Blake Agency’s Ron Blake and Lexington-based bloodstock agent Hanzly Albina are combining their business interests and are forming a new company called Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services.
Blake-Albina will consign horses at all the major sales as well as offer seasonal and private sales services.
According to Albina, Blake-Albina’s goal is to offer all of its existing and future clients a complete array of Thoroughbred bloodstock boarding and management services. “We are a one-stop shop for the horse owner whether he or she is interested in breeding, pinhooking, or racing,” Albina said in a release.
Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services boarding operation is located just off Bozworth Lane behind Keeneland on Elkchester Road in Lexington. Ron Blake, who honed his skills under both Willard Proctor and Bill Graves, has been boarding, pinhooking, prepping, and selling under the Blake Agency name for 15 years.
One of Blake’s most successful pinhooking ventures was with Repent, who went on to be a multiple graded stakes winner and was grade I-placed. Blake Agency sold the son of Louis Quatorze for $230,000 to Ken McPeek, agent at the 2000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale after purchasing him the year before for $60,000.
Albina, who previously worked for Buckram Oak Farm as an assistant farm manager, has been working as an independent bloodstock agent for the last four years, and is the Kentucky Manager for Four Roses Thoroughbreds. Since Albina has been with Four Roses, they have bought, bred, or raced such stakes horses as Silver Wagon, Silver Train, Anak Nakal, and Diamond Stripes.
“I always demand the best for my clients and their horses, and that led me to Ron Blake,” said Albina in a statement. “He and I have been working together with great success for the last four years, and the formation of Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services is a natural progression of both of our desires to provide our clients and other horse owners with every service they will need to have a successful equine operation of the highest caliber.”
