elliott walden | Horse Racing Free Tips

Their New Kentucky Homes: When Veteran Stallions Move To The Bluegrass State

Sooner or later, just about every important North American stallion ends up in Kentucky. Some just take longer to get there than others.

For some, moving to a Kentucky farm from a regional or international market is akin to a minor league prospect being called up to the majors after proving he can improve the mares in his state to produce important national runners. For others, the relocation is more transactional, with stallions moving to and from different outposts residing under the same umbrella.

Names as influential as Mr. Prospector, Fappiano, and Saint Ballado got their starts in Florida, while City Zip entered stud in New York before moving to Lane's End in Kentucky, and Malibu Moon saw his first breakthrough as a Maryland resident.

Today's stallion landscape is dotted with plenty of horses who earned their places on Kentucky rosters by proving themselves elsewhere.

Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa has a couple transplants in Kantharos, who stood his first six seasons in Florida; and Stormy Atlantic, who started his career at Florida's Bridlewood Farm. WinStar Farm has Congrats, who moved to the Bluegrass State after his first Florida-sired 2-year-olds hit the track. Buck Pond Farm brought young New York stallion V. E. Day south in 2018, while Taylor Made Stallions brought Daddy Long Legs north from Chile in 2019 after he was named that country's leading juvenile sire.

This year's class of notable incoming transfer sires is an eclectic one, both in terms of background and the reason why they were brought to the state, but the goal remains unflinching: Take advantage of Kentucky's unparalleled broodmare reserves to further improve their stock at stud.

The highest-profile transfer for 2021 is Laoban, a son of Uncle Mo who began his career at Sequel New York, and had three juveniles from his first crop enter Breeders' Cup races, including Grade 1 winner Simply Ravishing. He was moved to WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., for the 2021 breeding season, where he will stand for an advertised fee of $25,000.

“It's a new venture,” said WinStar Farm's Elliott Walden. We're extremely excited about Laoban, and feel like the kind of success he's had out of the mare quality in New York, and what you'd typically get in a regional market, would bode well for his future here in Kentucky. I know the mares that we've got marked for him so far…speaking with Becky Thomas (of Sequel New York), she said they were all better than anything he's ever bred in his career. He's going to get a big move up in mares, and it's going to hopefully be a real positive for him.”

Though Laoban is the first transfer stallion WinStar has picked up in recent memory (Congrats spent time at Vinery's Kentucky base before moving to WinStar), Walden said his team makes an annual scan of the regional stallion markets to see if anyone's stock is rising too quickly to deny.

“It's not something new,” he said. “You're always looking for the next stallion that moves up his mares, and Laoban has done that.”

Ashford Stud reached out even further to add a new member to its roster for 2021, moving Group 1 winner Caravaggio from its Irish base. He will stand for $25,000.

“He was raised here at Ashford Stud, and he was such an exceptional horse,” said Ashford's Charlie O'Connor. “Being by Scat Daddy out of an American mare (Mekko Hokte, by Holy Bull), we just thought it would be a good move to bring him back and give the American breeders a chance to breed to him. So far, he's been very well-received.”

This is a familiar move for the Coolmore operation, which also started Giant's Causeway and Declaration of War in Ireland before moving them stateside. Caravaggio stood his first two seasons in Ireland, putting him in the unique position of having yearlings to show potential breeders in his new locale, but no racetrack results.

O'Connor said Caravaggio's case was advanced by a strong performance at this year's Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The stallion had seven yearlings go through the ring at the sale for an average price of $212,833, led by a $400,000 filly.

“They showcased themselves at the September sales,” O'Connor said. “There was a number of them on the grounds, so a number of American breeders saw them, and liked what they saw. Wesley Ward was one in particular who bought one.”

Also moving to Kentucky in 2021 is leading Washington sire Atta Boy Roy, who will stand at War Horse Place in Lexington for a fee of $7,500. The 15-year-old Tribunal horse sent Bodenheimer to this year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint and he's seen national success with the well-traveled Mr. Jagermeister.

Both horses are trained by Valorie Lund, who also conditioned Grade 2 winner Atta Boy Roy during his own on-track career. Lund recently purchased her former star runner with her sister, prompting the move.

In the past, War Horse Place brought in Kitalpha, a full-brother to Kingmambo, after standing his first six seasons in Zimbabwe, where he became the country's perennial leading sire.

War Horse Place's Dana Aschinger said comparing a stallion with runners in Zimbabwe and South Africa might seem like apples to oranges when stacked against American runners, but talent and speed are universal.

