Tag: Ken and Sarah Ramsey

General Partner Stakes his Claim of the Saratoga Winner’s Enclosure

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In his second career start Saturday, General Partner (Speightstown) was really ready for prime time at Saratoga Race Course.

While it wasn't exactly a led-from-gate-to-wire performance, General Partner was in front quickly under Manny Franco. He was never seriously challenged and won the seven-furlong maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds a solid four lengths in front of the favorite Dive Bomber (Omaha Beach). Klaravich Stables's chestnut colt reached the wire in 1:22.33.

General Partner debuted for trainer Chad Brown at six furlongs on July 22 and after being prominent early ended up fourth, beaten 2 ¾ lengths.

“We really liked the horse first time out and in hindsight when he came back from running I could see how hard he was blowing. I ran him a couple of works short,” Brown said. “I was eager to run him because he had so much ability and I actually jumped the gun a little bit putting him in.”

With Klaravich owner Seth Klarman watching, General Partner broke his maiden with a flashy performance.

“It all worked out in the end,” Brown said, “because he got a race that he needed and got the last bit of fitness that he needed for a race rather than a couple more works and we were able to run him back at the meet and be successful today.”

General Partner, out of the Distorted Humor mare Fleeting Humor, was bred by Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey and the Speightstown Syndicate. He paid $9.30 as the second choice in the wagering.

Brown said he expected General Partner to be on the lead, but not in the way that the race unfolded. He came out of Post 3 a step slow and appeared to brush with the horse to his inside.

“He didn't break that well and Manny made a key decision to go up in the lead,” Brown said. “I'm not sure I actually would have done that when he broke bad because he looked like he was going to be in a nice, cozy stalking spot. Manny used excellent judgement. That was really the difference in the race. He kept him clean the whole way.”

General Partner and Franco turned in split times of 22.74, 45.92 and 1:09.87. Without any real pressure, they got the final eighth in 12.46.

While Brown said a stake might be General Partner's next start, he did not commit to a specific race.

“There's been some really good-looking maidens this meet – I've been very impressed – that aren't mine,” he said.  “When you look at a horse like this, you look at a race like the (GI) Champagne S. This year, when you say that, you better know that if these horses all stay healthy this is going to be a real race if some of them end up there. This is not a meet where there's been like one Jack Christopher (Munnings) debut or something like that. There's been a handful of ones I can just think of right now that have been super-impressive to my eye. I'm just happy to have one of them.”

 

7th-Saratoga, $105,000, Msw, 9-2, 2yo, 7f, 1:22.33, ft, 4 lengths.
GENERAL PARTNER (c, 2, Speightstown–Fleeting Humor, by Distorted Humor) finished fourth in what was a loaded maiden special contest July 22 behind well-met Valentine Candy (Justify) but ahead of returning rival Dive Bomber (Omaha Beach), who was crowned the 8-5 favorite between the two. Jostled at the start by an inner horse coming out, he recovered quickly to set a pressured pace from the public's choice to his outside and had taken firm command six furlongs out. Tucking closer to the rail though the bend and bracing for a pair of challengers, he straightened for home with a clear lead heading passed the eighth pole. Despite moving out late from the left hand stick, General Partner came home four lengths best over Dive Bomber. A half-sibling to a fleet of accomplished runners including  Seventhfleethumor (Afleet Alex), GSP, $133,785; Naughty Joker (Into Mischief), SW, $176,403; and Cathedral Reader (Shackleford), SP, $174,795, the victor is the first to the races after a couple years of poor breeding fortunes for the mare. His 2023 half-sibling was stillborn and Fleeting Humor was sent to Epicenter for 2024. Sales history: $250,000 Wlg '21 FTKNOV. Lifetime Record: 2-1-0-0, $64,050. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.; B-Kenneth L. & Sarah K. Ramsey & Speightstown Syndicate (KY); T-Chad C. Brown.

