Beau Jangles Sells for $3.7 Million: A Standardbred Auction Record

What happened: Beau Jangles and the $3.7 million bid

Beau Jangles, a 3-year-old pacing colt and the 2025 Horse of the Year in the U.S. and Canada, sold for $3.7 million on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. That makes him the most expensive Standardbred ever sold at public auction, according to the U.S. Trotting Association (USTA).

He sold in the mixed sale of the 88th Standardbred Horse Sale at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg. The old record was $1.85 million, paid at the same sale in 2024 for the 3-year-old trotting colt Amazing Catch.

Bidding opened at $500,000 and reached $2.5 million before the final bid, the USTA and DRF Harness reported. The buyer was John Curtin, a New Zealand bloodstock agent, bidding by phone.

All prices here are in U.S. dollars.

Who is Beau Jangles?

He is a son of the stallion Cattlewash out of the mare Mrs Major Hill, trained by Dr. Ian Moore. He races as a pacer, one of the two gaits in harness racing.

His record, from the USTA:

• At age 2 (2025): 12 starts, 12 wins, $1.22 million earned. The wins included the Breeders Crown and the Metro Pace.
• Career: 18 wins in 27 races and $1.63 million. Standardbred Canada lists a higher earnings total, so check which figure a source is using.
• Fastest mile: 1:47.2, set Oct. 3, 2026 in a division of the Bluegrass Stakes at The Red Mile in Kentucky.

Those numbers also show that his 3-year-old season was harder: six wins from 15 starts. This year's Breeders Crown 3-year-old colt pace went to Brandon Blvd, not to him.

So the buyer paid for more than this season's form. He paid for an unbeaten 2-year-old year, a 1:47.2 mile and a pedigree he wants to breed from. See our Breeders Crown 2026 recap for how that championship works.

What is a Standardbred, and what is a pacer?

The Standardbred is the breed of harness racing. The horse pulls a light two-wheeled cart called a sulky, with a driver instead of a jockey. The name comes from the time "standard" a horse once had to meet over a mile to be registered.

Standardbreds race at one of two gaits:

• Trot: diagonal legs move together (left front with right hind).
• Pace: legs on the same side move together (left front with left hind). Most pacers wear hopples, straps that help them hold the gait.

A horse that breaks into a gallop has to be pulled back to its gait and loses ground. Beau Jangles paces; Amazing Catch, the old record holder, trots.

Off the track, Standardbreds are known as sensible, sound riding and driving horses. Our Little Brown Jug guide explains pacing in more detail, and the breeds section has more on the breed.

How a Standardbred mixed sale differs from a yearling sale

The Harrisburg Standardbred Horse Sale 2026 had two parts. First come the yearlings: unraced young horses sold on pedigree and looks. Then comes the mixed sale.

A Standardbred mixed sale offers everything else:

• Horses in training that can race next week
• Broodmares, often in foal
• Weanlings
• Stallion shares

The key difference is evidence. A yearling buyer is guessing at the future. A mixed-sale buyer can read a race record, watch replays and, for a stallion prospect, ask for a fertility report. Standardbred Canada reported that one would be available for Beau Jangles.

The two-day mixed sale grossed $27,562,000 for 495 horses and stallion shares. The $55,681 average was a record for the sale, even though the gross fell from 2025, when more dispersals were on offer. Our horses in training sale explainer covers the Thoroughbred version.

Why would owners sell a champion at auction?

Beau Jangles was owned by a partnership: Graham Grace Stables, Kiwi Stables and Bolton Stables, joined in October by driver James MacDonald. He sold in a three-horse partnership dispersal, consigned by Northwood Bloodstock Agency.

The owners have not given a public reason for the dispersal, and we won't guess. In general, partnerships go to auction because:

• It sets a price nobody can argue with. Partners who value a horse differently let the market decide.
• Partners can still bid. In the same dispersal, co-owner Kiwi Stables bought back the 2-year-old trotter Yankee Boss for $430,000.
• A stud career needs different money. Standing a stallion means a farm, marketing and mares. Not every racing partner wants that business.
• Timing. A colt is worth most when his racing record is fresh and his breeding career is still all promise.

The consignor told DRF Harness he had been fairly confident the colt would reach $3 million, and that several bidders were still in above that mark.

What is a shuttle stallion?

A shuttle stallion breeds in two hemispheres in the same year. The breeding season in North America runs through the first half of the year; in Australia and New Zealand it falls in the second half. A stallion who serves both gets two crops of foals a year.

Curtin said Beau Jangles will stand in the U.S. or Canada for the coming season, then be offered Down Under, and be shuttled for his first few seasons. He said he was still working out the details. No farm or stud fee had been announced in the reports we read.

A stallion earns his price back through stud fees, which depend on how many mares he gets and how his first foals race. That takes years to find out. Our guide to how stud fees work walks through the math.

How $3.7 million compares with Thoroughbred prices

The Standardbred record now matches the top yearling at this year's Keeneland September sale, the biggest Thoroughbred yearling auction in the U.S. It is still below what elite Thoroughbred mares brought last week at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale and the Keeneland November sale.

Keep the price in proportion. The average mixed-sale horse at Harrisburg cost $55,681, and a record price is not a forecast. Nothing here is investment advice.

What to watch next

These are plans reported by the USTA and DRF Harness, and plans change:

1. Thursday, Nov. 12: the Matron Stakes divisions for 3-year-olds at Bally's Dover Downs in Delaware.
2. Thursday, Nov. 19: Progress Pace eliminations are listed by the Hambletonian Society.
3. Wednesday, Nov. 25: the $300,000 Progress Pace final.
4. After that: an announcement of where he will stand and at what fee.

If you are new to harness racing, watch a replay with one question in mind: do the legs on each side move together? Then look up any term you miss in our glossary.