Established first in Pennsylvania as the Hanover Shoe Stables in the early 1900s by Harper D. Sheppard and Clinton N. Myers, Hanover moved into the big time under the direction of Sheppard’s son, Lawrence Baker Sheppard, in the 1920s. While the original partners were on vacation, the younger Sheppard sold off the lot of their horses and then set about replacing the modest, mediocre stock with some of the top standardbreds of that era, including Baron Worthy and Peter Manning. A 1926 purchase of 69 horses from the estate of A.B. Coxe firmly established Hanover as “the largest combined breeding and racing establishment in the world.”

Today the conglomerate, which now has a New Jersey location, involves 27 farms on 3,000 acres, with 1,200 horses at the peak season.


Visit Hanover Shoe Farms at www.hanoverpa.com/index.htm.