2022 New Stallions | Horse Racing Free Tips

Life Is Good, The Newest Addition at WinStar Farm

They could have entered him in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile or the Sprint, where he would have been a top choice in either spot, but the connections of Life Is Good (Into Mischief – Beach Walk, by Distorted Humor) opted to send their versatile 4-year-old to the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic.

While there was no beating Flightline (Tapit) that day, Life Is Good threw it down with his undefeated competitor, forcing Flightline to chase him through blazing early fractions of :22.55 and :45.47. The Classic marked only his third defeat, but Life Is Good was far better than good in his final career start.

“It was a tough decision to decide which was the right race for Life is Good on Breeders' Cup Day,” said his trainer Todd Pletcher. “We felt like with his body of work and his success leading into it, he deserved a chance for champion older horse and Horse of the Year. We let him do his thing with his running style, which is a high cruising speed, and he took it to Flightline. I think he went out in style.”

Campaigned by China Horse Club and WinStar Farm, Life Is Good was the winner of nine races from 12 career starts. A 'TDN Rising Star' on debut at two, the eye-catching bay remained in graded stakes company from there, earning eight graded victories over his career. His resume includes four Grade I wins, starting with a definitive score in last year's edition of the Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and then this year adding the Pegasus World Cup Invitational S., Whitney S. and Woodward S.

“What made Life Is Good so special is that he had that unique ability to go fast and carry that speed over a distance of ground,” Pletcher reflected. “From a trainer's perspective, he was very healthy, very sound and just loved his job. Every day he came out, he trained exceptionally and had a great attitude.”

Last year's edition of the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S., where Life Is Good ran second by a neck to the season's eventual Champion Male Sprinter Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music), is a race that WinStar's Elliott Walden remembers as one of the colt's most impressive performances.

“That race, to me, was one of his best,” Walden said. “He was just beat coming off a 170-day layoff. I think when people remember Life Is Good as a racehorse, they will remember that he participated in all the big races. We were not afraid to run him at distances that maybe didn't suit him best, whether it was seven furlongs against Jackie's Warrior or a mile and a quarter against Flightline. He's one of the greats that we've had at WinStar.”

Life Is Good arrived at WinStar Farm the morning after the Breeders' Cup and received a warm welcome from his WinStar and China Horse Club connections. Todd Pletcher also stopped by to send off his pupil, who was known as 'Scooter' around the barn.

“He was such a huge part of our stable for almost the last two years that literally our schedule was built around his schedule,” Pletcher explained. “We're going to miss him a lot, but at the same time we're really pleased that he's able to retire to a farm like WinStar and get an opportunity to prove himself as a stallion. We look forward to seeing his babies.”

The son of Into Mischief was bred by Gary and Mary West Stable and sold for $525,000 as a yearling in 2019. His dam Beach Walk (Distorted Humor) is out of the multiple Grade I-placed Mineshaft mare Bonnie Blue Flag, whose family includes multiple Grade I winner Diamondrella (GB) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}), Group 3 victor Spectroscope (Medaglia d'Oro) and multiple graded stakes-placed runner Highest Honors (Tapit).

Life Is Good gets his fourth Grade I score in the Woodward S. | Sarah Andrew

“He's about 16'1, so he's a little bigger than Into Mischief,” Walden said. “He has a little bit more scope and range, but all the parts of a fast-looking horse. You can see when he moves how he just springs off with great, quick action that should translate to athletic foals. The Into Mischiefs have a real desire to run and Life Is Good showed that he wanted to compete at every level, every race and every work. Being by Into Mischief and also having Distorted Humor on the bottom, he gets a double dose of that competitiveness.”

Life Is Good's initial stud fee of $100,000 will be among the highest of this year's incoming crop, however Walden said that they have been conservative in their selection process as they begin filling the young sire's first book.

“We plan to breed him to about 160 mares,” Walden said. “We have a lot of requests each week, but we're not taking every mare. We're thinking about where each mare would fit into his whole group. We're making him worthy of a $100,000 stud fee, so we've turned down a lot of mares and are being very critical on that.”

