North Carolina is not known for being a central hub for Thoroughbred racing. Despite the sport's deep roots in the state that dates back to the colonial era, only a handful of steeplechase events take place each year. Furthermore, according to The Jockey Club records, only one mare was registered as bred in North Carolina in 2024.
Yet, North Carolina has found itself on the 2025 Road to the Kentucky Derby following the frontrunning score of Speed King in the $1 million Southwest Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn Park Jan. 25. The gray or roan colt who now ranks second on the Kentucky Derby (G1) point leaderboard was bred by Nancy Shuford, whose Rock House Farm sits just outside of Hickory, N.C.
Shuford has experienced success before, breeding three-time grade 1 winner Beach Patrol and graded stakes winners Dancinginherdreams, Oscar A., Pretty N Cool, Stuff and Things, and Texas Wedge. However, she has never had a horse on the Kentucky Derby trail.
"I just hope everything goes well for the trainer (Ron Moquett), the owner (Ted Bowman), and everybody else," Shuford said. "I was totally surprised when he won Saturday. I'm thrilled for them and hopefully they have as much fun, too. You can't put too much (thought) in (what the future holds) because you'll get disappointed. You just have to be realistic. I'm glad he's gotten as far as he's gotten. Just take each step at a time."
Shuford was moved by Bowman's emotional interview with Oaklawn publicity in the winner's circle after the race. Bowman, who races as Triton Thoroughbreds, lives just two blocks from Oaklawn Park and used to attend the track with his parents. He purchased Speed King for $100,000 at the 2024 Ocala Breeders' Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. The colt has now earned $669,000, a symbolic victory for the "little guys" in the sport who can't acquire the high-dollar pedigrees at the sales.
COLLINS: Speed King Leads All the Way in Southwest Stakes
"One hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. In the business we're in, it doesn't seem like a whole lot of money," Shuford said. "I thought that was great. Let them share some of the success. Some of these big boys you can't compete with because they have so much money."
Shuford would also fall under that same banner in the Thoroughbred game. After her husband finished business school in New York, they moved back to his hometown in North Carolina and purchased a 250-acre dairy farm with no fencing.
"We had to start from scratch, but it was fun," Shuford said. "We raised four kids. They knew how to feed, they knew how to muck out stalls. That was a good thing. It was a natural thing for me to get into the horses."
Shuford grew up with horses and always had a deep love for the animal. She passed that love down to her daughter, Eliza Shuford Hucks, who was a rider for the United States Equestrian Team and won the American Grand Prix Association Rookie of the Year Award in 1998.
The draw for participating in the breeding game came from the ability to sell the horse quickly as a weanling or yearling, something Shuford was reminded of when she saw how expensive and time consuming it was for her daughter to raise show jumpers after retiring from the Equestrian team.
"This was more of a—not a quick fix—but something that I could do and not have to keep them until they're eight or nine," Shuford said. "I don't race that much. I've raced some but I just haven't had much luck. I like the mares, I like the foals, that's what I like to do so I ended up doing that."
Shuford's broodmare band numbers around 20 and includes the winning Corinthian mare Athenian Beauty, the dam of Speed King who she purchased as a 5-year-old for $125,000 in foal to Verrazano at the 2016 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
"I try to buy a young mare out of a young mare," Shuford explained. "I don't really care who they're by, I want the bottom line. She was in foal and she came up and I liked her, so I bought her. We bred her and we kept her for a while. She hadn't really produced anything until this horse."
Athenian Beauty isn't the only mare at Rock House which saw a page boost Saturday. Across the globe in Saudi Arabia, grade 1 winner Rattle N Roll won the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup (G3) and punched his ticket to the $20 million Saudi Cup (G1) Feb. 22. His Outwork half sister, Flaine, is a member of Shuford's broodmare band.
Shuford purchased Flaine as a 4-year-old for just $18,000 in foal to Army Mule at the 2022 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. At the time, Rattle N Roll was a grade 1 winner at 2. Since her purchase, he has added five graded stakes and will now tackle the richest prizes in the world in the Saudi Cup and $12 million Dubai World Cup (G1).
"You get lucky every now and then, that's what keeps you coming back," Shuford said. "(Flaine's) a big mare, a huge mare. I think that scared a lot of people. I'll take a chance on any of them, you never know."
It never hurts to have good people surrounding you, and Shuford hit the jackpot with Jody and Michelle Huckabay of Elm Tree Farm, a small family-run farm near Paris, Ky.
Michelle is from Hickory and used to work at Shuford's farm before attending the University of Kentucky where she met Jody. After the two were married, they started boarding Shuford's mares and their partnership evolved.
"Miss Shuford is very heavily involved in the decision-making," Jody Huckabay said. "We give her suggestions and we discuss all of it, but she's very involved in the decision-making with what goes on with her horses."
One of those very important decisions was to breed Athenian Beauty to Three Chimney's grade 1-winning freshman stallion Volatile .
"I've been a very big fan of him," Huckabay said. "I loved his speed, I like the way he looks. I like the breeding on the topside and the bottomside. There's just a lot to like for speed, dirt racing in America with that particular horse. We've been a big supporter of him every year and we'll continue to be for years to come."
Another big contributing factor was the value Volatile provided. In 2021 when the mating with Athenian Beauty took place, he stood for $17,500. In 2025, he'll stand for $12,500.
"He's matured nicely, he's a big horse with a lot of bone, a lot of substance, very correct," Huckabay said. "Just a lot of things to like and, with all that being said, I think he's priced extremely fairly in today's market where a lot of horses are overpriced."
For Shuford, there was another big draw as to why Volatile was the perfect stallion.
"I think he's drop-dead gorgeous and he's gray. I like grays," she said. Luckily for her, Speed King turned out gray as well.
But Shuford said she always appreciates Huckabay's input. After all, he's the one who has to convince buyers at the sales to buy her foals. Speed King made Huckabay's job easy after he returned to Elm Tree from North Carolina for the 2022 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, working his way to the top of the consignment's ranks.
"He prepped up extremely well. He was a very good-looking foal. He was a very striking sales weanling," Huckabay said. "I do remember him being very well received and being a nice-looking foal."
WATCH: Huckabay discusses Speed King with BloodHorse when he was a foal in 2022
Speed King brought $85,000 from XXXX Farm, a solid return on investment from Volatile's fee. Now, he's lived up to Shuford and Huckabay's early expectations as a grade 3 winner, the first graded winner for his sire, and is on the improve approaching the spring Classics.
"They all don't do that, we all know that," Huckabay said. "Really good foals sell well and then they go into a big dark hole, some of them. At least he's shined and done well.
"It's been a great 24 hours. (Shuford) was giddy last night on the phone, that's what gets these owners excited. Whether you own them or breed them, when you can win races it makes up for a lot of bills."
And that excitement and joy of winning races keeps Shuford and so many other breeders and owners in love with the sport.
"It beats playing bridge and drinking martinis with the old ladies," Shuford said.