The post General Partner Stakes his Claim of the Saratoga Winner’s Enclosure appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Bucchero Filly, Vino Rosso Colt Earn Bullets at OBS Saturday

A filly by Bucchero (hip 999) became the first of the week to work a furlong in :9 3/5, while a colt by Vino Rosso (hip 1072) turned in the day's fastest quarter-mile breeze of :20 4/5 during the final session of the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Saturday in Ocala.

Consigned by Britton Peak, hip 999 is out of stakes-placed Imperial Strike (Imperialism). The filly was bred in Florida by Wendy Lee Christ.

Hip 1072, a supplement to the original catalogue, is consigned by McKathan Bros. Sales and worked his quarter-mile bullet right at the start of Saturday's session of the under-tack show.

“He prepped really good for us over here, so I was expecting him to breeze well,” said Kevin McKathan. “We backed him up to a quarter. He's a big, stretchy two-turn horse and I thought that would suit him best. He worked really well and he galloped out huge. He went out in :32 flat and :44 and change. And he came back in good shape and vetted good.”

The chestnut colt, bred by Ken and Sarah Ramsey, is out of stakes winner Deanaallen'skitten (Kitten's Joy) and was purchased by McKathan for $115,000 as a weanling at the Keeneland November sale.

“Really, I wanted a Vino Rosso,” McKathan said of the colt's initial appeal. “I thought he was a really classy horse and I liked a lot of his foals. So I wanted to get my hands on one. I found [hip 1072] way up on the hill at Keeneland in Book 4 or 5. He was hid out up there–Ramsey was selling him. He was a little backwards, but when I saw him, I just said, 'I need to own him.' We paid well for him and he's been a super colt all the way through.”

The youngster was entered in last year's Keeneland September sale and Fasig-Tipton October sale, but was withdrawn from both. He worked at OBS April before being withdrawn from that sale as well.

“The plan when we first bought him as a weanling was to flip him as a yearling,” McKathan said. “And then it got so tough to buy yearlings, especially for myself, and he was such a nice horse that we just decided to keep him. He was in the April sale and he breezed there. He kind of breezed average–he breezed in :10 1/5–and I knew he was a lot better colt than that if I stretched him out and gave him a better run at a little further distance, so that's what we did.”

McKathan continued, “He's the kind everyone needs. He's a two-turn horse and when they pull him out on the shank, they will love him. He's leggy, stretched out with a long neck. He's a beautiful horse.”

Asked how he found conditions throughout the six sessions of the under-tack show, McKathan said, “I believe it was as good as we could get it. We always struggle with that last set because as the track heats up, that's the toughest there is. But horses were still able to get over it. I think the weather was pretty good for us–I've seen it much worse in June. So, overall, I think the track was good. If you could get in the first or second set, the horses seemed to breeze well throughout there. It got to be a little bit more of a struggle through the third. That's just always how it's going to be.”

The OBS June sale will be held Tuesday through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

The post Bucchero Filly, Vino Rosso Colt Earn Bullets at OBS Saturday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Classic Win Emphasises Lear Fan’s Broodmare Sire Legacy

Juddmonte homebred Westover (GB)'s seven-length thumping of the G1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby field last month was the second consecutive Irish Derby victory by a son of Frankel (GB) after Hurricane Lane (Ire) in 2021, but his achievement was also a timely reminder of the potency of his late broodmare sire Lear Fan. Born in 1981, the dark bay has also featured as the broodmare sire of another prominent Sadler's Wells-line runner, the two-time U.S. Champion Sire Kitten's Joy (El Prado {Ire}), who died at Hill 'n' Dale Farm at Xalapa in Kentucky on July 15, but more on that Ken and Sarah Ramsey homebred later.

