Tag: Bloodstock

Fire At Will, winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf in 2020, will stand the 2023 season at Sequel Stallions New York in Hudson, N.Y. The 5-year-old son of Declaration of War will stand his first season for $6,000.

Fire At Will will be available for inspection during Sequel Stallions New York's open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at 167 Maple Lane in Hudson.

Campaigned by Three Diamonds Farm and trained by Mike Maker, Fire At Will won three of six starts and earned $675,932.

“He is absolutely the fastest 2-year-old I have ever trained on the turf,” Maker said.

Fire At Will bounced back from a troubled trip in his debut at Saratoga Race Course to win the $93,000 With Anticipation Stakes there less than a month later as a maiden over a sloppy and sealed surface. He showed his affinity for the grass with a 2-length victory in the Grade 2 Pilgrim Stakes at Belmont Park before a 3-length tally over an international field in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland Race Course.

Fire At Will, who topped the likes of Grade 1 winner Gretzky the Great and Grade 2 winners Mutasaabeq and Battleground in the Juvenile Turf, was an Eclipse Award finalist in the champion 2-year-old male category in 2020.

Fire At Will returned to the races in 2021 and contested the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes on dirt at Gulfstream Park before a third in the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes on grass in his final start at Keeneland.

Out of the Kitten's Joy mare Flirt, who sold in foal to Lemon Drop Kid for $500,000 at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale, Fire At Will was originally purchased by Three Diamonds for $97,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale. He was offered this month as a stallion prospect via Fasig-Tipton Digital.

“Recent Fasig-Tipton Digital Sale graduate Fire At Will presents a great opportunity to breeders in New York,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning Jr. “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 is the first foal out of Flirt, who is a half-sister to Pegasus World Cup Turf contender and Grade 1 winner Decorated Invader (by Declaration of War), stakes winner Jubliant Girl and stakes-placed Cabral. Flirt, who is also from the family of top sire Stormy Atlantic, is also the dam of the unraced 3-year-old Mendelssohn colt and $310,000 yearling Sacred Rhyme and a 2-year-old filly by Lemon Drop Kid that sold as a yearling for $210,000.

“This is, perhaps, the most powerful stallion family in the world today,” said pedigree expert Alan Porter.

The post Fire At Will To Enter Stud At Sequel New York In 2023 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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In the Thoroughbred realm, an active stallion returning to the racetrack is far outside the norm. However, the practice is becoming more common within the Standardbred breed, as columnist Brett Sturman describes in Harness Racing Update.

In his column, Sturman discussed a pair of active Standardbred stallions who have made their return to racing in recent months: Racing Hill, a 10-year-old who came back to the track after a seven-year absence; and Stag Party, the 2018 O'Brien Award winner as harness racing's champion 2-year-old male of 2018, who recently raced at the Meadowlands as a 7-year-old, coming back from a three-year layoff.

Horses as great as the mighty Bulldog Hanover have come back to the track after completing a season at stud in recent years, suggesting Racing Hill and Stag Party might tip closer to the rule than the exception.

While fertility issues are often a factor in a stallion's return to training, regardless of the breed, Sturman said economics can also play a part, noting that breeder interest in Stag Party had slowed to a trickle while he waits for his first runners to hit the track en masse. In the meantime, breeders had flocked to newer stallions with the goal of appealing to a commercial market ever-hungry for the newest thing.

“If horses can safely and ethically transition back into their first career as a racehorse and race somewhat relative to their former capabilities adjusted for age, then why not,” Sturman wrote in his column. “If anything, it continues to speak to the durability and resilience of the Standardbred breed.”

Read more at Harness Racing Update.

The post A Second First Career: Are Standardbred Stallions Trending Toward A Return To The Races? appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Darby Dan Farm's multiple graded stakes winner Modernist, a son of perennial leading sire Uncle Mo, sired his first reported foal on Sunday, Jan. 15 when a colt was born at Stonegate Stables in New York.

Bred by Stonegate Stables, the colt is produced from the Mineshaft mare Meteoric Matron, a full sister to multiple stakes winner Mine Over Matter and a half-sister to stakes-placed runners Chestertown Slew and Motor Patrol. This is also the family of Grade 1 winners Dream Empress and Prenup.