“When Kitalpha had the first four finishers in [the G3 Zimbabwe Guineas], my husband (the late Gerry Aschinger) always said 'There's still 60 seconds in a minute,'” Dana Aschinger said. “They're running the same times there that they are here.”

Kitalpha sired multiple graded stakes winner Martini Glass after moving stateside. He died of cancer at age 13.

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Tom’s D’Etat And The Stud Deal That Could Have Changed Everything

Tom's d'Etat was one of three horses that stepped off the van at the WinStar Farm stallion complex on Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after each ran in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland just a few miles away.

For his two fellow passengers, a future at WinStar Farm was practically guaranteed as soon as they jumped through the proper hoops to warrant a stud career. Improbable and Global Campaign, second and third respectively in the Classic, both had run under the WinStar colors, so standing at the farm was the next logical step. For Tom's d'Etat, a future at WinStar marks an incredible reversal of fortune from one that could have seen him begin his stud career in relative obscurity.

Looking back at his full body of work, a major Kentucky farm seems like a logical destination for Tom's d'Etat. An earner of more than $1.7 million, he established himself as one of the top runners of the older male division in 2020, and he carried over the momentum from a win in the Grade 1 Clark Stakes last year. Being what will likely be the final top-level son by his late sire Smart Strike to enter stud certainly doesn't hurt, either, joining the likes of Curlin, English Channel, Lookin At Lucky, and Dominus among Kentucky's stallion ranks.

In the summer of 2017, Tom's d'Etat was none of those things, besides a son of Smart Strike. He was a dependable 4-year-old allowance-level runner for the Benson family's G M B Racing and trainer Al Stall, Jr., but after missing his juvenile season due to injury and needing a few tries to break his maiden in the fall of his 3-year-old campaign, a future as a serious Kentucky stallion prospect seemed like a pipe dream.

Tom's d'Etat was trending in the right direction during that year's Saratoga meet, and he was being pointed toward the G1 Woodward Stakes after winning an optional claiming race by nine lengths.

That optional claimer would be the final race of Tom's d'Etat's 2017 campaign. An emerging cannon bone fracture derailed a planned graded stakes debut in the G1 Woodward Stakes, and he went dormant for 15 months after having two screws put in his right front leg.

When his future as an on-track competitor was still murky, Stall and his team wanted to make sure their well-blooded loyal soldier had a future lined up for him after the races.

“There was a time when I was going to give him to the starter at Churchill and Keeneland, Scott Jordan, who has a farm in Indiana [Breakway Farm in Dillsboro, Ind.] – give him to him – and he said, 'I'll hustle up some mares. We don't have any Smart Strike blood in Indiana,'” Stall said. “Then, for whatever reason, everything started staying together on him, and he finally got to prove the kind of talent we always thought he was.”

He'd have been a solid addition to the Breakway Farm roster, but far from its most proven member on the racetrack. In 2020, Grade 1 winners Calculator and Turbo Compressor, Grade 3 winner Charming Kitten, and Grade 1-placed Greeley's Conquest resided in their stud barn.

Tara Mathias, manager of Breakway Farm and Jordan's daughter, said the arrangement never got further than conversations as a contingency plan if Tom's d'Etat couldn't make it back from his injury, and ink was never put to paper over it. There were no hard feelings when the horse went on to achieve what he did and move higher up ladder as a stallion prospect, though having a horse with Grade 1 talent in him slip away from the farm's grasp was a downer.

“Al's exercise rider at the time said he was a really nice horse, and was probably going to retire, and he'd be a good fit in Indiana,” Mathias said, “Then, he just kept winning and winning, and got better and better. They just didn't know how he was going to come back from it, and he didn't have enough under his belt to make him a huge hit in Kentucky. He'd be big in our small pond.”

Normally, a layoff of that duration is enough to retire an older horse, but Tom's d'Etat rewarded the patience of his connections by retaining his up-and-coming form when he returned. Horse racing is a sport full of diverging paths, and the decision to keep Tom's d'Etat in training ultimately created a seven-figure swing in on-track earnings, with the added ripple effects tied to all the graded black type that would have gone to someone else, the money spent and earned in a major Kentucky stud deal, and all the mares he will see in 2021 and beyond.

Tom's d'Etat raced twice at five, culminating in his first stakes triumph in the Tenacious Stakes at the Fair Grounds. He was overmatched in his first try against graded stakes competition in the G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes, but he came back after a spring freshening to finish second in the G2 Alysheba Stakes and third in the G2 Stephen Foster Stakes.