A son of Derby winner Roberto (Hail to Reason), Lear Fan, trained by Guy Harwood for Ahmed Salman, went three-for-three as a juvenile, his campaign culminating with a victory in Doncaster's G2 Champagne S. Making his 3-year-old bow in the G3 Craven S., the colt had future Arc victor and sire Rainbow Quest (Blushing Groom {Fr}) back in second. He emulated his sire with a placing in the G1 2000 Guineas in the wake of the high-class runner and future star sire El Gran Senor (Northern Dancer).

Sent to France in search of a top-flight victory, Lear Fan trotted up in the G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois and was then second in the G1 Prix du Moulin. Although he participated in the first edition of the GI Breeders' Cup Mile at Hollywood Park, Lear Fan did not land a blow and was duly retired after a brief but brilliant eight-start career to Gainesway Farm in Kentucky, where he lived out the rest of his years as a stallion.

Despite not founding a mainstream male line, Lear Fan did well in the breeding shed with an above-average percentage of black-type winners, leaving 68 stakes winners (7%) and 32 graded/group winners from 914 foals. Among his 12 Grade/Group 1 winners were eight champions headed by 2008 Hong Kong Horse of the Year Good Ba Ba, a three-time winner of the G1 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile from 2007-2009 and earner of over $7.4 million. Other standouts included Italian champion and seven-time Group 1 winner Sikeston, as well as the four-time Grade/Group 1 winner Ryafan, successful at the highest level in both France (Prix Marcel Boussac) and thrice in the States, who was named the Eclipse Champion Grass Mare in 1997.

However, it is through his daughters that Lear Fan, the sixth of 13 foals out of Wac, a daughter of noted broodmare sire Lt. Stevens out of a daughter of an even more significant broodmare sire in War Admiral, is maintaining his presence in pedigrees. Bred by Preston Madden, Wac was a full-sister to the stakes-placed Bel Sheba, herself the dam of dirt router par excellence and 1988 U.S. Horse of the Year Alysheba (Alydar), who won the 1987 Kentucky Derby and Preakness S., as well an additional seven Grade I races, including the 1988 Breeders' Cup Classic.

 

Inking His Legacy

Pensioned after the 2004 breeding season, four years prior to his death, Lear Fan's grandchildren began arriving in 1991, and it did not take him long to make his mark as a broodmare sire. The first inkling of his eventual 85 stakes-winning grandchildren came with the win of Tzar Rodney (Fr) (Assert {Ire}) in the 2100-metre Listed Prix Maurice Caillault at Saint-Cloud in March of 1995. The son of the winning Laquifan then became the first of 35 group winners for Lear Fan as broodmare sire with a win in the G3 Prix La Force later in the season.

The G1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup second by Danetime (Ire) (Danehill  in September 1997 was another notable milestone for his grandsire. Subsequently placed in the G1 July Cup too, Danetime was given a place at stud and served mares in both hemispheres before his death in Western Australia in 2005. The bay's progeny includes three Group 1 winners among his 30 stakes winners.

 

Just Desserts

Grade I winners that produce Grade I winners are few and far between, and those that repeat that feat are in another stratosphere entirely, but the 1996 Canadian champion Windsharp, who raced for Ahmed Salman's The Thoroughbred Corp., was one such quality filly. From Lear Fan's 1991 crop, she punctuated her career with top-level scores in the GI San Luis Rey S. and the GI Beverly Hills H. in the mid-90s, and even stretched her stamina when second, by only a length, in the 1 3/4-mile GI San Juan Capistrano Invitational H.

At stud, she provided Lear Fan with his first two top-level winners as a broodmare sire in the form of the 2002 GI Hollywood Derby hero Johar (Gone West) and the Storm Cat filly Dessert, who won the GI Del Mar Oaks in August of 2003. Both were also Thoroughbred Corp. homebreds. Johar would go on to pad his reputation with a dead-heat victory that November–with High Chaparral (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) –in a memorable edition of the GI Breeders' Cup Turf. Offered at Keeneland, Windsharp later brought an eye-watering $6.1 million from John Ferguson to join the Darley broodmare band after her childrens' accomplishments that November.