“This is a very strong colt, represents Modernist very well,” said Bill Johnson of Stonegate Stables. “He is what we hoped for and expected from a stallion by Uncle Mo out of a Bernardini mare. He is well stamped by the sire. The foaling went very well, and he got up quickly and already shows great strength.”

Stuart Fitzgibbon, stallion director at Darby Dan Farm, added, “We are very excited with the quality of Modernist's first foal, very strong and a great representative of his sire. Modernist is a very well-bred son of sire of sires Uncle Mo out of a Bernardini mare from a great Wygod family. We are grateful for the immense shareholder and breeder support of Modernist and look forward to more quality foals hitting the ground as the season progresses.”

Modernist enjoyed his best season as a sophomore at three in 2020. After dominating maiden special weight foes at Aqueduct, he followed that impressive wire-to-wire victory with a determined score in the $400,000 Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds in his first foray into stakes company. In another strong effort in his subsequent start, Modernist finished third in the $1 million G2 Louisiana Derby after a wide trip that saw him travel four to five-wide around the far turn.

In 2021, Modernist annexed the G3 Excelsior Stakes at Aqueduct and was runner-up in both the G3 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs and the G3 Pimlico Match Series Stakes, outfinishing six black type winners, including Grade 1 winner Max Player. All told, Modernist banked $576,300 while competing against the best of his generation.

A homebred for Martin and Pam Wygod and a son of the heralded Uncle Mo, Modernist descends from a prolific female family. He is produced from the unraced Bernardini mare Symbolic Gesture, a half-sister to both Sweet Catomine, champion 2-year-old filly and winner of the 2004 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, and Life Is Sweet, winner of the 2009 Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic and an earner of $1,820,810. Modernist's second dam is stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Sweet Life, Broodmare of the Year in 2009.

The post ‘What We Hoped For’: First Foal Is A Colt For Darby Dan’s Modernist appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Sequel Stallions New York will hold its 2023 Stallion Open House from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Stallion Barn located at 167 Maple Lane in Hudson, N.Y.

The 2023 roster is led by New York's most popular sire by number of mares bred in 2021 and 2022, the state's only son of four-time leading sire Into Mischief, Honest Mischief, who will stand for $6,500 LFSN.

The royally bred, precocious bay is New York's leading sire of weanlings in 2022 and will continue to be backed by a syndicate led by Sequel, with global powerhouse Juddmonte Farm in support.

New to Sequel's roster for 2023 is Laoban's Grade 2-winning and multiple Grade 1-placed Keepmeinmind. An earner of $903,237, Keepmeinmind retires with the full support of the ownership group having already committed 25 top mares, including Better Not Cry, the daughter of $14 million broodmare purchase and Grade 2 winner Better Than Honour (in foal to Medaglia d'Oro) and Grade 1 winner and $1.3 million broodmare Diplomat Lady (in foal to Vino Rosso).

Multiple leading sire Freud and Mission Impazible will stand the 2023 season privately. Freud is New York's leading sire by lifetime earnings and lifetime number of black-type winners and is the versatile full brother to Giant's Causeway. He has lifetime progeny earnings of more than $70 million. Unbridled's Song's Grade 1-performing millionaire Mission Impazible has progeny earnings of more than $12 million dollars with 46 percent winners.

“We want to give our breeders a chance to be profitable,” said Sequel owner Becky Thomas. “The recent sales in Kentucky have clearly demonstrated breeding in Kentucky does not guarantee a profit. The lower stallion fees, no transportation or boarding costs coupled with the lucrative purse structure NYRA offers and resulting awards will give our breeders the best opportunity.”

The 2023 Sequel New York roster:
Freud – Private
Honest Mischief – $6,500 LFSN
Keepmeinmind –  $6,500 LFSN
Mission Impazible – Private

Multiple mare discounts are available as well as incentives for repeat breeders.

The post Sequel New York Unveils 2023 Advertised Fees, Announces Stallion Show appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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