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Champion Game Winner Retired To Lane’s End For 2021

Lane's End Farm announced today that undefeated champion 2-year-old and graded-stakes winning 3-year-old Game Winner has been retired from racing and will stand the 2021 season at Lane's End.

Game Winner, who has earned over $2 million from four graded stakes wins, is the second-highest-earning colt by perennial leading sire and Lane's End stallion Candy Ride. During his championship 2-year-old season, Game Winner went unbeaten with victories in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, G1 American Pharoah Stakes and G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.

As a 3-year-old, Game Winner ran a terrific race in the Kentucky Derby, finishing fifth beaten by just over three lengths. That same year, his graded stakes performances featured second-place finishes in the G2 Rebel Stakes and G1 Santa Anita Derby. He was most recently seen winning the G3 Los Alamitos Derby.

“As a 2-year-old he was just phenomenal, he really brought it to that championship level,” said Bob Baffert. “To do what he did really showed that he was the best of the best. Candy Ride was a brilliant racehorse and he throws brilliance, and with Game Winner, the minute he showed that brilliance I knew we had something special.”

Game Winner broke his maiden at first asking at Del Mar, dominating the field by 5 3/4 lengths. This dominating performance gave his connections the confidence to target the G1 Del Mar Futurity just 16 days later. The win would become the first of three Grade 1 victories as a 2-year-old, as he later took the G1 American Pharoah Stakes posting a 97 Beyer and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile by almost three lengths. After an unbeaten 2-year-old season that included three Grade 1 victories, he was rightly crowned champion 2-year-old male. In doing so, Game Winner joined an elite list of just three colts to win three or more North American Grade 1 races as a 2-year-old in the past 20 years.

“Champion 2-year-olds make great sires,” said Bill Farish. “Street Sense, Uncle Mo, American Pharoah, and now Nyquist looks very promising. All were the very best of their generation and now are among the elite stallions in America. Game Winner dominated in his championship year and was a graded-stakes winner at three. He is a champion from the immediate family of a champion, so we are honored that Gary and Mary West have entrusted Lane's End with his stallion career. “

Game Winner started his 3-year-old career with back-to-back second-place finishes in the G2 Rebel Stakes, beaten by a nose by Omaha Beach, and the G1 Santa Anita Derby. His next start came in the Kentucky Derby where he was a fast-finishing fifth after getting knocked hard out of the gates and being as far back as seventeenth at the halfway point of the race. He finished just over three lengths behind the winner and earned the highest Thorograph figure of .25 of the field. His final 3-year-old start was a dominating five-length win in the G3 Los Alamitos Derby.

“Mary and I have been excited about Game Winner since the day Ben Glass bought him for us at Keeneland,” said Gary West. “These special horses are so hard to come by and to have a champion means everything to us. I am so pleased he will stand at Lane's End and I plan on supporting him extensively as I have with my other stallions, alongside the superior group of shareholders they have put together. This includes Alpha Delta, Summer Wind Farm, SF Bloodstock, Mt. Brilliant Farm, Sea Horse Breeders, West Point and St. Elias. They are among the best breeders in America and undoubtedly will support him and contribute greatly to his chances to be a successful stallion.”

Bred in Kentucky by Summer Wind Farm, Game Winner is out of the A.P. Indy mare Indyan Giving who has also produced graded-stakes winner Flagstaff. His second dam is champion Fleet Indian who won five graded stakes and earned over $1 million. To date, his sire Candy Ride has produced 16 Grade 1 winners and is the fourth-leading active sire by lifetime earnings.

Game Winner will be available for inspection in the coming weeks and a stud fee will be determined.

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Bloodlines Presented By Gary Contessa’s Integrity Bloodstock: A Banner Night For Adcock Family’s Red River Farm

In the Louisiana Cup series at Louisiana Downs over the weekend, one breeder's named came up again and again. Jay Adcock, who operates Red River Farm in northwestern Louisiana, was co-breeder of four of the six winners and stood the sire of a fifth.