Over one quarter of Lear Fan's 11 Grade/Group 1 winners earned that badge in 2003, with Volga (Ire) (Caerleon) following in the wake of Dessert with a victory of her own in the E.P. Taylor S. at Woodbine that autumn. Lear Fan's annus mirabilis ended on a high note with Vallee Enchantee (Ire) (Peintre Celebre) taking out the G1 Hong Kong Vase at year's end.

 

'Mour' Heights To Scale

The best runner out of a Lear Fan mare in Europe was undoubtedly the impeccably bred Aga Khan homebred Azamour (Ire) (Night Shift), a son of the Irish listed heroine Asmara. The John Oxx-trained winner of the 2004 G1 St James's Palace S. and G1 Irish Champion S. was also Classic-placed in both the 2000 Guineas and Irish equivalent earlier that year. Kept in training at four, he secured the G1 Princes Of Wales's S., the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond S., and ran third in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Lone Star Park in Texas.

At stud, he left 43 black-type winners (including five Group 1 winners), but sadly died at the relatively young age of 13. The 2015 G1 Irish Oaks heroine Covert Love (Ire), who was also successful in the G1 Prix de l'Opera, was the best of his progeny, which included the G1 Prix de Diane victrix Valyra (GB). However, his best male flagbearer was the gelded Best Of Days (GB), who struck in the G1 Cantala S. In Australia.

Johar, too, was given a place at stud, and came up with 16 stakes winners (10 at group level), with GI Breeders' Futurity S. winner Joha on dirt and New Zealand Group 1 winner Guiseppina (NZ) the two stars. Besides the latter, the admirable filly Keertana won a quintet of graded races and was third in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf in 2010.

 

Kitten's First, The Rest Nowhere

Initially not the most distinguished daughter of Lear Fan to grace the paddocks, Kitten's First made just $17,000 as a 1992 Keeneland September Yearling and was selected by Sarah Ramsey for $41,000 out of the OBS Spring Sale one year later as her first horse. The future blue hen achieved a debut win in a seven-furlong turf maiden special weight at Belmont Park in July of 1993 and was pulled up in her only other start, Monmouth's Junior Champion S., later that summer.

However, her true merits were revealed at stud, and she hit pay dirt with her very first foal–the dual stakes-winning and graded stakes-placed Justenuffheart (Broad Brush). As it stands, that branch of the Kitten's First family now features no fewer than 11 black-type horses out of Kitten's First's firstborn, anchored by 2006 Eclipse Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Dreaming Of Anna (Rahy), who won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Kitten's First visited El Prado (Ire) in 2000, and the resulting foal, Kitten's Joy, has guaranteed Lear Fan's influence well into the 21st century. A $95,000 RNA out of the 2003 OBS April Sale and named in honour of the late Sarah Ramsey, the blaze-faced chestnut was destined to become a dual Grade I winner in 2004 with victories in the Secretariat S. and Turf Classic for trainer Dale Romans. Although he was second in the Breeders' Cup Turf, his earlier efforts granted him a championship at year's end as the Eclipse Champion Turf Male. He returned the next year with a victory in the GII Firecracker Breeders' Cup H. and ended his career with an unlucky runner-up performance in the GI Arlington Million a few months later.

Predominantly a miler by trade, although he did win beyond that in the Firecracker and turned in several noteworthy efforts in defeat at longer distances, Kitten's Joy achieved sire success beyond the wildest dreams of most breeders, with two American sire titles (2013 and 2018) and took every U.S. Champion Turf Sire crown from 2013-2018. Currently sitting at 111 stakes winners (53 graded/group winners), the late chestnut, who stood at Ramsey Farm until he was moved to Hill 'n' Dale in 2018, has also accrued 15 Grade/Group 1 winners.

