BERNARDSTON — Walking into Beverly Allard’s home, it is immediately apparent that she loves horses. Horse racing is on the television and photos of Thoroughbreds cover the walls.
But Allard is quite different from many horse enthusiasts, especially in western Massachusetts. Outside her job as a school bus driver, the 78-year-old woman owns Mapleview Farm where she breeds her own Thoroughbreds and is preparing to send her first 3-year-old filly, named Half Moon Dancing, to the racetrack.
Mapleview Farm — and the joint business Mapleview Racing LLC — is one of only 25 farms in the state registered with the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders Association. Many of the farms are only in the business of breeding, not racing.
With Suffolk Downs in Boston limiting its days of live racing, “the racehorse industry is really suffering in Massachusetts,” said Thomas Mann, a retired corporate executive who is an investor in Half Moon Dancing.
George Brown, chairman of the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders Association, said that owning racehorses was much more common in Massachusetts before the decline of Suffolk Downs. He added that it is both expensive and inconvenient to have to travel out of state to race.
Mann and Allard want to work toward revitalizing the Massachusetts horse racing industry. To Allard, horses are a natural part of life.
“My dad put me up on a horse when I was like 6 months old,” she said. “He created a monster.”
Allard’s childhood was also intertwined with racing. She remembers two of her uncles racing Standardbred harness horses when she was 12.
When she grew older and moved to Texas, she bred more than a dozen running bred Quarter Horses and raced two at Oklahoma tracks. Breeding has been her primary passion.
“I enjoy the research on the bloodlines and trying to breed a horse to do what it was born to do,” Allard said.
“It’s as much of an investment in Bev as it is the horse,” Mann said of his financial contribution.
Because his own grandfather owned a racehorse, Mann considers the sport to be in his blood as well.
“It was a passion of his,” Mann said. “I thought it would be cool to follow in his footsteps.”
Mann and Allard have been working together for about six months, having been introduced by Peter Hannum, Allard’s boyfriend. Half Moon Dancing is the first racehorse that Mann has invested in.
“Moon’s just got so much attitude,” Mann said. “She’s not going to want to come in second … The heart of the horse is what makes a good horse a great horse.”
Half Moon Dancing is a daughter of Katie’s Raven, one of two mares that Allard purchased in 2010 after they had been injured on the racetrack.
“I liked the bloodlines on both of them and decided they would make good broodmares for me to start out with,” she said.
Allard first sent the mares to New York to be bred in 2012. Since then, the mares have produced five fillies for Allard, including Half Moon Dancing. However, Half Moon Dancing is the first of them to have formal racing training.
Half Moon Dancing was sent to Briar Hill Farm in Rehoboth for three months of basic training in the summer of 2015. Her next journey will take place at Finger Lakes Casino and Racetrack in Farmington, N.Y.
There, Half Moon Dancing will be involved in group gallops, gate training and timed works under the supervision of Jim Acquilano, a trainer with 30 years of experience based in Finger Lakes.
According to Allard and Mann, if all goes well, Half Moon Dancing will start in her first race in late August or early September.
“We’re hoping it’s a Cinderella story,” Mann said.
Given the filly’s bloodlines, Allard thinks she has the potential to do well on the track.
“This cross with the bloodlines has produced some good winners,” she said. Half Moon Dancing is a descendant of stakes winners and million dollar earners.
While Allard said that she wants to earn back some of the money she has needed for breeding and the horses’ upkeep, if Half Moon Dancing does well, some of her winnings could be used to finance racing Allard’s six other fillies. To Allard and Mann, the sky is the limit for Half Moon Dancing and for Mapleview Farm.