The Red River Farm stallion Bind (by Pulpit) is now deceased, but he swept the juvenile stakes with Mirabeau and Chu Chu's Legacy; Is Too (Midshipman) won the Louisiana Cup Distaff; and Budro Talking (Tale of Ekati) won the Louisiana Cup Turf Classic. Farm stallion Calibrachoa is the sire of Saltee Stark, winner of the Louisiana Cup Sprint.

Adcock, contacted while working with horses at the farm, said that the weekend successes were “kind of surreal. You don't just get up in the morning and think, 'I'm going to be involved with four or five of the winners today.' That's not how this game works.”

Due to work on the farm and COVID-19 restrictions, Adcock's son Brandon represented the farm at Louisiana Downs for the Cup races.

“Realistically,” the younger Adcock said, “From nine horses that Red River bred or co-bred entered in the six races, it looked like we had a real good chance to win one. The Bind filly Mirabeau looked like our best chance of winning, then Budro Talking because he'd had some tough luck. Mirabeau is pretty nice. She looks like the best 2-year-old in Louisiana right now.”

In contrast to the juvenile filly Mirabeau (by Bind), who can do no wrong, the 5-year-old gelding Budro Talking (Tale of Ekati) could find trouble in a walkover. Jay Adcock said, “Budro Talking has had bad luck, and [trainer Karl] Broberg got frustrated and entered him for $17,500, and this kid [trainer Keith Austen] claimed him. [Broberg] didn't think anyone would claim the old horse, but this kid raced him twice and has now won both,” including the Louisiana Cup Turf Classic.

A winner of eight races from 24 starts and $221,184, Budro Talking had not won a stakes since he was a 2-year-old but has become a popular horse on the Louisiana racing circuit. It was not always so.

“I gave Budro away” at the yearling sale, co-breeder Hume Wornall said. “That was the only way to get the colt a new home. At the Fasig-Tipton October sale, Michael Netherland had bought another Louisiana-bred colt from me, and then this colt [Budro Talking] couldn't get a bid. Netherland took him, sold him as a 2-year-old for $20,000 at the Texas sale of 2-year-olds in training, and he's been in half the barns in Louisiana since then. Watching Budro race, you gotta love him. The horse likes firm grass and has one run; he slings wide and hauls down the stretch.

“The boy that has Budro Talking now is a young trainer and he's the fellow's first stakes winner; so he's probably got a life home there, and he's only a 5-year-old,” Wornall continued.

One of the benefits of the Louisiana-bred program is that even if a breeder has to give away a yearling, he might make some money if the horse is a good racer. Brandon Adcock said that “even a small breeder who has a limited financial window can breed a nice horse, and even if it sells for a loss at the sales, then there's a chance make a profit if the horse succeeds at the racetrack. There's a financial incentive to breed a nice horse, even if it's not a profitable sales horse.

“Three of our four horses that won Louisiana Cup races brought real modest sales prices,” the younger Adcock continued. “Budro didn't make a sales horse; the two 2-year-olds, [Mirabeau, Louisiana Cup Juvenile Fillies; Chu Chu's Legacy, Lousiana Cup Juvenile], were by our stallion Bind, and neither of those was a big price at the yearling sales.”

Mirabeau was a $5,000 yearling who has now won four of five starts and earned $105,350; Chu Chu's Legacy brought only $4,000 as a yearling; he's now won three of four starts, $90,800. The fourth Adcock-bred winner was Is Too, who was a private sale.

Brandon Adcock noted that “Mirabeau was a nice yearling, and when I saw her this weekend at Lousiana Downs, I could see that she has grown into a beautiful filly. She looks a little bigger than Chu Chu, and both are a lot like their sire, Bind. He was the nicest stallion that I've ever been around. He was bred and raced by Claiborne Farm and had the best manners you could imagine. He was easy to handle around mares, the vet, the farrier. Nothing fazed him, and he was powerful, big stallion. He could have been a bear if he'd wanted to.

“Unfortunately, we had to put him down because of complications from a snakebite. Two or three years ago, the vets thought that a snake had bit Bind on a leg, and we sent him to the clinic. They were able to improve the situation some, but we had to keep his leg bandaged. He was such a generous individual that he let us do whatever we needed to do to help him, but eventually, he developed laminitis, and the only solution was euthanasia.”

