Rock Hard Ten Dies Suddenly In Korea At Age 20

Rock Hard Ten, a multiple Grade 1 winner and veteran sire, died suddenly Nov. 12, according to Korea Racing Authority records.

The 20-year-old son of Kris S. stood at the KRA's Jeju Stud Farm, the operation's primary stallion station.

Through the KRA's Alastair Middleton, the farm issued the following statement to the Paulick Report:

“Rock Hard Ten was observed unable to stand in his paddock. He was moved to the equine hospital where he underwent treatment but he sadly died within 24 hours”

Bred in Kentucky and raced by Madeline Paulson, and later co-owned by Mercedes Stables, Rock Hard Ten debuted in February of his 3-year-old campaign, and finished third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in his third start. He then finished second to Smarty Jones in the 2005 Preakness Stakes and fifth in the Belmont Stakes before notching his first graded win in the G2 Swaps Breeders' Cup Stakes at Hollywood Park.

Rock Hard Ten's 3-year-old season ended with a victory in the G1 Malibu Stakes, which kicked off a four-race winning streak to finish his career. During his 4-year-old season, Rock Hard Ten won the G2 Strub Stakes, the G1 Santa Anita Handicap, and the G2 Goodwood Breeders' Cup Handicap. He retired with seven wins in 11 starts for earnings of $1,870,380.

After his racing career, Rock Hard Ten retired to Lane's End for the 2006 breeding season. He resided at the Versailles, Ky., farm until January 2013, when he was exported to Korea.

Rock Hard Ten has sired 13 crops of racing age, with 330 winners and combined progeny earnings in excess of $27 million.

His U.S.-sired runners were led by Grade 1 winner Nereid, Grade 2 winners Capital Plan and Doubles Partner, Grade 3 winners Summersault, Quality Rocks, and Black Onyx. and French Group 3 winner Abtaal.

He is also the sire of Tonito M., who was named Puerto Rico's champion 2-year-old colt in 2013, then was brought to the mainland U.S., where his career was highlighted by a victory in the G3 Oklahoma Derby. Two-time Peruvian champion miler Arezzo was also sired by Rock Hard Ten during his time in the U.S.

Rock Hard Ten currently ranks 22nd on Korea's leading general sire list. He was 13th in 2020, and 10th in 2019, which were his two highest year-end positions to date.

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Breeders’ Cup Classic Winner Bayern Sold To Stand In Korea

Bayern, the winner of the 2014 Breeders' Cup Classic, has been sold to continue his stud career in Korea, BloodHorse reports.

The 10-year-old son of Offlee Wild was purchased by Dr. Sangil Choi, an eye doctor in Korea, to stand at his fledgling Great Hill Farm stallion operation. He previously stood at Hill 'n' Dale Farms in Kentucky, where he entered stud in 2016. Bloodstock agent Jun Park brokered the deal.

Bayern has sired three crops of racing age, with 104 winners and combined progeny earnings of more than $8.1 million. His leading runners include Grade 2-placed Bella Vita and Grade 3-placed Leggs Galore and Bayerness.

A winner in six of 15 starts during his on-track career, Bayern earned $4,454,930 for owner Kaleem Shah and trainer Bob Baffert. His won the Classic during his 3-year-old season, which also included wins in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational Stakes, and the G2 Pennsylvania Derby and Woody Stephens Stakes.

Read more at BloodHorse.

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Bloodlines Presented By Diamond B Farm’s Rowayton: Knicks Go Serves As Rising Tide For His Connections

The Awesome Again stallion Paynter had an unusual result in the 2021 running of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 23. He had two sons starting in the race, and they finished as bookends to the field. Favored Knicks Go won the race by 2 3/4 lengths in 1:47.89, and graded stakes winner Harpers First Ride was essentially eased to finish last of the 12 racers.

