2023 New Stallions | Horse Racing Free Tips

Ocala Stud Offers Intriguing New Trio to Florida Breeders

As three newcomers acclimate to their surroundings in the historic stallion barn at Ocala Stud while the latest crop of 2-year-olds steadily progresses at the adjacent training facility, it's a time of hope and anticipation at Ocala Stud.

David O'Farrell is outspoken in his belief that their Grade I-winning trio of new stallions makes for a special group. Two-time GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational S. winner Colonel Liam (Liam's Map) recently joined the roster alongside newcomers Roadster (Quality Road), another eye-catching dappled gray who did his best work on dirt, as well as Gretzky the Great, a precocious son of leading fourth-crop sire Nyquist.

“I think these are three of the most exciting stallion prospects that we've stood for a really long time,” O'Farrell stated. “I think there is a really nice variety to offer Florida breeders with sire power, good race records and very good physicals. They all have the qualities to be leading sires and I think it's a great opportunity for everybody here in Florida.”

Roadster, a 'TDN Rising Star' as a debuting juvenile and the winner of the 2019 GI Santa Anita Derby, makes for an interesting stallion prospect in part because of the powerhouse group of supporters already backing the new sire. His breeder Stone Farm and campaigner Speedway Stable will both be supporting the son of Quality Road, as will Rustlewood Farm and Airdrie Stud.

Ocala Stud and Airdrie already have a promising track record with partnering on stallions. Last year's fast-starting freshman sire Girvin launched his career at Ocala Stud and relocated to Airdrie this year with five stakes winners already to his credit.

Roadster bests juvenile champion Game Winner in the 2019 GI Santa Anita Derby | Benoit

“We had been competing with Airdrie for years on the same stallion prospects and we kind of have the same mentality when it comes to picking stallions,” O'Farrell explained. “So rather than competing with one another, we've started to partner up on certain stallions. We had Girvin, and now we have Win Win Win (Hat Trick {Jpn}) and we're adding Roadster. We both support the horses with nice mares and it's been a great partnership. We couldn't be more excited to partner with this group with Roadster and get him off to a really good start.”

During his career, Roadster came just short of reaching one million in earnings, defeating juvenile champion Game Winner in the Santa Anita Derby and coming home with additional Grade I placings in the Del Mar Futurity at two and the Malibu S. behind Omaha Beach at three.

“To have a top-level son of Roadster is really exciting,” said O'Farrell. “He has a lot of pedigree, was a tremendous racehorse and has a very good physical. He's a typical Quality Road–kind of long and lean, but with a lot of quality. He's very athletic and well-balanced.”

Roadster is out of stakes winner Ghost Dancing (Silver Ghost), who is also the dam of GI Manhattan S. victor Ascend (Candy Ride {Arg}).

O'Farrell said that Roadster, who launches his career at $7,500, has been received enthusiastically by Florida breeders and will be booked full in just a few weeks.

Colonel Liam's retirement was announced just three weeks ago, but the millionaire has brought a steady stream of interested breeders since his arrival.

“The Colonel Liam deal came together really quickly for us right at the start of the breeding season,” O'Farrell explained. “It's giving us a boost coming into the season. A lot of breeders in Florida book their mares a little later, but we've had a lot of traffic and a lot of good feedback. People are really excited about him standing here in Florida.”

Colonel Liam did his best work in the Sunshine State, winning his first start on the Gulfstream dirt before switching to the turf and taking the Tropical Park Derby and back-to-back editions of the GI Pegasus World Cup Turf. His resume also includes victories in the 2021 GI Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic S. and the GII Muniz Memorial Classic S.

Gretzky the Great takes the 2020 GI Summer S. | Michael Burns

“I think that he's probably the best racehorse that we've stood at stud as far as accomplishments in a really long time,” O'Farrell said. “He's a three-time grade I winner on the turf, but he has a dirt pedigree. He's by champion dirt miler Liam's Map and is out of a Bernardini mare, so it gives you confidence that he could throw top-level runners on any surface. Even though he didn't run at two, he did have speed. He worked :20 4/5 at the OBS April Sale, so we have confidence that he could sire 2-year-olds and a lot of quality dirt runners.”