Even without the fine young sire, Red River Farm has plenty to continue with in the dams of the four Louisiana Cup winners. Smittystown (Speightstown), dam of Mirabeau, has a Mo Tom foal of 2020 and was bred back to Maximus Mischief. Bond's Babe (Johannesburg), dam of Chu Chu's Legacy, has a Mo Tom filly and was bred back to Tapiture. American Placed (Quiet American), the dam of Budro Talking, has a Good Samaritan and was bred back to Takeover Target. Tensas Salt (Salt Lake), the dam of Is Too, has a Broken Vow and was not bred in 2020 after seven foals in a row.

Jay Adcock said, “I'm going to breed those mares that went out of state this year to a stallion here in Louisiana, and those will go to one of my stallions,” such as Takeover Target (Harlan's Holiday) or Grade 1 winner El Deal (Munnings). The breed-back rule for Louisiana has recently been changed so that breeders will be able to take mares to out-of-state stallions every year, rather than the previous every-other year option.

Breeders such as Adcock, who stand stallions as well as raise state-bred racing prospects, are uncertain what the future holds for that part of their breeding operations. But for today, the Adcock family and their Red River Farm will bask in the bright sunshine of the winner's circle in front of the home folks.

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Fasig-Tipton Announces COVID-19 Safety Protocols For Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale

In advance of the upcoming Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale in Timonium, Fasig-Tipton has announced the following COVID-19 protocols will be in place in accordance with Maryland regulations:

Screening measures, including temperature checks and health screening questions, will be in place to gain admittance to the sales grounds for all staff, participants and attendees;
Cloth face coverings are required in accordance with U.S. CDC recommendations;
Participants will not be allowed to congregate. At least six feet of distance must be maintained between people;

Seating capacity in the sales pavilion will be reduced below 75 percent of capacity;
No food service will be available in the sales pavilion;
Valet parking will not be available;
Increased cleaning and disinfection procedures will be implemented with regular sanitation of high touch surfaces at least every two hours;
Frequent hand washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds is recommended for all attendees;

The health and safety of sale participants is of paramount importance. These guidelines are intended as a supplement to assist with safe operations during the COVID-19 pandemic and are subject to change.

The Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale will be held on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 5-6, at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, Md.

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Steady Trade Produces $500,000 Karakontie Colt On Tuesday At Keeneland September Sale

Marsha Naify paid $500,000 for a colt by Karakontie to top a day of active commerce during Tuesday's ninth day of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale

Naify also acquired two fillies, one by Jimmy Creed for $35,000 and the other from the first crop of Gormley for $30,000. She the session's leading buyer with a total of three purchases for $565,000.

The $500,000 colt, consigned by Gainesway, agent, is the first foal out of the Speightstown mare Untouch, a half-sister to recent Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve third-place finisher Mr. Big News. The colt is from the family of Canadian Horse of the Year Glorious Song, Eclipse Award winner Devil's Bag and Grade 2 winner Saint Ballado.

Gainesway sold a total of 29 horses for $1,337,000 to lead consignors on Tuesday.

A total of 253 yearlings sold for $6,484,100 during the session, for an average of $25,629 and a median of $15,000. With three days remaining in the 12-day sale, Keeneland has sold a total of 1,773 horses for $230,574,800, for an average of $130,048 and a median of $60,000.

On Tuesday, Solis/Litt paid the session's second-highest price of $240,000 for a filly by Jimmy Creed out of the Malibu Moon mare On Reflection. Consigned by Woods Edge Farm, agent, she is from the family of Grade 1 winner Rutherienne and Grade 3 winners Adorable Micol, Adcat, Ruthenia and Oiseau de Feu.

D.J. Stables spent $240,000 on a colt by Speightster who is a half-brother to Grade 2 winner Hotshot Anna. Consigned by Beau Lane Bloodstock, agent for Paul Tackett, he is out of the winning, stakes-placed mare Avalos, by Holy Bull.

The September Sale continues Wednesday and runs through Friday with all sessions beginning at 10 a.m.

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