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me luck even if their horse didn’t qualify. They love the sport and the horses, and we need more people like them in the industry.”
“Brad’s an entrepreneur and has put together a lot of businesses,” says Mac Murray of MJ Farms, who lived across the road from the Harts in Bear River City, Utah, before moving to Veguita, New Mexico, in 2000. “In one of his businesses, I think he had 130 or 140 employees and a lot of those people had been with him for years and years and years. That doesn’t happen unless there’s a mutual respect, you’re good to your people and take care of them. And you don’t do that unless you have a lot of integrity. Both in business dealings and the horse business, Brad and Robin are the kind of people who, if you agree on a deal, you don’t need a contract. You shake hands and that’s the deal, and if it doesn’t work out, like sometimes deals don’t, they’re going to take care of you.”
THEIR BEGINNINGS
Brad was one of four children born to James and Kathleen Hart in Ogden, Utah. He came by his horse passion through genetics. “Originally, my aunt and uncle had Diamond C Ranch in Cody, Wyoming, where they stood Easy Saint, a really well-known stallion in the Intermountain area,” he says. “Then my grandfather started in, and he had Proudest Effort, This Pie Is Flying, Ima Rebel Wrangler and a lot of others, and we just followed in their footsteps.”
Brad’s dad and stepmother, Jacqueline Hart, also raised horses at their ranch, JJH Quarter Horses, in the 1990s to late 2000s.
Robin is one of two daughters born to the late Charles and Sue Neal in Beckley, West Virginia. “I always loved horses,” she says, “but I never had a horse of my own until I married Brad. My parents lived inside the city limits so we couldn’t have them, but horses were always my favorite thing. My mother’s friend went to a school back East where she learned to ride, and she used to give me riding lessons and take me riding with her.”
Robin’s family moved to Kaysville, Utah, when she was 14, and it was there, at Davis High School, that she and Brad met. They graduated in 1979 (Brad) and 1980 (Robin) but didn’t date until the year after that. They married in 1982.
Brad and Robin started their horse pursuits in the world of chariot racing, then bought and trained their first racehorse, BCR Campaign Cash, by Sir Cashanova and out of the Cherokee Arrow daughter Whisperin Campaign.
They then bought Bolt Ta Fame from his breeder, Janice Spencer DVM, (now Janice Murray of MJ Farms). Under the hand of trainer Greg Creager, the 1995 gelding won the Silver Dollar Derby Consolation at Evanston, Wyoming, then ran in the Bitterroot Derby-G3 as a 3 year old.
- Butch Wise
Brad’s grandfather entered into the horse business and had many horses, including Proudest Effort, sire of over $6 million.
Hart’s passion for racing Quarter Horses came early on through his parents, grandfather, and aunt & uncle.
Brad’s aunt and uncle stood the stallion Easy Saint, sire of nearly $2 million, at Diamond C Ranch in Cody, Wyoming.
“You see them in Oklahoma at the sales, you see them in California at the sales, at the races, and we saw them at the National Finals [Rodeo] the other day. They’re involved in every aspect whether it be the racing or the breeding business... we need a lot more people like them in the industry.”