Three of his offspring won Grade I races on the same day–Aug. 17, 2013–Big Blue Kitten in the Sword Dancer Invitational S. in New York and both Real Solution and Admiral Kitten stamped their names on historic Chicago fixtures–the Arlington Million and Secretariat S., respectively. His European stars were Group 1 winners Hawkbill, the late Cartier Horse of the Year Roaring Lion, and 2000 Guineas victor Kameko, while GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Bobby's Kitten also won at listed level in Ireland. All four went to stud, though Roaring Lion's tenure was sadly short-lived. He died of colic after siring just one crop in Europe.

(For a more in depth look at the exploits of Kitten's Joy by Lucas Marquardt, please click here.)

The legacy of Kitten's First continued with her Catienus filly of 2003, Precious Kitten. Although a championship title evaded her, she did strike several times at the highest level in the 2007 John C. Mabee H. and Matriarch S., before adding her final Grade I in the Gamely S. at Hollywood Park in the spring of 2008.

As a broodmare, she has produced Grade III winner and sire Divining Rod (Tapit), who was second in the GI Cigar Mile H. and earned a Classic placing when third in the GI Preakness S.

 

Late To The 'Pizza' Party

Lear Fan's grandchildren continued to make an impact on the world stage after his death in 2008. Mutual Trust (GB) (Cacique {Ire}), out of the stakes winner Posteritas, claimed the 2011 G1 Prix Jean Prat, while Camilin Camilon (Per) (Unbridels King), a son of the winning Lear Dancer, struck in Peru's G1 Derby Nacional in 2013.

English Channel's The Pizza Man was the final top-flight victor for his broodmare sire prior to Westover, with a win in the 2015 Arlington Million. The immensely popular gelding, out of the multiple stakes-placed mare I Can Fan Fan, became a dual top-level scorer with a narrow tally in the Northern Dancer Turf S. the following year.

 

Go West My Son

The Juddmonte breeding programme is renowned near and far, and Westover's first three dams are all products of the storied operation. His 20-year-old dam, Mirabilis, gained black-type as a juvenile with a second in the G3 Prix Miesque, before improving to take the Listed Prix d'Angerville at three. Two more group-placings followed, among them the all-important Group 1 with a third in the Prix de la Foret. Sent Stateside, she captured the GIII Churchill Distaff Turf Mile S. as a 4-year-old and was also third in the GII Jenny Wiley S. and GII Buena Vista H.

A consistent producer, Mirabilis had three winners from three runners prior to foaling Monarchs Glen (GB). By European champion sire Frankel, the full-brother to the Irish Derby hero took the G3 Club S. Also, a stakes winner on American shores just like his dam, Monarchs Glen was placed in the GIII Mint Million at Kentucky Downs. Westover, who was also third in the Derby at Epsom, is the 10th foal from Mirabilis and is followed by the Expert Eye (GB) juvenile filly Japala (GB), who has yet to race.

The Ralph Beckett-trained Classic winner wasn't the only new stakes winner for his grandsire recently either, with Nick Papagiorgio (Outflanker) running out a half-length victor of Laurel Park's Find S. in Maryland on June 19.

With his youngest broodmare daughters now 17, most of the chapters on Lear Fan's immediate influence as a broodmare sire have been written, but Westover's victory illuminated once again what a conduit for class the Gainesway stallion yet embodies in pedigrees. That point could be illustrated even more poignantly on Saturday, with Westover entered in the G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth S. If he completes the Irish Derby/King George double, he would be the first 3-year-old colt to do so since Alamshar (Ire) (Key Of Luck) in 2003.

The post Classic Win Emphasises Lear Fan’s Broodmare Sire Legacy appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Top Sire Kitten’s Joy Dead at 21

Kitten's Joy (El Prado {Ire}–Kitten's First, by Lear Fan), twice the leading general sire in the United States and a perennial top-five turf sire, passed away from an apparent heart attack July 15 in his paddock at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, where he'd served mares since 2018. He entered stud in 2006 at his owners' Ken and Sarah Ramsey's Ramsey Farm.