The winner is one of four graded stakes winners among the 15 stakes winners to date sired by Paynter, winner of the Grade 1 Haskell in 2012. Also second in the Belmont Stakes to the highly regarded young stallion Union Rags (Dixie Union), Paynter has gotten horses of good speed among his better stock, including the unquestionably fast Knicks Go.

The latter has won his last four races, including the G1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, and he is among the best older horses in training. Following the gray horse's victory at Gulfstream, his sire Paynter catapulted to the top of the leading sires list for 2021 with nearly $2.1 million in earnings this year, with last year's leading sire Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday) lurking ominously in second. Third place on the leading sires list currently is Tapiture (Tapit), and it is not coincidental that Knicks Go and Tapiture's leading earner, Jesus' Team, were one-two in the Pegasus, just as they were in the Breeders' Cup.

In phenotype, Paynter is quite like his sire, the Deputy Minister stallion Awesome Again. Both are medium-sized horses with quality and refinement, and they clearly take after the physical type of Awesome Again's maternal grandsire, European champion Blushing Groom, more than Eclipse Award winner Deputy Minister, a towering figure of size and scope, allied with uncommon quality.

After surviving laminitis, Paynter came back to race at four but approached his previous form only with a second-place finish to subsequent Breeders' Cup Classic winner Mucho Macho Man (Macho Uno) in the G1 Awesome Again Stakes named for Paynter's famous father.

The bay horse went to stud in Kentucky at WinStar for an initial fee of $25,000 live foal, and in Paynter's second book of mares, foals of 2016, was the mare who produced Knicks Go.

Bred in Maryland by Angie Moore, Knicks Go is out of the stakes-winning Outflanker mare Kosmo's Buddy, who won a pair of stakes, the 2008 Maryland Million Turf Sprint and the Crank It Up Stakes, and placed second or third in a dozen more, earning $298,095.

A winner of five races from 37 starts, Kosmo's Buddy was claimed by Moore's Green Mount Farm for $40,000 out of her next-to-last start, when the mare finished third. She came back to race once more, finishing fourth in the 2010 Maryland Million Turf Sprint.

Sabrina Moore was co-breeder of the horses with her mother, recalling that the mare was claimed in her mother's name because “this was all her dream.” As the breeding and racing operation developed, “I was so young that it was simpler for us to use my mom's ID and all for the business.

“And as I grew up and became more involved in working with the horses, we decided to make Green Mount Farm a more commercial business. I became a partner in the breeding, including becoming a partner with breeding Knicks Go,” Sabrina Moore said. The Moores bred the first half-dozen foals out of the mare.

Knicks Go is the mare's fourth foal. Kosmo's Buddy has a gray 3-year-old colt by the good sire Broken Vow (Unbridled) who is unraced, has no 2-year-old, has a gray yearling filly by champion Justify (Scat Daddy), and is in foal for 2021 to Horse of the Year Ghostzapper (Awesome Again). Moore noted that the “Broken Vow is really nice and in training at Pimlico. He has a lot of substance, standing about 16 hands.”

When carrying Knicks Go, Kosmo's Buddy was consigned to the 2015 Keeneland November sale but was bought back at $37,000. After Knicks Go won a maiden, Moore recalled that “agent Jun Park had called about buying her, and as a small breeder, you make money where you can.” So the Moores sold the hefty gray in a private transaction through the same agent who had helped pick out Knicks Go as a yearling for the KRA.

After the gray colt won his first Grade 1, the 2018 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, the new owner decided to send the mare to the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale, where she was bought back for $195,000 when she was listed as “Not Bred” in the catalog.

After that sale, Hanzly Albina said: “Nick Sallusto and I had noticed that she had been bought back. We negotiated and got her for a very good price” on behalf of Newtown Anner Stud LLC, which is the breeder of the Justify filly mentioned above.

Albina continued: “When we bought this mare, we knew we were never going to sell her. So it didn't matter that she isn't the tallest or most attractive individual herself. She's a Grade 1 producer, and Newtown Anner is both a commercial and a racing operation; we try to offer all the yearlings at auction, but if we have one that doesn't bring a reasonable sum at a sale, we're happy to race on with it.”