A $1.2 million juvenile for Robert and Lawana Low, Colonel Liam's second dam Wonder Again (Silver Hawk) was also a millionaire and multiple Grade I winner.

O'Farrell reported that the Lows are busy buying mares to support their new stallion, who will launch his stud career at a fee of $6,500.

The third member of Ocala Stud's new roster, Gretzky the Great, is another Grade I-winning turfer with a dirt pedigree. The 5-year-old is the first son of GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner and leading fourth-crop sire Nyquist to go to stud. He is out of the stakes-placed Bernardini mare Pearl Turn.

Campaigned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gary Barber, Gretzky the Great won the Soaring Free S. and GI Summer S. at two, earning the Sovereign Award for champion 2-year-old male in 2020. He went on to further stakes success in the Greenwood S. at three.

“He was a precocious, very classy individual,” O'Farrell said. “He has a dirt pedigree, which leads us to believe that he could be a very good sire of runners on either surfaces. He's a really good-looking horse and is by a sire line that I believe in. I think he's a really neat prospect for Florida breeders.”

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“A Mix of Speed and Stamina,” Olympiad Attracts Breeders at Gainesway

It's not often that a runner-up effort translates into a key selling point for a new stallion, but when that second-place finish comes behind a horse like Flightline, people take notice. Such has been the case for Olympiad (Speightstown – Tokyo Time, by Medaglia d'Oro), whose career finale in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic made him a standout in the 2023 class of incoming stallions.

Ryan Norton, who joined Gainesway as the farm's new stallion director a few weeks before the Breeders' Cup, explained how Olympiad's performance at Keeneland over fellow Grade I-winning Classic contenders Taiba, Rich Strike, Life Is Good and others led to a busy stretch of open houses at Gainesway as breeders were eager to inspect the multi-millionaire.

“The Breeders' Cup was the pinnacle of Olympiad's career,” Norton said. “It was a race that had breeders look at him and say, 'This is a real-deal horse.' I think that was the reason why he was such a success when he retired here. He had hundreds of people coming to view him and he was booked full within three weeks of his arrival.”

Certainly the campaign that Olympiad put together throughout his 4-year-old season was further incentive for inquiring breeders. A lightly-raced winner at both two and three, the Bill Mott trainee strung together five graded stakes scores in 2022, starting with a track-record setting win in the GIII Mineshaft S. and then continuing on with further victories in the GII New Orleans Classic S., the GII Alysheba S., the GII Stephen Foster S. and the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup S.

“Olympiad had a mix of speed and stamina,” Norton explained. “He won at seven furlongs and he won at a mile and a quarter. He ran eight triple-digit Beyers up to 111, so he was definitely a very fast horse and he could carry his speed. He had six wins from eight starts at four, plus a second in the Breeders' Cup Classic. To do that in this day and age with such a deep field of older horses in 2022 really showed the quality and perseverance that this horse had.”

Norton said that the members of Olympiad's partnership – Robert Clay's Grandview Equine, Everett Dobson's Cheyenne Stable and LNJ Foxwoods – have all submitted some of their best mares to Olympiad and that the new Gainesway stallion will breed between 185 and 200 mares in 2023.

With an initial stud fee of $35,000, Olympiad is one of seven stallions by Speightstown standing in Kentucky, but Norton explained that this particular son of the WinStar stalwart offers a unique opportunity for breeders.

“One of the main things that breeders have been saying is that he has a lot more size and a lot more scope that the typical Speightstown. That was something that I think they were very intrigued with. The mating can produce something that's going to be a little bigger and a little rangier, a horse that is going to be able to run short or long. He's 16'1, so you see a lot of Medaglia d'Oro, his broodmare sire, coming out.”