The blaze-faced chestnut was nearly sold, but was ultimately retained by the Ramseys after bidding stalled out at $95,000 at the 2003 OBS April Sale, and it proved a fortuitous decision, as Kitten's Joy–named in honor of the late Sarah Ramsey–won nine times and was never worse than second in 12 starts on the grass for trainer Dale Romans, including victories in the 2004 GI Secretariat S. and GI Turf Classic ahead of a runner-up effort in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf. Named that year's Eclipse-winning turf male, Kitten's Joy also annexed the 2005 GII Firecracker Breeders' Cup H.–his only win over a mile–first off a nine-month hiatus and closed his career with an unlucky runner-up effort behind Powerscourt (GB) (Sadler's Wells) in the GI Arlington Million. He retired with a record of 9-4-0 from 14 trips to the races and earnings of $2,075,791.

An Instant Hit…

Despite his penchant for the grass and a skeptical breeding public despite a live female family, Kitten's Joy was well-supported early days–including a large number of mares Ramsey sourced via the claiming box–and he sired better than 300 foals from his first three North American crops.

“I claimed everything I could lay my hands on,” Ken Ramsey told Andy Beyer in a Washington Post article in 2013.

At the end of his first season covering mares, Dreaming of Anna (Rahy), a daughter of Kitten's Joy's multiple stakes-winning and Grade III-placed half-sister Justenuffheart (Broad Brush), was sewing up an Eclipse of her own in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Along with Justenuffheart's MGSW sons Lewis Michael (Rahy) and Justenuffhumor (Distorted Humor), Kitten's Joy's half-sister Precious Kitten (Catienus) was in the process of building a multiple Grade I resume of her own and would go on to become the dam of GSW and Classic-placed Divining Rod (Tapit).

Before long, 'Kitten'-named horses carrying the Ramseys' trademark red-and-white colors with the capital R, were getting their pictures taken left and right, to the tune of 78% winners to starters from those first three crops.

Ramsey turned his offspring over to the likes of Chad Brown, Romans and Mike Maker, who trained Kitten's Joy's first winner at the graded level when Dean's Kitten–a son of the former $5,000 claimer Summer Theatre–took out the 2010 GII Lane's End S. over the Turfway Poly. The latter was one of six black-type winners from the first crop of Kitten's Joy, while his next crop yielded 11 SWs and 5 GSW, including GII Del Mar Derby hero Banned.

Stephanie's Kitten, a maternal granddaughter of the Ramseys' outstanding turf distaffer Bail Out Becky (Red Ransom) and out of a mare by $50,000 Ramsey claim Catienus, was another to showcase the budding versatility of Kitten's Joy, as the homebred won the GI Darley Alcibiades S. over the Keeneland all-weather and followed up in the GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Stephanie's Kitten was one of 15 Kitten's Joy stakes winners in 2011, five at the graded level, and helped her sire achieve his first top 10 finish on the general sires' list while finishing the year as leading third-crop stallion and leading sire of 2-year-olds.

Making A Stallion, At Home and Abroad…

The first 16 and fully 54 of the first 68 stakes winners sired by Kitten's Joy were each bred by the Ramseys. Overall, Kitten's Joy has been represented by 111 black-type winners, 53 at the graded/group level and 15 top-level scorers. The stallion celebrated a banner day Aug, 17, 2013, when three horses struck in Grade I events–Big Blue Kitten in the GI Sword Dancer Invitational S. at Saratoga and Real Solution (Arlington Million) and Admiral Kitten (Secretariat S.) at Arlington. With champion Big Blue Kitten, one of 25 black-type winners that season, leading the way, Kitten's Joy topped the general sire list for the first time.