He continued, “I think from a standpoint of what we've had here at Winstar, he would be at the very top as far as the great horses that we've had. Being by Into Mischief and with his physical presence and athleticism, we're super excited about his next career.”

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Under New Ownership, Walmac Farm Welcomes Core Beliefs

Owner and breeder Gary Broad purchased Walmac Farm in 2018. With 250 acres sprawling along Paris Pike, the historic property has gone through a major restoration project since it was obtained by its new owner. Fences were mended, barns were remodeled and given a fresh coat of paint, and this year, a new stallion arrived at the farm.

Multiple graded stakes winner Core Beliefs (Quality Road – Tejati, by Tactical Advantage) has taken up residence at the farm that was once home to, among others, notable sires Nureyev, Miswaki, Alleged, Successful Appeal and Songandaprayer.

Out of a winning mare from the family of champion Hasten to Add (Cozzene) and GISW See How She Runs (Maria's Mon), Core Beliefs is one of just a handful of stallions by Quality Road in Kentucky. After Quality Road's son City of Light enjoyed an extraordinary year with his first crop of yearlings in 2021, the team at Walmac was encouraged to launch Core Beliefs' stud career.

“The main reason that we decided to stand Core Beliefs this year was because of the success of Quality Road and City of Light,” explained farm manager Dawn Carr. “All of their progeny seem to be doing so well and are well-accepted at the sales, so we felt like Core Beliefs would have a shot as another son of Quality Road and with the physical he has. If someone sees his physical, that is what's selling him. He's gorgeous.”

Broad purchased Core Beliefs at the 2017 Barretts March 2-Year-Old Sale at Del Mar, where advisor Scott Hansen was on hand for the juvenile colt's :10 work.

“The track was very demanding that day,” Hansen recalled. “There weren't a lot of horses that went :10 flat, and the thing about Core Beliefs was not only did he go :10 flat but his gallop out was really good. It was one of the best of the morning.”

Broad opted to give his $350,000 purchase a rest after the sale instead of sending him straight to the racetrack. The colt went through his early training with Hansen at San Luis Rey Training Center before transferring to Peter Eurton.

“Gary likes to give them a little bit of a break after the sale, so were really patient with him and gave him a month off at the farm before we started legging him up,” Hansen explained. “Our riders were really high on him from the beginning. He showed a lot of class and speed with the few works that we did with him.”

Core Beliefs placed in his first two starts as a 3-year-old, but broke his maiden by over three lengths when asked to stretch out to a mile and a sixteenth. The win was so impressive that from there, he made the jump to the GI Santa Anita Derby and finished a respectable third.

“We knew he could run long, and that's always a big plus with an early 3-year-old, so we threw him into the Santa Anita Derby against Bolt d'Oro and Justify,” said Hansen.”He tried very hard. He was coming off a maiden win going to the top of the bunch. We battled Instilled Regard (Arch), who turned out to be a pretty good horse, for third.”

After the Grade I placing, the bay ran second in the GIII Peter Pan S. and then claimed the GIII Ohio Derby.

“What was really impressive about him that day is he got a really wide trip,” Hansen remembered. “All the way around the track he was four or five wide, but he still had enough to finish and just get up to beat Lone Sailor (Majestic Warrior).”

Core Beliefs takes the 2019 GII New Orleans H. | Sarah Andrew

Core Beliefs won the GII New Orleans H. in his 4-year-old debut and went on to race through his 6-year-old season. He retired as his owner's leading earner with just short of $1 million in earnings.

“He showed a lot of speed and stamina and he never took a bad step,” Hansen noted. “He was a champ with everything we did with him.”

Core Beliefs has been busy throughout his first weeks of stud duty, with mares coming in from both outside breeders and from Broad's own broodmare band.

“Gary purchased several mares at the sale and we've also purchased mares privately for him,” Carr said. “A couple of the mares at the sale were blacktype and then Gary already had one Galileo mare that we're going to breed to him this year. We want to give him every opportunity as a stallion.”