The Speightstown-Medaglia d'Oro cross has been a rewarding mating. Along with Olympiad, Speightstown's Grade I winners out of Medaglia d'Oro mares include Rock Fall and Competitionofideas. The cross has also produced Grade III victors Strike Power and Souper Stonehenge.

“It works well because you get the speed of Speightstown with the stamina of Medaglia,” Norton noted.

With a pedigree tracing back to Emory Hamilton's foundation mare Too Chic, Olympiad's extended family features a host of Grade I winners including sires Preservationist, Keen Ice, and Verrazano. His dam Tokyo Time, herself a turf success with a runner-up placing in the GIII Herecomesthebride S., is a half to MGSW Hungry Island (More Than Ready) and GSW Soaring Empire (Empire Maker).

“It's a very deep family which is why, between his looks and that female family, he was a $700,000 Keeneland September yearling,” Norton said. “Solis/Litt Bloodstock bought him and they're known for picking out very attractive horses, so breeders are aware when they come here that he is going to have a certain look that they are going to like. He's a great walker. He drops his head, really extends and has a nice overreach. Looking at the horse and how he moves, you understand exactly how he was such a good racehorse.”

Along with Olympiad, Gainesway also welcomes Drain the Clock (Maclean's Music – Manki, by Arch) to their roster for 2023. The speedy sprinter earned three graded stakes wins over his three-year career, including a victory over champion Jackie's Warrior in the 2021 GI Woody Stephens S. He will stand for $10,000 in his debut season.

For more on this year's class of incoming stallions, click here.

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GISW Fire At Will to Sequel New York for 2023

Breeders' Cup winner and recent Fasig-Tipton Digital sales stallion prospect Fire At Will (Declaration of War–Flirt, by Kitten's Joy) has officially been retired and will stand at Sequel New York near Hudson for the 2023 season.

The Three Diamonds Farm runner broke his maiden at second asking in Saratoga's With Anticipation S. at two while on the main track and quickly made it three in a row, taking the GII Pilgrim S. on Belmont's lawn prior to his victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland. He won the latter by three lengths, propelling him to the Eclipse Awards as a finalist for the 2-year-old champion male, eventually won by Essential Quality (Tapit).

“[Fire At Will] is absolutely the fastest 2-year-old I have ever trained on the turf,” said conditioner Mike Maker.

Fire At Will switched to the dirt again for his first start at three, finishing off the board in the GII Fountain of Youth S., then quickly rebounded to a third-place finish in Keeneland's GIII Transylvania S. on the grass. Fire At Will retires with a record of 6-3-0-1 and earnings of $675,932.

Bred in Kentucky by Troy Rankin, Fire At Will was purchased as a yearling at the 2019 Keeneland September sale by Three Diamonds Farm for $97,000. His dam is a half-sister to GISW Decorated Invader (Declaration of War) and they hail from the same family as successful sire Stormy Atlantic. Bidding for Fire At Will's digital sale closed Jan. 11.

“Recent Fasig-Tipton Digital sale graduate Fire At Will presents a great opportunity to breeders in New York,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “He was a brilliant Breeders' Cup winner at two and has an outstanding pedigree. Becky Thomas and her team at Sequel have added another really exciting stallion prospect for the 2023 breeding season.”

Fire At Will will be available for inspection at Sequel, along with fellow Sequel stallions Keepmeinmind, Honest Mischief, Freud, and Mission Impazible, this coming Saturday, Jan. 21, from 11 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. His fee for the upcoming season will be $6,000.

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Gone West Legacy Renewed at Mill Ridge with New Addition

After a short hiatus from the stallion business, Mill Ridge welcomed GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Oscar Performance to their farm in 2019. Four years later, they now add a second stallion to their roster in Aloha West (Hard Spun – Island Bound, by Speightstown), who claimed the 2021 GI Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Wayne Catalano.

With breeding shed doors opening soon, what has this newcomer's initial reception been like with breeders?