The sire's offspring continued to excel at the highest level in the U.S., with Divisidero winning the GI Turf Classic on two occasions, Sadler's Joy scoring in the Sword Dancer and Bobby's Kitten, Oscar Performance and Stephanie's Kitten posting wins in various Breeders' Cup events.

By now, Kitten's Joy's tremendous domestic success–he was the leading turf sire each year from 2013 through 2018–had gotten the attention of the international racing community, and his sons, in particular, began to leave their mark on foreign soil. Hawkbill, a $350,000 purchase by Godolphin out of the 2014 Keeneland September sale, defeated his elders in the G1 Coral-Eclipse S. in 2016 and would go on to add the G1 Longines Dubai Sheema Classic in 2018, exploits which landed Kitten's Joy a second trip to the top of the sires' premiership, no easy feat for a turf horse. Hawkbill now stands at Darley's satellite operation in Japan.

Qatar Racing's late Roaring Lion, a $160,000 KEESEP acquisition, won the G2 Royal Lodge S. and was second in the G1 Racing Post Trophy at two in 2017 before winning the Eclipse, G1 Juddmonte International S., G1 Irish Champion S. and G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. He was also beaten two lengths into third in the 2018 G1 Investec Derby.

Kameko also carried the Qatar Racing colors to win the G1 Vertem Futurity Trophy in 2019 and the 2020 G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. Kitten's Joy has also been represented by MGSW/G1SP Gendarme and GSW Dashing Blaze in Japan.

While clearly a better sire of turf runners, Kitten's Joy was represented as recently as 2021 by GI TVG Pacific Classic hero Tripoli and is also responsible for treble dirt Grade III winner Csaba.

In October 2017, Ramsey announced that John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa had acquired a 50% stake in Kitten's Joy after intimating that he might sell the stallion to European interests.

“The road to success is always under construction,” Ramsey told TDN's Bill Finley in 2017. “In this case, there were some detours. In the end, I feel like we made the right decision for all concerned. We were offered more money by at least one other farm. But the horse came first and everyone in the Ramsey family agreed that Hill 'n' Dale was the best fit for him.”

Kitten's Joy stood his first year at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa at $60,000 and received a bump to $75,000 for 2019. His first crop of Hill 'n' Dale-conceived foals proved popular at auction in 2020, with a son of Joyful Victory (Tapit) fetching ¥105 million ($982,000) at the JRHA Select Sales in Japan and a daughter of Joya Real (Eddington) bringing $800,000 at KEESEP. He stood the 2022 breeding season at a fee of $50,000.

Kitten's Joy currently sits second among leading turf sires. His current flag-bearer is 'TDN Rising Star' New Year's Eve, winner of the GIII Edgewood S. in May. He is the broodmare sire of 28 stakes winners, 11 at the graded/group level, including Grade I winners Channel Cat (English Channel), Fire At Will (Declaration of War) and the recently sold First Constitution (Chi) (Constitution).

When asked by Beyer what has made Kitten's Joy so reliable a stallion, Brown told Beyer in the previously referenced Post article, “To be a top racehorse, you have to be physically gifted, but it also takes an incredible mental constitution. You have to be focused to train every day. One after another, the Kitten's Joys carry that trait. They're tough-minded horses. They never get sour. They can't wait to train, and they drag their riders to get to the track.”

“It was an honor and a privilege to have been entrusted to advance the career of what I believe to be one of the most important international turf sires of this century,” said Sikura. “This stallion is a tribute to one the modern era's most creative minds, namely Ken Ramsey. This horse was a part of our family but perhaps even more so to the Ramsey family. This is a great loss to the industry and to the Ramseys.”

“It is devastating to lose both my wife and her favorite horse in such a short period of time,” Ken Ramsey said. “My wife said 'this horse will bring us a lot of joy' and he certainly did. John Sikura was as good a partner as anyone could ever hope for. Kitten's Joy was the horse of a lifetime. His name will be in pedigrees for generations to come.”

 

The post Top Sire Kitten’s Joy Dead at 21 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights