Gretzky the Great, a Grade 1 winner at two and a son of champion and Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, has been retired and will stand the upcoming breeding season at Ocala Stud, the farm announced today.
Campaigned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gary Barber and trained by Mark Casse, Gretzky the Great joined the ranks of Grade 1 stakes winners as a juvenile. Making an auspicious graded stakes debut, Gretzky the Great recorded a scintillating score in Woodbine's $300,000 Grade 1 Summer Stakes at one mile on the turf, defeating a contentious field by 3 ¼ lengths. After stalking the pace throughout, Gretzky the Great entered the lane in the two-path and powered clear late to score under a hand ride in 1:34.53.
Following in the footsteps of his precocious sire, Gretzky the Great demonstrated his precocity from the beginning. He exercised his superiority over a maiden special weight field at Woodbine in just his second career start, running his foes off their feet with a 4 ¼-length front-running romp at six furlongs.
Following his maiden-breaking win and prior to his triumph in the Summer Stakes, Gretzky the Great annexed the 2020 Soaring Free Stakes, also at Woodbine, at 6 ½ furlongs on the turf. At season's end, Gretzky the Great contested that year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf where he encountered a rough trip and finished sixth in a field of 14 runners.
The following season at three, Gretzky the Great flashed his customary early foot to win the $150,000 Greenwood Stakes at Woodbine. After pressing the pace throughout, he drove to the lead and determinedly fought to the wire to prevail, notching his third stakes victory. All told, Gretzky the Great, who also finished third in the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at Turfway Park at three, retires having won four of 11 starts, banking $379,866.
By leading sire Nyquist, a three-time Grade 1 winner at two in 2015 and that season's champion 2-year-old male after winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Gretzky the Great is produced from the stakes-placed Bernardini mare Pearl Turn, and hails from the family of graded stakes winners Saint Anddan, Love Theway Youare, and Luftikus. He was a $295,000 acquisition at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale in 2019.
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