve as an indoor training track when the weather was bad.
For the past 18 months, Sikura said about 10 years' worth of work has been done, including building eight new barns, a breeding shed, renovating the training barn to be a stallion barn, renovating 14 houses, adding landscaping, and building tens of miles of fence and adding roads and utilities. Sikura is not just restoring Xalapa; he is creating a world-class operation that exceeds what the farm was in its heyday.
But for all the grandeur and uniqueness of the facilities at Xalapa, Sikura said the richness of the land is what's most attractive to him.
"It is almost like there is a life force out here," Sikura said. "The wildlife coexists with what we are doing among Old World trees that are abundant and plentiful. Natural creatures go where there are great resources. This farm has virtually been uninhabited for more than 100 years. It has been operated in parts and parcels and pieces … but there are probably 400 acres of the 1,400 that have never been fenced, so it is fresh land.
"The most important thing for anyone breeding or selling a racehorse is soundness. My hope is that here we will raise bigger, stronger, sounder horses in this environment. The evidence is our neighbors and their perennial success in doing the same," he continued, referring to nearby Claiborne Farm, Stone Farm, Machmer Hall, and Siena Farm. "I like our pedigrees. I like our horsemanship. I think we'll continue to compete at a high level with the quality of the mares we have complemented by this great land."
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