From that point on, Tom's d'Etat was in the mix against the best in his division – often as the oldest horse in the field. He finished his 6-year-old campaign with victories in the G2 Fayette Stakes and G1 Clark Stakes, then he racked up wins this year in the Oaklawn Mile Stakes and G2 Stephen Foster Stakes this year at age seven.

In July, following his 4 1/4-length Stephen Foster victory, WinStar Farm revealed it had secured Tom's d'Etat's breeding rights when he retired to stud. From a horse that was perhaps one relapsed injury away from going to stud as a giveaway, Tom's d'Etat had become a blue-chip prospect recruited by one of Kentucky's top stallion operations.

Tom's d'Etat came up empty in his swan song, finishing out of the money in the Breeders' Cup Classic, but Stall said there was never a doubt that he belonged in the race, and amongst the best in his division.

“I'm very, very biased, but I thought he was the best looking horse in the field in the Classic,” he said. “He was moving really well. I just think those two races this summer back-to-back, the Foster and the Whitney, maybe were just enough for him at this age. That would just be my guess, because he was giving us every indication he was going fine, but he's a smart old boy, and maybe that was one of the contributing factors.”

So now, three years after his future looked to be in Indiana, Tom's d'Etat could realistically fit nearly half the Hoosier State's broodmare population into his projected debut book at stud. He'll stand for $17,500 in his debut season, and in addition to his graded-level success, WinStar Farm's Elliott Walden was quick to note that he's got a stallion's family under him.

“Being by Smart Strike, from the family of Candy Ride, that's two proven stallions,” Walden said. “He moves with a very lengthy stride, full of quality. He has the length of a Candy Ride, Smart Strike kind of look to him; similar to Lookin At Lucky, just a long, two-turn type horse.”

Plenty of words have been written at this point about the “win now” mentality of the commercial stallion market, and a prospect that didn't race at two and didn't win until the fall of his 3-year-old season might give some pause about what kind of precociousness Tom's d'Etat may or may not pass on to his foals.

Stall said the horse's slow start was more about bad luck and bad timing than him not being ready for the races.

“He would have have probably broken his maiden in his second start during the Keeneland fall meet, like Blame did as a 2-year-old,” Stall said, projecting his talent had he stayed healthy. “I just breezed him one day at Churchill Downs, and everything was fine with him, then something just flaked off and cost us a year. It wasn't like he was some big horse that didn't know what he was doing. A few things just started adding up. It wouldn't surprise me if he got a typier, smaller horse that would be a decent fall 2-year-old. That's the fun of it. It takes a bit of patience, but that's okay.”

Sunday's transition from the racetrack to the stud barn was a familiar one for Stall, who sent Blame on a van from Churchill Downs to Claiborne Farm ten years earlier after the colt shocked the world to best Zenyatta and win the Breeders' Cup Classic.

In the time between, Stall said he has been fascinated seeing what types of mares worked and didn't work when matched with Blame. Now, he's got another stallion to watch and theorize on matings, and based on the page under Tom's d'Etat and the multi-surface success of Smart Strike, he has at least one outside-the-box idea before the breeding season begins.

“Theoretically, there should be some grass there, even though we tried him on grass, and he did literally everything but stop and graze the day we ran him on it,” he said. “Blame's a good grass sire and he never set foot on the grass.”

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Breeders’ Cup Contenders Arrive at WinStar Farm

LEXINGTON,KY– Just over 12 hours after the trio’s contention for the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic, Improbable (City Zip), Global Campaign (Curlin) and Tom’s d’Etat (Smart Strike) made the short trip from Keeneland to WinStar Farm, where they will soon take up stud duty for the 2021 breeding season.

“We’re really excited with Improbable, Global Campaign and Tom’s d’Etat coming to the stallion barn,” said WinStar’s Elliott Walden. “They all look good-their color was good, they didn’t look too drawn up and they got off the van and acted like they’d been here their whole life.”

One member of the trio-Global Campaign-may not yet be done with his racetrack career, as Walden hinted he could be pointed for the January 23 $3 million GI Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park.

“We’re considering running him back in the Pegasus,” he said. “We’re going to leave him here for 10 days and evaluate him. I felt like he ran well enough in the Classic to merit that and add a bit more to his resume. So we’re going to watch for 10 days and we might send him back to [trainer] Stanley [Hough] and run him in the Pegasus.”

Global Campaign is a homebred for WinStar Farm out of the A.P. Indy mare Globe Trot. He’s been campaigned by WinStar in partnership with Sagamore Farm over his two-year career, and scored graded stakes wins in the GIII Monmouth Cup S. and the GI Woodward H.

