As 2025 comes to a close, Pennsylvania’s breeding farms gear up for the 2026 breeding season. New stallions on the roster at Rich Miller’s Mountain Springs Farm include Ny Traffic, Max Player, and Fugitive.
“Everything went very well earlier this year, and we got most of the mares in foal on their first cover. We’re looking forward to a good year next year with some new stallions and our proven ones like Uptowncharlybrown, Beverly Park, and Eastwood. Uptowncharlybrown has been one of the top stallions in PA for the past several years, and Eastwood has done well too,” said Rich Miller. “We have some new bloodlines this year with Ny Traffic by Cross Traffic, Fugitive by Candy Ride (ARG), and Max Player by Honor Code,” Miller said.
An eight year old New York bred, Ny Traffic earned over one million dollars and placed in six graded stakes. He won the Chocolate Town Stakes at Penn National, and he won the Affirmed Success Stakes at Belmont. He was second to Authentic in the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes at Monmouth and ran second in the Salvatore Mile Stakes at Monmouth. In the final race of his career, he finished third in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday Stakes at Gulfstream. “Ny Traffic raced five seasons and is by Cross Traffic who is the sire of Jaywalk, a two year old Eclipse Award winner,” said Miller.
“Another new stallion for 2026 is Fugitive. He’s by Candy Ride (ARG) who’s one of the hottest stallions right now. He made about $100,000, and he has a great disposition,” commented Miller. Candy Ride (ARG) is the sire of top stallions Gun Runner and Twirling Candy.
“Max Player isn’t here yet, but he’s an eight year old by Honor Code, and he won $1,551,266. He’s a Grade 1 winner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and he was third in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes,” said Miller. A multiple graded stakes winner, Max Player raced for five seasons against top competition in the country’s toughest races. He won the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes and the Grade 3 Withers Stakes, and he was third in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes. He broke his maiden at Parx Racing in Pennsylvania in 2019.
“Our stallion Enticed was popular this year, and we bred over sixty mares to him. This year alone, his offspring won over three million dollars so far,” Miller said. Currently ranked number two in PA stallions, Enticed, by Medaglia D’Oro out of the Grade 1 classic winner, It’s Tricky, won $595,680 and was a graded stakes winner at two and three.
The winningest horse of 2022, Beverly Park also stands at Mountain Springs. The son of Munnings, Beverly Park retired with earnings of $646,655 and 29 wins, 11 seconds, and 8 thirds in 64 starts. He was ranked number one by number of wins in 2022 with fifteen wins.
“We are breeding and raising horses for the Pennsylvania breeders’ program and for owners breeding to race in Pennsylvania. When I sold my farm in Shartlesville, I was planning to semi-retire, and it took me two years to find this farm. I lucked into it, and we added onto it since we bought it. The farm used to be part of Land of Believe Farm, and we had to do some repairs. We built an indoor and a breeding shed and a stallion barn. We are located five minutes from Penn National, and now, we have about sixty horses here full time. During breeding season, we’ll have about one hundred. I have a great team here, and that’s been the key. My assistant, Emma Steinkamp, does a great job. We share foal watching duties,” said Miller.
“We put monitors on the mare’s halters that beep if they put their heads down for a certain amount of time. We’re up and down a lot, but it’s very helpful,” said Emma. “We don’t have any mares due too early either, so hopefully we won’t have bad weather this year. We have our stallion show scheduled for January 10th, 2026. In case of inclement weather, the snow date is the next day, January 11, 2026. We’re having refreshments and food, and the stallion owners will be here with contracts for anyone who wants to sign up,” said Steinkamp.
“We had mostly breeders from Pennsylvania last year that had single mares, and we had a few new owners. Hopefully, this year we will attract some new people. We have the Uptowncharlybrown syndicate mares here, and I have an owner from Kentucky who sent twenty mares this year, and he plans to do the same next year. Hopefully the new stallions and Pennsylvania’s great breeding program will encourage breeding in the state,” Miller said.
Mountain Springs offers breeders a choice of proven and young stallions who were high class runners and graded stakes winners and are by prominent, leading sires with classic bloodlines.