As for the outside breeders, Carr said that people have only needed to see Core Beliefs in person before they inquire about breeding details for the stallion, who stands for $7,500 in his first year at stud.

“A lot of breeders have said they can't afford Quality Road and City of Light, but they heard about Core Beliefs and wanted to see him. They'll look at him and say he's gorgeous and that they didn't expect him to be that big. He is a nice size; he's a little over 16'2. He's very correct, too. We've had several people who have said he looks a lot like Quality Road and we've even had a couple say he looks more like Elusive Quality.”

Breeders who have come to visit Core Beliefs have also remarked on the many changes that have taken place at Walmac since Broad began resurrecting the farm.

“Gary has done a lot of work on the farm,” Carr said. “He has remodeled every barn and all of the tenant houses. He has taken really good care of it and he's trying to bring it back to what it was before or better.”

Core Beliefs resides in the barn that was once the home and breeding facility of leading sire Nureyev. Upon purchasing Walmac, Broad remodeled the building into his own stallion complex with the goal of adding more sires to Walmac's roster in the coming years.

“We took the arena apart and put in six stallion stalls, which we are hoping to fill,” Carr explained. “We still have Nureyev's stall that we could split so that we could have up to eight, but we'll see what happens. It's very exciting for [Broad]. He had previously mainly been on the racing side of it, but now he's enjoying this–seeing the new foals and seeing Core Beliefs' success.”

Fellow farm manager Manuel Hernandez began working at Walmac Farm in 1995. He has been present throughout the past decades as the farm has changed ownership and he is now looking forward to the future for both Walmac Farm and its new stallion.

“I have been around horses for many years and Core Beliefs has everything,” Hernandez said. “He has good bone, a good body and good balance. I am very happy to have this job working with the right people over here. We work like a family. The farm has changed a lot because we are trying to have everything look if not the best, then close to the best, and now the farm is ready to make that dream come true.”

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New Blood in Lane’s End Stud Barn

Two new stallions, both debut winners as juveniles who went on to become Grade I winners, have joined the Lane's End roster for 2022. Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB} – Reunited, by Dixie Union) and Lexitonian (Speightstown – Riviera Romper, by Tapit) will stand for a fee of $10,000 in their first year at stud.

“Code of Honor and Lexitonian are sound, consistent young horses and they both give breeders a chance to breed to Grade I-winning sires with fair, introductory prices and super pedigrees,” Lane's End Farm's Bill Farish explained. “They've both had a lot of breeders come look at them and I think people have been really impressed. Lexitonian is more of a Speightstown-type horse. He's very strongly made and more of a sprinter type, whereas Code of Honor has a little more length to him that I think has surprised people.”

Farish discussed the book of mares that each stallion compiled for their first year and talked about the key factors that have encouraged breeders to support the new sires.

For Code of Honor in particular, Farish emphasized the wide variety of mares that he attracted.

“He got a very interesting cross section of mares,” he explained. “Being by Noble Mission but also a dirt horse, it really presents breeders with an interesting dilemma because you think, 'Do you breed him to a dirt mare or a turf mare?' We're kind of taking the approach that he can have success with both. [Physically] he has some of the finer qualities of Noble Mission, but with being so successful on the dirt, he has a little bit of a different look than most of Noble Mission's turf runners.”

Farish said that this fall, Lane's End purchased 18 mares at the Keeneland November Sale to send to Code of Honor.

“Again, it was kind of a cross section of mares,” he noted. “If you run some of them through a nicking software they don't come out so well because breeding an A.P. Indy mare to a Sadler's Wells-line stallion hasn't been tried very much yet, but we think with this horse and his affinity for dirt, it should have a good chance of working.”

A homebred for W.S. Farish and the son of GIII Thoroughbred Club of America S. winner Reunited (Dixie Union), Code of Honor trained under Shug McGaughey throughout his four-year career. A debut winner at two, the colt ran second in the GI Champagne S. despite stumbling at the start. Early in his sophomore season, he won the GII Fountain of Youth, finished third in the GI Florida Derby and then ran a runner-up effort in the GI Kentucky Derby. Over his sophomore summer, the chestnut reeled off consecutive scores in the GIII Dwyer S., GI Travers S. and GI Jockey Club Gold Cup S.