“A lot more positive than the Oscar Performance reception was,” said Price Bell with a laugh.

These days, Mill Ridge Farm's general manager is happy to joke about the challenge of launching an American turf horse's stud career if it means talking about Oscar Performance, who just received a fee bump from $12,500 to $20,000 after he wrapped up 2022 as the leading sire of all 2-year-olds on the turf by progeny earnings with his first crop.

As for Aloha West, the champion has drawn a steady stream of visitors at Mill Ridge after he retired to stud following this year's Breeders' Cup.

A son of Hard Spun, Aloha West is out of the Speightstown mare Island Bound, who won the 2012 GIII Winning Colors S. Bell said the new stallion has a physical that reflects both sides of his pedigree and will fit a variety of mares.

“Physically, he's a beautiful horse. Hard Spun is a son of Danzig, who is as influential of a sire line as there exists. Aloha West it from the family of Fappiano and then within that, you've got Speightstown, who is a son of Gone West out of a Storm Cat mare. I think the Speightstown side has really balanced him and polished him up. ”

Aloha West fulfills an important roll at Mill Ridge in carrying out the legacy of breed shaper Gone West, who joined Mill Ridge's first stallion Diesis at the farm in 1988 and went on to produce 98 stakes winners.

After the remarkable success of Gone West, whose sons and grandsons are influential on a global scale today, the farm added several more stallions that failed to follow in their predecessors' achievements.

“We were more active in the stallion business through the 1990s and the 2000s,” Bell explained. “We took on a strategy–and not a unique one–that we needed to retire a stallion every year. We stood Bien Bien, Valiant Nature, Binalong, and really a series of stallions that didn't work. I think at times we might have gotten over our skis in feeling like we had to stand a stallion and we got away from believing in a stallion. As the dust settled, our strategy changed because we couldn't afford to make mistakes. So we never felt like we were out of the stallion business, but rather that we were waiting for the right opportunity.”

That first opportunity came with Oscar Performance, who is the product of a Nicoma Bloodstock mating suggestion and was foaled and raised at Mill Ridge. Next came Gone West's descendant Aloha West.

“Our belief in him was the fundamental driver,” Bell said. “I think if we were to have learned anything after Gone West with the other stallions that we tried, it is that we have to get back to believing in the horse, his ability, his ability to become a stallion and the team around that horse.”

One chapter of Aloha West's story that Bell said they aim to impress upon breeders is that while the Maryland-bred did not race until he was four due to an injury that required surgery, he did have all the potential to be a top-class juvenile.

“Although he didn't race at two, you can look back at his works and see that he was putting in bullets at San Luis Rey and Santa Anita. So it would be easy to bypass that, but when you understand that he was a very good 2-year-old, and then he breaks his maiden at Oaklawn Park by making this big move passing horses around the turn, you think, 'Wow, that's a serious racehorse.'”

Purchased by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners shortly after that debut win, Aloha West won five of his nine starts in 2021. He was the runner-up in the GII Phoenix S. at Keeneland and then got his signature win in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, where he defeated the likes of champion Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) and MGISW Dr. Schivel (Violence). He furthered his success at five with a win in the Kelly's Landing S.

“He had a tremendous desire to win,” Bell said. “He was tough and fast and wanted to get to the finish line first. He ran speed figures comparable to Munnings and other great stallions, so that gives us the belief that he can pass that on to his offspring.”

Aloha West will stand for a fee of $10,000 in 2023. Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners has stayed in on the stallion and recently signed tickets on several mares at the Keeneland January Sale.

“Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners are our friends and clients that we hold in the highest regard,” Bell said. “Their motto is to believe big and he certainly achieved the highest results for their partners. For me, he is as exciting a sire at this price point that has come out in the last few years and we've had a positive reception not only from previous clients, but also from new clients. We feel so blessed because this is a game of hopes and dreams and we want to share it with as many people as possible. We're all in this together and we hope that we can launch a successful stallion career.”

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