The Donamire Farm broodmare band is a small one—currently numbering at just three—but it was shown to pack a punch Sept. 6 when homebred Troubleshooting rallied down the Kentucky Downs stretch to earn a half-length victory in the Franklin-Simpson Stakes (G1T).
READ: Troubleshooting Rallies to Franklin-Simpson Score
Donamire Farm is the operation of Mira Ball and her late husband, Don, who co-founded the Lexington-based home-building company Ball Homes in 1959. One of Ball's sons, Mike, assists in the breeding operations with his wife, KayKay, and was present for Troubleshooting's victory Saturday.
"It's very special," he said about winning with a homebred. "That's what you do it for."
The grade 1 producing mare is Into Trouble, an Into Mischief mare whom the Balls bought for $180,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. She'd go on to win the 2018 Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes in her second start and place in two additional stakes before retiring to the farm in 2020.
Her first foal is a winning Kantharos filly, Big Trouble, who was twice stakes placed this spring for Troubleshooting's trainer, Greg Foley.
When it came time to breed Into Trouble again in the spring of 2021, the Balls took a risk with a hot new sire who had just earned honors as the leading first-crop sire with his 2-year-olds of 2020: Not This Time .
"We saw some of (Not This Time's first crop) that were running awfully well," Ball said. "He looked like a horse that might do some good. Sometimes, you can jump on those horses too quick and they don't pan out, but Not This Time did. We were lucky, he's a hell of a stallion."
The Balls got in on the ground level with Not This Time as his fee was $40,000 that season. In 2025, he stood for $175,000 at Taylor Made Stallions.
They were rewarded for their trust in the stallion with the first grade 1 winner bred by Donamire Farm. Some of their other top success were grade 2 winners Recusant and Summer Advocate as well as grade 3 winners Bravura, Going Investor, Memorial Maniac, National Treasure—the Recusant mare who won the 1998 Beaugay Handicap (G3), not the Quality Road colt who won the 2023 Preakness Stakes (G1)—and Pleasant Hill.
Mira Ball's band of three broodmares are producing the only runners wearing the Donamire Farm silks, with the matriarch not active at the sales or in the commercial breeding business.
"She enjoys it," Mike Ball said. "She has what she wants to have. We don't sell, we just like to race a few."
Ball and his wife are diving a bit deeper into the game, planning to be at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale that begins Sept. 8. The couple bred and campaigned multiple graded stakes winner Limousine Liberal.
"That was the one that got the two of us hooked," Ball said. "That's the reason we do it. We're not going to be commercial breeders, we just like to race. It's tough, but something like this happens and makes it all worthwhile."