“He was a phenomenal racehorse and is one you dream about getting,” Farish said. “The Travers was a real thrill for Mom and Dad, obviously, and it's great for the farm to get him back here as a stallion prospect.”

Code of Honor remained in training at four and five, collecting victories in the GIII Westchester S. and GIII Philip H. Iselin S. while also placing in the GI Metropolitan H., GII Kelso H., GI Clark S. and GII Hagyard Fayette S. He retired with earnings of almost $3 million.

“He was a gutsy, gutsy racehorse and he had an amazingly-efficient stride,” Farish said. “He was a horse that brought it every day to his training and his races. I think that's something we'll see in his offspring. Any time we have a homebred come back here as a stallion, it's very exciting, but to have a homebred end up being a multiple Grade I winner and a Travers winner is the ultimate achievement.”

Lane's End's second new addition Lexitonian is a homebred for Calumet Farm.

“Lexitonian is a really exciting horse for us,” Farish said. “He's our first son of Speightstown. He exhibited amazing consistency throughout his career. Brad Kelley at Calumet has entrusted us to stand him and we're really excited to have him.”

Lexitonian gets his signature win in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew

Another debut winner at two, Lexitonian won the GIII Chick Lang S. and Concern S. as a 3-year-old, also placing in the GII Phoenix S. at Keeneland. At four, the chestnut was second by a nose to Collusion Illusion (Twirling Candy) in the GI Bing Crosby S. Returning for his 5-year-old season, he was a close second in the GI Churchill Downs S. on the Kentucy Derby undercard and then scored his signature victory in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. at Saratoga.

“His race in the Vanderbilt really stands out as an incredible win,” Farish said. “You're there at Saratoga in a field of Grade I winners, including a champion in Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect), so it was a big, big day for him. To come out on top in that field was impressive and stamped him as a stallion prospect.”

Lexitonian was purchased in utero by Calumet for $310,000. The son of a winning Tapit mare, his second dam Swap Fliparoo (Exchange Rate) won the 2006 GI Test S.

“With Lexitonian being from the Gone West line as a son of Speightstown crossed with Tapit on the bottom side, it's that magic cross of the A.P. Indy line with the Mr. Prospector line,” Farish explained. “It's one of the things that really attracted us to him in the beginning and then for his granddam to be a Grade I winner really adds to it.”

In addition to the support the new stallion will receive from Lane's End, Farish noted that Calumet will be sending over 20 mares to Lexitonian in his first year.

“Lexitonian is getting a tremendous amount of support from Calumet, but he's also getting a tremendous amount of interest from breeders. Breeders love him physically. They're really impressed with him as an individual. He's a speedy, good-looking son of Speightstown and that's very appealing to the market.”

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Journeyman Takes a ‘Chance’ with New Stallions

At Journeyman Stud in Ocala, Florida, one feels a sense of family and mutual respect among all of the inhabitants–horses, dogs and people. The atmosphere is relaxed and happy. Brent Fernung of Journeyman Stud and his wife, Crystal, have been cornerstones of the Thoroughbred industry in Florida for more than 40 years. Under Fernung's management Congrats, the leading first-crop sire of 2010, and Wildcat Heir, North America's leading second-crop sire in 2010, both began their careers.

In addition to its two new stallions Uncle Chuck (Uncle Mo–Forest Music, by Unbridled's Song) and Chance It (Currency Swap–Vagabon Diva, by Pleasantly Perfect), Journeyman Stud currently stands Khozan, Florida's leading sire in 2020 and 2021, as well as St Patrick's Day and Mr. Money. Fernung said he wasn't necessarily looking for a new stallion when he went to the Keeneland November Sale. But when, at the suggestion of friends Des Ryan and Ben Glass, he visited Uncle Chuck, he said he knew this was a stallion prospect that would appeal to Florida breeders.

