Once-prominent Sanford Stud Farm now struggles to survive
AMSTERDAM - In the shadow of countless box stores and fast food joints, tucked alongside a busy stretch of Route 30 just inside the Montgomery County line, a few splintering wooden buildings are easy to miss. You could drive past without noticing the remnants of the once-bustling Sanford Stud Farm, without questioning the history behind the giant "Save This Farm" sign that stretches across the top of a deserted barn. Or, you could park, perhaps wandering across the strip mall's access road, until you reach a dusty and quiet path. It is home to seven fading A-frame barns, each with its own deficiency. A missing shingle here. A broken window there. Behind them, expansive fields once dotted with horses are overgrown with weeds. And every building has weathered too many winters since its last fresh coat of paint.
With the sounds of traffic sounds growing fainter, a maintenance man who must know he's fighting an uphill battle approaches on a small tractor. "Be careful," he says. "The buildings aren't in awfully good shape." But they might be someday soon. More than a decade after the Sanford Stud Farm - a relic of thoroughbred racing - finally closed its doors, the fight is on to preserve what still stands. That's why Sam Hildebrandt, whose 89-year-old father Louis rode for the Sanford stable six decades ago, twice borrowed a booth to get the word out at Saratoga Race Course this summer.
The president of the non-profit Friends of Sanford Stud Farm, Hildebrandt is trying to raise money to pay for an initial $250,000 in repairs to the city-owned property. Bids for the preservation project are due to be announced on Sept. 19, with construction possible by October. Of particular concern is the kitchen, built as an addition around the turn of the last century. It used to serve three dozen workers three times a day, but is now in danger of collapse.
"If we ever get one gold old-fashioned New York winter, it's going to wreak havoc with the kitchen," said Hildebrandt, whose year-old group recently added its 100th member. "The rest of the building has been there 130 years, and once we get the roof on, it'll be there for another 130 years. They don't build them like that anymore." Sanford Stud Farm was founded around 1870 by carpet magnate and U.S. Congressman Stephen Sanford on the advice of his doctor, who recommended running a farm as a way to reduce stress. Soon he and his family were breeding racehorses, and the 24-acre farm was on its way to greatness.
Encompassing 1,100 acres and home to 150 horses at its heyday, Sanford Stud Farm was also known as "Hurricana" because of persistent Mohawk Valley winds. A century ago at this time, it was a busy farm and racetrack with dozens of employees. But many of the original buildings, such as the stallion barn, are now gone. And the memorials to the farm's top runners in front of the broodmare barn have been moved. However, the broodmare barn remains about an hour's drive from the site of many Sanford wins, Saratoga.
"This is a very slow, arduous process," Sam Hildebrandt said. "It's a piece of history, and it's incumbent upon us to save it. We have a responsibility to preserve history and keep Sanford's legacy alive." Ultimately, the Friends would like to open the farm for tours and set up a museum and information center. That could cost upwards of $1 million. It would be money well-spent, said Louis Hildebrandt, who joined up with the Sanfords just weeks after he graduated from high school. He signed a five-year contract as an apprentice without ever having been on a horse. These days, he treks to the post office daily, hoping to find a big check from a donor to the Friends.
As with all preservation cases, there is much to fix - windows, painting, roofing, infrastructure, and so on. Every year will bring new challenges. "The farm has always been important to me," Louis Hildebrandt said. "I relive all my experiences when I'm there, there's no question about it. It's something you don't really forget." The senior Hildebrandt was spotted in the winner's circle at Saratoga after opening weekend's Grade II Sanford Stakes on July 26th - 60 years to the day since he rode Round View to victory in the Monmouth Handicap. Believed to be the oldest living American-born jockey, Hildebrandt rode for the Sanford stable for most of his dozen years career in racing. This is an important project for him especially.
"We're going to get it done," he said. Hurricana had significant on-track success. In 1916, Sanford-owned George Smith won the Kentucky Derby. The farm also saddled winners of the Whitney Handicap, among other stakes, and was the first American barn to capture the English Grand National Steeplechase. Barn trainer Hollie Hughes, a Hall of Famer, is now remembered with an eponymous handicap at Aqueduct. For five years in the early 1900s, the Sanfords held an annual racing day. According to "Riders Up," Louis Hildebrandt's autobiography, as many as 15,000 people attended the races. But the current generation of Sanfords live away from Amsterdam and didn't have any interest in the farm, so it ended up in Amsterdam's control, at a cost of $400,000. Sam Hildebrandt said cultivating interest in the project both in and out of the area has been difficult.
Calling the Sanford farm's plight an issue for all of thoroughbred racing to confront, he said corporate partnership is necessary if the site is to be salvaged - above all the kitchen.
"If it were a patient in the hospital, it would be in critical condition," he said. In 1939, Hildebrandt's book recalls, the Sanford farm suffered a terrible fire. It killed 25 horses - and a watchdog, Hildebrandt notes. Now, the farm once known as Hurricana faces a similar threat. Not from fire, but from the ravages of time and neglect.