The Starlight Racing and Harrell Ventures partnership was always excited about their well-bred son of Omaha Beach named Pirate, but their anticipation for the colt's debut reached an all-time high when he was assigned the infamous first stall adjacent to Todd Pletcher's office at his barn on the Oklahoma.
“We've been working with Todd for 23 years and it's hard to get him to get really excited about a horse,” joked Starlight's founder and managing partner Jack Wolf. “But you could tell that he liked ours from the get-go.”
Pirate fulfilled all expectations in his debut last Saturday when he rolled to a three-length victory to earn 'TDN Rising Star' honors. The Peter Blum-bred half-brother to GI Preakness S. winner National Treasure (Quality Road) was not only the first Rising Star of the Saratoga season, but also the first to earn the accolade for his freshman sire Omaha Beach.
Spendthrift sire Omaha Beach received a warm welcome at stud in 2020 as a three-time Grade I-winning son of War Front from the family of influential broodmare Take Charge Lady (Dehere). Omaha Beach now has four winners on the year so far, include Group 3-placed Launch.
Frankie Brothers, who is now retired as an agent and member of the Keeneland inspection team, was the one who encouraged the Starlight team to pursue the first crop of Omaha Beach.
“I give all the credit to Frankie Brothers,” said Starlight's racing manager Corbin Blumberg. “Prior to the sale, he called me and told me that the Omaha Beach horses were standouts physically. So going into the September Sale, we definitely had our eye out and were lucky that [Pirate] was the one that we were able to get. We really liked him and we were thrilled to get him for $350,000. To be honest, we thought we were going to have to stretch a bit for him. Doug Cauthen loved him as well. Physically, he was really correct. He had a great hind end and a really good top.”
“Personality-wise, too, he's just a real laid-back, cool horse,” added Wolf.
Wolf shared that Pirate came out of his first race in good order and that Pletcher has indicated that the colt will point to either the Aug. 12 GII Saratoga Special S. or the Sept. 4 GI Hopeful S.
“As usual, Todd will let the horse tell him, but just hanging out this morning, he looks like he's ready to do something again,” Wolf said.
The Starlight team is looking forward to finding out how Omaha Beach's best qualities will develop in this promising young son of his.
“War Front gets a lot of early 2-year-olds and Omaha Beach had that class on dirt,” explained Blumberg. “I think Pirate has the best of both worlds. He's obviously a precocious 2-year-old, but he showed on Saturday the ability on dirt that we love.”
Until Pirate's return to the starting gate, his connections will continue to celebrate a memorable Saratoga debut.
“For him to win like he did and become a Rising Star is super exciting,” said Blumberg. “Hopefully the rest of the meet goes as we hope. We're excited to have a horse like him in the barn with the Harrells and Todd.”
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