Campaigned by Michael Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, Uncle Chuck was $250,000 Keeneland September yearling and is a half-brother to successful Kentucky-based sire Maclean's Music. In his second start, Uncle Chuck won the GIII Los Alamitos Derby.

“In his first start, [Uncle Chuck] dominated a field of maidens winning by seven lengths, and it could have been 70 lengths. And he was obviously still green, [he] got about mid-stretch and switched to his left lead and kind of started gawking around and was still drawing off from them under what wasn't particularly perfect circumstances,” said Fernung. “Then of course, he followed that up with a four-length victory over Thousand Words in a Grade III running a mile and an eighth in his second start. So, I don't think there was any distance limitations to this horse at all.”

Brilliance on the track is just one of the pillars Fernung looks for in a successful stallion and he said Uncle Chuck checks all of his boxes.

“Forest Music was a very good race mare. First of all, she might have been the fastest daughter of Unbridled's Song to make it to the races,” said Fernung. “And as a broodmare, besides producing a top-quality stallion in Maclean's Music, she's produced two other graded stake winners besides Uncle Chuck. It's a great family. You can't beat it.

“When the opportunity arose to get Uncle Chuck, I looked his pedigree up. And he had this tremendous pedigree,” said Fernung. “But more importantly, he was a top racehorse that was brilliant in the few starts he was able to make. That's the trifecta, in my opinion.

“I don't want a stallion because of who his brother is. I don't want a stallion because of who his sire is. And I really don't want a stallion just based on his talent or ability. I want that combination, you know, by a world-class champion sire out of a spectacular broodmare and a solid racehorse.”

Fernung said Uncle Chuck's physical is another attribute adding to his appeal.

“Uncle Chuck physically is such an impressive horse,” said Fernung. “He's got plenty of bone. He's a big horse, probably 16.3. And he's just as correct as he can be. He's really an entire package physically. His ability, his pedigree, his sire, put together with that physicality is really an unusual combination of traits to get down here.”

Uncle Chuck has been well received already with more than 60 mares in his book and Fernung said the phone is still ringing. In addition to the local interest, Uncle Chuck's ownership group plans to bring a large group of mares to the freshman sire.

“It's an interesting story. I went and looked at Uncle Chuck on my own and the next day I got a call from Frank Taylor from Taylor Made and Frank says, 'I just been out here to look at this horse. Would you be interested in standing him down in Ocala?'” said Fernung. “Getting Taylor Made involved has always been fortunate for us. Of course, they were the ones who originally sent Wildcat Heir down to Journeyman.”

Chance It just before his Mucho Macho Man S. win| Ryan Thompson

Chance It, Journeyman's other new stallion, has been a fan favorite in Florida for his entire racing career. With lifetime earnings of $583,330, he was on the board in nine of 11 starts with six triple-digit Beyers. A multiple FTBOA Florida Sire S. winner at two and an additional black-type winner at three, he finished third in Saratoga's GI Forego S. at four.

“Chance It has great local appeal here in Ocala. He was Florida's horse,” said Fernung. “He was destined to go on and do some really great things, in my opinion. But then he injured himself. He came back, placed in a Grade I sprint stakes, had the potential to win one of them, but injury ended his career at that point.”

As to Fernung's formula for success, Chance It has more than just racing ability.

“Chance It's a big, strong correct horse,” said Fernung. “He's 16.2. You can see the reason he was so fast when you look through his hindquarters and his shoulder. He moves like a cat, just a very nice physical.”

Fernung said Chance It's ownership group, led by Mary Lightner with advice from her father, Mike, is as enthusiastic to bring mares and support the stallion in his new career as they did with his racing career.

“We've been friends with them for 30 years,” said Fernung. “The opportunity to own a stallion with them was one that we really embraced.”

Fernung said he believes Chance It has a great chance to succeed in Florida.

“Our entire industry down here has been developed through 2-year-old racing,” said Fernung. “I think Chance It has that kind of physicality to him that's going to get you early horses that can really run. I'm excited to have the opportunity to stand him.”

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