Pensionings | Horse Racing Free Tips

Champion Afleet Alex Pensioned From Stud Duty

Afleet Alex, the champion 3-year-old male of 2005, has been pensioned from stud duty at Gainesway in Lexington, Ky., the farm announced Monday.

The 16-year-old son of Northern Afleet is in good health. He will remain at Gainesway for the entirety of his pensioned life, and he will remain available to visit on farm tours.

“He was an outstanding colt on the track and was an exciting stallion to retire to Gainesway,” said Gainesway's Sean Tugel. “His stallion career was successful in producing seven Grade 1 winners and making his mark as a broodmare sire.”

Afleet Alex stood his entire career at Gainesway, entering stud in 2006 after a dual-classic winning racetrack career where he earned more than $2.7 million. He has sired 14 crops of racing age, with 550 winners and combined progeny earnings of more than $51.6 million.

His debut crop of runners arguably reached its zenith during the 2010 Travers Stakes, when Afleet Alex was represented by three runners: Admiral Alex, Afleet Again, and winner Afleet Express. Afleet Again would go on to win the Breeders' Cup Marathon a year later.

That class also included Grade 1 winner Dublin and Grade 2 winners Afleeting Lady and Harissa.

Afleet Alex saw his best 2-year-old ascend in 2014 when Texas Red won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita Park and finish as an Eclipse Award finalist for champion 2-year-old male. He won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes the following year.

Other Grade 1 winners by Afleet Alex include Iotapa, Materiality, and Sharla Rae.

His best international runners include Canadian champion Skywire, Korean champion Dolkong, and Puerto Rican champions Cuqui's Love and Advier.

As a broodmare sire, Afleet Alex is responsible for Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston, Grade 1 winner Dream Tree, and Argentine Group 1 winner Mahagonny, along with other notable runners Bourbonic, Suddenbreakingnews, Attachment Rate, and Estilo Talentoso.

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Veteran Pin Oak Stallion Broken Vow Pensioned From Stud Duty

Broken Vow (Unbridled–Wedding Vow, by Nijinsky II) has been pensioned from stud duty, Pin Oak Stud announced today.

The Pin Oak homebred won nine of his 14 starts, and won or placed in six graded stakes, earning $725,296. Trained by Graham Motion, Broken Vow won the Grade 2 Philip H. Iselin Handicap and G3 Ben Ali Stakes and placed in the G1 Gulfstream Park Handicap, G3 Fayette Stakes, and the G2 Meadowlands Cup Handicap, etc., before retiring to his birthplace in Kentucky to start his career at stud.

The 24-year-old stallion retires having been among the top 15 active sires, with an impressive 15 percent black type horses from starters. Broken Vow sired 159 black type horses in total, 80 of those black type winners, as well as six champions.

His six Grade 1 winners include Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and Eclipse champion Champagne Room, the co-topweight female sprinter of her year Sassy Image, as well as Cotton Blossom, Unbridled Belle, and Rosalind. Additionally, Broken Vow is making his mark as a broodmare sire, as his daughters have already produced three champions and some 100 black type horses, including Eclipse champion Runhappy.

“First as a race horse and then as an anchor to our stallion roster for 20 seasons, Broken Vow is the embodiment of Ms. Abercrombie's breeding program, producing sound, competitive racehorses whose bloodlines endure,” said Clifford Barry, manager of Pin Oak Stud. “We appreciate the industry's support through the years, but mostly we thank Broken Vow for his loyal service to the farm and look forward to providing a well-deserved retirement for him here at Pin Oak.”

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WinStar Stallions Distorted Humor, Congrats Retired From Stud Duty

The upcoming breeding season marks a departure from WinStar Farm's stallion ranks for long-standing cornerstones Distorted Humor and Congrats as both are being retired from stud duty, the farm announced today.

Distorted Humor, a champion freshman sire and a champion general sire, served an instrumental role in helping WinStar scale new heights as a breeding operation, and the esteemed stallion has sired a plethora of big-name horses in a spectacular career at stud. Numbered among his top runners are classic winners Drosselmeyer and Funny Cide, and Grade 1 winners Commentator, Any Given Saturday, Flower Alley, Hystericalady, Boisterous, Awesome Humor, Restless Rider, and many others.

“We all owe Distorted Humor a debt of gratitude for all he has done for WinStar Farm, my family, and the many breeders who supported him from his humble beginnings,” said Elliott Walden, WinStar's president, CEO, and racing manager. “He will be missed in the breeding shed this year, but we are so grateful that we can continue to see him at WinStar for the foreseeable future. What a horse.”

Over the last decade, Distorted Humor has also emerged as one of the leading and most influential broodmare sires in recent memory, being represented by such horses as racing's all-time leading earner Arrogate ($17,422,600), Elate, Practical Joke, New Money Honey, and Constitution. This year, he is represented as a broodmare sire by Grade 1 Woodward Stakes winner Art Collector, a leading candidate for next month's $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic.