“He’s a horse that we raised out of a great mare that is also the dam of Grade I winner Bolt d’Oro (Medaglia d’Oro) and stakes winner Sonic Mule (Distorted Humor),” Walden said. “His race record has a high winning percentage, and to win the Woodward this year is really exciting as well.”

Global Campaign ran third in the Breeders’ Cup grand finale, while Improbable ran second behind his Bob Baffert stablemate Authentic (Into Mischief). Tom’s d’Etat could not overcome a troubled start and finished ninth.

“It didn’t quite turn out the way we wanted, but we’re very proud of Improbable and Global Campaign’s efforts,” Walden said. “I think Tom’s d’Etat may have been just a little bit over the top at age seven, but we’re excited about the next chapter for all of them.”

The seven-year-old Tom’s d’Etat has been a winner each year of his five-year career for trainer Al Stall, and this season the veteran won the Oaklawn Mile S. and the GII Stephen Foster S.

“Tom’s d’Etat is a very high-class horse by Smart Strike out of the family of Candy Ride (Arg). His numbers over the last three years, every time we looked at stallion prospects, his numbers would stand out. He is a phenomenal specimen, good length and great movement. I loved the way he moved on the racetrack, loved the way he is so level and could change gears and get there in a hurry. When we made the offer to buy him, [current WinStar stallions] Distorted Humor and Speightstown came to mind. Distorted Humor came to stud at age six and Speightstown was seven. So if he can turn out to be half of what they are, we’ll be in great shape.”

Improbable had a stand-out four-year-old season in 2020, collecting three consecutive Grade I races in the Hollywood Gold Cup S., Whitney S., and Awesome Again S.

“We’re really excited about Improbable,” Walden said. “The balance and size that he has is going to make him a really great fit for a lot of mares. He’s full of quality and he has great motion. All of those things that I think are important as we think about soundness and consistency, Improbable had all of that.”

Improbable’s stud fee is currently set at $40,000, although subject to change, while Tom’s d’Etat and Global Campaign’s stud fees have not yet been announced.

The trio will join Grade I-winning millionaire Promises Fulfilled (Shackleford) as WinStar’s freshman sires for the upcoming season.

“We’re really excited with all three of them,” Walden said. “To add them to Promises Fulfilled, who we retired earlier in the year, we couldn’t be more excited by our stallions we’re bringing to WinStar this year.”

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Jackie’s Warrior on Track for Juvenile

J Kirk and Judy Robison’s Jackie’s Warrior (Maclean’s Music), likely favorite for Friday’s GI TVG Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, was among nine Steve Asmussen trainees aiming for championship weekend to work at Keeneland Sunday morning. The undefeated 2-year-old went four furlongs in :48.80 (9/25).

“He had a nice, easy half-mile,” Asmussen said. “I thought he moved well over the race track. The circumstances were excellent today. We’re very excited about running him on Friday.”

Sunday’s work was Jackie’s Warrior second over the Keeneland surface. He also went five furlongs in 1:00.20 (3/41) Oct. 25. The bay colt is now four for four following wins in the Aug. 7 GII Saratoga Special S., Sept. 7 GI Hopeful S. and Oct. 10 GI Champagne S.

“I think what gave us the most confidence was his Champagne, two brilliant races at Saratoga and for him to carry that over to another surface [at Belmont Park]–and he looked brilliant doing it,” Asmussen said. “This will be his first two-turn race. He is very speed-influenced in his pedigree, but physically and mentally he is doing exceptional.”

Assmusen has three horses pre-entered for the GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint and, while Nashville (Speightstown) wore his Sprint towel while working three furlongs in :36.40 (2/10), the lightly raced colt is also pre-entered in the GI Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and is nominated to Saturday’s Perryville S. on the Breeders’ Cup undercard.

“Everything’s on the table.” WinStar Farm President and CEO Elliott Walden said of options for Nashville. “He’s an extreme talent. He’s only three. He’s only run twice. It seems like a big ask to run against the accomplished sprinters that he would have to run against. Not that he wouldn’t be capable. I think he’ll go a mile. I think he’ll use his speed to stretch out as well naturally. We’ll see how it goes. Great problem to have. Blessed to have him.”

Nashville was tabbed a ‘TDN Rising Star’ following an 11 1/2-length debut romp going 6 1/2 furlongs at Saratoga Sept. 22 and added a 9 1/4-length victory in a six-furlong allowance at Keeneland Oct. 10.

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