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.”
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