Distorted Humor entered stud in 1999 and has provided many seminal moments during his remarkable and lengthy career as a stallion. He topped all freshman sires in 2002 and he was North America's leading general sire in 2011, the same year, his son and leading earner, Drosselmeyer ($3,728.170) captured the Breeders' Cup Classic. Drosselmeyer was also a classic winner, having won the 2010 Belmont Stakes. In 2003, Distorted Humor's Funny Cide, bred by WinStar and campaigned by Sackatoga Stable, won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes on his way to a career bankroll of $3,529,412.

A son of champion Forty Niner out of Danzig's Beauty, by Danzig, Distorted Humor is the sire of 163 black-type winners and 71 graded stakes winners with more than $152 million in total progeny earnings.

While he has made an indelible imprint on the breed as a stallion, Distorted Humor, bred in Kentucky by Charles Nuckols Jr. and sons, was also an accomplished racehorse.

Trained by Elliott Walden and owned by R.L. Renieman and Prestonwood Farms, Distorted Humor won the 1998 G2 Commonwealth Breeders' Cup Stakes at Keeneland, where he set a stakes record that still stands, getting the seven furlongs in 1:20.50. He also annexed the G2 Churchill Downs Handicap; the G3 Ack Ack Handicap, and the G3 Salvator Mile Handicap en route to earnings of $769,964.

Congrats, a top 10 sire by winners for the last six years (top 5 in three of those years) has been a perennial producer of top-class runners during his remarkably consistent career at stud and is once again among the leading sires of winners in 2021.

This year Congrats is represented by 122 winners and boasts progeny earnings of $4,843,399. His top runner this season is two-time graded stakes winner Last Judgment, winner of the G3 Pimlico Special Match Series Stakes at Pimlico and the G3 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

The only champion freshman sire by the legendary sire of sires, A.P. Indy, Congrats is the sire of such Grade 1 horses as Turbulent Descent, Haveyougoneaway, Wickedly Perfect, and Emma's Encore. Congrats has total progeny earnings of $71,982,417 and is the sire of 44 black-type winners. He is being retired to John Sykes' Woodford Thoroughbreds in Reddick, Fla.

“Congrats helped me get started in this business and has meant so much to Woodford Thoroughbreds,” said John Sykes. “We are happy to be bringing him home for his retirement.”

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International Sire Pivotal Pensioned From Stud Duty

Pivotal, the champion sprinter and multiple champion sire and broodmare sire, has been retired from covering duties.

The 28-year-old son of Polar Falcon has been a stalwart and flagbearer at Cheveley Park Stud since his retirement to stud in 1997.

Bred and raced by Cheveley Park Stud, he was trained by Sir Mark Prescott. A track record breaker as a 2-year-old, he was crowned champion sprinter as a 3-year-old, with the undoubted highlight coming in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York, when prevailing by the narrowest of margins to become the first Group 1 winner to be both bred and owned by Cheveley Park Stud. Prior to that he had shown all his battling qualities and tenacity in winning the Group 2 King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Pivotal took up stallion duties at an initial fee of £6,000, and immediately proved popular with commercial breeders. He was a leading British based first season sire, and soon sired his first British Group 1 winner in Kyllachy, who followed in his father's footsteps in winning the Nunthorpe Stakes, before also retiring to stand at Cheveley Park Stud. Pivotal went on to quickly rise through the stallion ranks and was leading British-based sire by individual winners on no less than eight occasions, and was twice crowned leading British-based sire by earnings. To date Pivotal has sired 32 individual Group 1 winners, including the classic winners Sariska, Halfway To Heaven, Falco, Buzzword and Saoire, as well as Dubai World Cup winner African Story, and most recently a Group 1 brace on QIPCO British Champions Day with Addeybb and Glen Shiel winning the Champion Stakes and British Champions Sprint Stakes, respectively .

Already Pivotal's legacy is starting to live on through both his sons and daughters. He was crowned champion European broodmare sire 2017 to 2019, and his daughters produced the Group 1 winners Love, Magical, Golden Horde and One Master last season, as well as multiple Group 1 winners Cracksman and Advertise in recent years. He is also making an impact as a sire of sires, with seven of his sons having sired Group 1 winners to date, most notably Siyouni with last season's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe victor Sottsass and Dewhurst Stakes winner St Marks Basilica.

A true legend in his own lifetime, the 'mighty' Pivotal will now enjoy a happy retirement at Cheveley Park Stud, where he will see out the rest of his years.

Managing director, Chris Richardson, said; “The story associated with the 'Mighty' Pivotal is truly extraordinary, considering he was the result of the very first covering his sire, Polar Falcon, was given. Thankfully, as a yearling, it was decided to retain him to race, rather than offer him for sale, as we did with the other yearling colts by Polar Falcon that year. Whilst in the hands of trainer, Sir Mark Prescott, Pivotal truly put Cheveley Park Stud on the map, giving owners David and Patricia Thompson their first Group 1 winner in the stud's famous red, white and blue colors. Having covered a relatively small book of mares in his first year, his resulting progeny excelled and inspired at all levels, which they have continued to do throughout his career, both domestically and internationally. On the world stage, Pivotal has excelled as a sire, a sire of sires and as a broodmare sire, to the highest level and all of us at Cheveley Park Stud have been so blessed to have been part of his life for 28 years. I think Triple Crown winner, Isinglass, whose stable Pivotal occupies, would have been very proud and we all wish Pivotal a well-deserved and happy retirement.”

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