In selecting a first mate for Newtown Anner's new mare, Albina said, “I had intended to send her to Ghostzapper, but with Justify retiring, you only get one chance at the first year to a Triple Crown winner. The result is that we have a nice filly. From what I've seen of the mare's foals, she translates the stallion through, and the Justify [yearling] has a lot of size, an extended hip, and is a very nice physical.”

In addition to sharing the gray color of her dam, the Justify filly has a gray half-brother who is one of the top horses in training in 2021.

When Knicks Go went through the ring for the first time at the 2016 Keeneland November sale as a weanling, he sold to Northface Bloodstock for $40,000 from the Bill Reightler consignment, as agent for Green Mount. The price for the colt was the seventh-highest for a weanling among the 24 sold by Paynter in 2016.

Ten months later, the gray colt went to the sales again with Woods Edge Sales and brought $87,000 (sixth among 67 yearlings sold by the sire) at the 2017 Keeneland September yearling sale, selling to the Korea Racing Authority. As I documented in an article about Knicks Go when he won the Breeders' Futurity, the KRA purchased Knicks Go and a handful of other prospects as an experiment in selecting good athletes that might be stallion prospects.

In Knicks Go, there's no question they have a winner.

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Flashback, Dortmund Sold To Stand In Korea

The Korean stallion ranks will gain a pair of notable members from America's Mid-Atlantic region in 2021, with the recent import of Flashback and Dortmund.

According to records kept by the Korea Racing Authority, the stallions arrived in the country on Jan. 19.

Flashback, an 11-year-old son of Tapit, previously stood at Diamond B Farms in Pennsylvania after beginning his stud career at Hill 'n' Dale Farms in Kentucky.

He is best known as the sire of British Idiom, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2019, who secured the Eclipse Award off a campaign that included victories in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes.

Flashback has sired four crops of racing age, with 88 winners and combined progeny earnings of more than $5.4 million. Beyond British Idiom, his most successful runners include Grade 1-placed Boujie Girl, Grade 3-placed Tripwire, and stakes winner Richiesgotgame.

Flashback won two of seven starts during his racing career, earning $405,730 highlighted by a victory in the G2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes. His three additional graded stakes placings include a runner-up effort in the G1 Santa Anita Derby.

Bred in Kentucky by William Andrade M.D. and Michael Hernon, Flashback is out of the Mr. Greeley mare Rhumb Line, making him a full-brother to Grade 1 winner Zazu.

Dortmund, a 9-year-old son of Big Brown previously stood at Bonita Farm in Maryland, where he entered stud in 2018. His first foals will be 2-year-olds of 2021.

One of the top runners of his crop, Dortmund won eight of 16 starts for earnings of $1,987,505. He entered the 2015 Kentucky Derby unbeaten in his first six starts, which included the G1 Santa Anita Derby and Los Alamitos Futurity, the G2 San Felipe Stakes, and the G3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes.

Dortmund left the gate in the Kentucky Derby as the betting public's second choice, and he finished third behind eventual winner American Pharoah. He then finished fourth behind the eventual Triple Crown winner in the Preakness Stakes before getting some time off for the rest of the summer. The colt finished the seasons with wins in the non-graded Big Bear Stakes and the G3 Native Diver Stakes.

Dortmund was never able to capture the same spark in later campaigns, though he hit the board in three graded stakes at age four, including the G1 Pacific Classic and Awesome Again Stakes, before finishing fourth in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita Park.

Bred in Kentucky by Emilie Fojan, Dortmund is out of the stakes-winning Tale of the Cat mare Our Josephina.

Flashback and Dortmund will join multiple Grade 2 winner Race Day, also a son of Tapit, among Korea's incoming stallions of 2021 with prior experience standing in the U.S. Race Day arrived in the country in December.

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