Unbeaten in his three starts, all at two, Kantharos was never a racer who lacked for speed, and it came as no surprise to the O'Farrell family in Florida when the chestnut son of Grade 1 winner Lion Heart became a leading freshman sire. Sent to stud at Vinery in Florida for his first two seasons at stud, Kantharos was transferred to the O'Farrells' historic Ocala Stud in late 2012.
Mike O'Farrell noted at the time that, “Kantharos has his first crop of weanlings this year, and what sold me on the idea of standing the horse was how he's passing on his own very good looks to his offspring. We have a couple of his first weanlings here on the farm, and they're outstanding individuals. We didn't just get lucky; we're hearing great things around town about the horse's babies. It's always a good sign to see a stallion stamping them like he is.”
Indeed.
From his first racers, Kantharos was the leading freshman sire in Florida in 2014, then the leading second-crop sire in the Sunshine State in 2015. By the end of that year, Kantharos had 10 percent stakes winners from his first crop of 51 foals, including graded winners X Y Jet and Mr. Jordan.
By the end of 2016, Stonestreet had reached an agreement with Hill 'n' Dale Farm in Kentucky to send their new stallion sensation to the Bluegrass, and the powerful chestnut has continued to climb the ladder of sire success.
Just last weekend, the stallion added a pair of new stakes winners when Magic Circle won the Busanda at Aqueduct and Cowan took home the gold and glory in the Duncan F. Kenner at the Fair Grounds.
The 4-year-old Cowan got the Kenner on the disqualification of Just Might (Justin Phillip), who has won and kept six of his last eight races. A striking chestnut, Cowan was bred in Kentucky by Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings and sold to Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt for $185,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale.
Sent back to auction the following year, Cowan was bought back for $385,000 at the OBS March auction of juveniles in training. The powerhouse chestnut had turned in a strong work of :10 flat for a furlong, showing a stride length of nearly 25 feet and earning a BreezeFig of 74 (excellent) for the effort.
When he made a winning debut, going four and a half furlongs at Churchill Downs on May 22, Madaket Stables and Spendthrift Farm already were on the ownership line with the Heiligbrodts, and that ownership has campaigned the racer through 13 starts, including a half-dozen stakes placings, before his victory in the Kenner. The colt's current earnings stand at $826,602.
Out of the stakes-placed Smart Strike mare Tempers Flair, Cowan has a pedigree distinguished by quality and exceptional speed.
The colt's second dam is the stakes-winning Cloudburst (Storm Cat), winner in two of her four starts, including the Mardi Gras Stakes, going 5 1/2 furlongs at the Fair Grounds. Strikingly similar to her famous sire in color and looks, Cloudburst is a half-sister to champion juvenile colt Boston Harbor (Capote).
Both of these classy performers were bred and raced by W.T. Young's Overbrook Farm. Boston Harbor won six of his seven starts at two, including the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and G2 Breeders' Futurity, when he was named champion of his division in 1996. Boston Harbor was fourth in the Santa Catalina, his only start at three, then was retired after a work injury and sent to stud at Overbrook in 1998. In 2001, the JBBA purchased Boston Harbor and exported him to stand in Japan on the island of Hokkaido.
Boston Harbor and his younger half-sister were the two stakes winners out of Harbor Springs, a stakes winner by Vice Regent that trainer Wayne Lukas bought for Overbrook out of the 1990 Keeneland July sale for $500,000. A winner of seven races from 11 starts, including the Wishing Well Stakes at Turfway, Harbor Springs became a distinguished producer for the farm.
The mare was also one of the last sold off in the Overbrook dispersal, bringing only $23,000 (covered by Street Boss), at the 2010 Keeneland January sale. Cloudburst had sold earlier, and in foal to leading sire Tiznow, she had brought $900,000 at the 2009 Keeneland November sale.
Harbor Springs was one of two stakes winners out of the Restless Wind mare Tinnitus, and the other one was champion sprinter Groovy, winner of the G1 Vosburgh, as well as a winner of the Forego and the Tom Fool twice each. A winner of more than $1.3 million, Groovy cut a dashing figure trying to sprint to victory in the 1986 Kentucky Derby. That didn't work out, but the charismatic colt showed exceptional talent in sprinting to victory in the Tom Fool at Belmont, then the Forego at Saratoga.
Acclaimed the fastest colt of his generation, Groovy was ironically outpaced in both the 1986 and 1987 Breeders' Cup Sprints by the fillies Very Subtle and Pine Tree Lane.
The history of high speed in this family was doubtless one of the attractions for the buyers when the handsome chestnut Cowan went to the sales, and the interest in the family has not paled.
The Heiligbrodts purchased the now 2-year-old half-sister to Cowan at the 2020 Keeneland November sale for $250,000. The daughter of Candy Ride is still unnamed, and Tempers Flair has a yearling filly of 2021 by Constitution (Tapit).
The post Bloodlines Presented By Caracaro: Cowan Carries The Torch For Successful Overbrook Farm Family appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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