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Knicks Go To Stand At Taylor Made Stallions Upon Retirement

Knicks Go, a four-time Grade 1 winner and a dominating winner of the 2020 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and the 2018 Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity at two, will retire to Taylor Made Stallions at the conclusion of his racing career, the farm announced today.

Campaigned by Korea Racing Authority, Knicks Go is currently the top-ranked older horse on the NTRA Thoroughbred Poll as he prepares for his next start in the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 6. A stud fee will be announced after the Breeders' Cup.

“The KRA's goal was to buy and race in the U.S. with an eye toward developing stallions,” said Jun Park, racing manager for the KRA's United States stable. “As his name suggests, Knicks Go is a horse that was selected by a genome selection program called K-Nicks, which was designed to help select optimally excellent racehorses and stallions. To have done this for such a short time and to already have a multiple Grade 1 winner like Knicks Go is very gratifying. We are excited to stand him at Taylor Made, and we look forward to his next career as a stallion.”

An earner of $5,553,135 thus far in his racing career, Knicks Go is a Grade 1 winner from eight to nine furlongs and has run triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures of 113, 111, 108 (twice), 107, and 104, all in top company.

With his blend of speed and stamina, Knicks Go has recorded two track records at Keeneland, one of them in winning last year's Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile where he sizzled a mile in 1:33.85. He also established a new course standard in his prep for the Dirt Mile, winning an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles by 10 1/4 lengths in a brisk 1:40.79.

While Knicks Go is a leader in the handicap division, he was also precocious. He broke his maiden on debut in July of his 2-year-old season, winning wire-to-wire by 3 1/2 lengths. Knicks Go went on to capture that year's Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, running his rivals off their feet with a 5 1/2-length romp. He also finished second to eventual champion Game Winner in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

Heading into the Breeders' Cup, Knicks Go has been in a class by himself. He proved uncatchable in winning the historic G1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga in August by 4 1/2 lengths, defeating Grade 1 winners Maxfield and Silver State with a 111 Beyer. The 5-year-old simply crushed his rivals by 10 1/4 lengths in his prior start, taking the G3 Cornhusker Handicap at Prairie Meadows in July, earning a career-best 113 Beyer.

In the $400,000 G2 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs on Oct. 2, Knicks Go toyed with the competition again, this time winning by four lengths geared down at the wire in his final prep for this year's Breeders' Cup Classic. His final time for the 1 1/8 miles was 1:47.85, about a half a second off the 1999 track record set by Victory Gallop.

Among Knicks Go's signature wins was a record-setting triumph in last year's Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland. With regular rider Joel Rosario aboard, Knicks Go assumed his customary position at the head of the field shortly after the break. He blitzed through fractions of :21.98, :44.40, and 1:08.25 before reporting home a facile winner in the sizzling time of 1:33.85 with a Beyer of 108. The final clocking lowered Liam's Map's previous record of 1:34.54 set in winning the 2015 Dirt Mile.

“He really is what a horse is supposed to be,” Brad Cox said of Knicks Go. “They are supposed to get faster and stronger as they get older. He's a little bit of a throwback horse as far as accomplishing things early and then still being in training three years later.”

Knicks Go's most lucrative victory to date came in this year's $3 million G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park. In his seasonal debut and his first start since winning the Dirt Mile, Knicks Go sped to the front at the break of the 1 1/8-mile event and maintained a clear advantage throughout, ultimately scoring by 2 3/4 lengths. The tremendous effort earned a 108 Beyer. Following the Pegasus win, Cox said, “Great horses do great things, and he just did something great.”

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Alberta Stalwart Cape Canaveral Pensioned From Stud Duty

Cape Canaveral has been pensioned from stallion duty at Highfield Stock Farm at Okotoks, Alberta.

Cape Canaveral has been one of the leading sires in Canada since 2008, and he has been the foundation sire at Highfield for 13 years. Cape Canaveral has 18 crops of racing age, 519 foals, 417 starters, 38 stakes winners, 304 winners of 1,046 races and earnings of over $17.5 million.

The 25-year-old is one of the last sons of Mr. Prospector standing in North America, and is out of 1990 Kentucky Oaks-winning mare Seaside Attraction. Cape Canaveral won his first start at two, and went on to win the Grade 3 San Miguel Stakes as a 3-year-old, winning three of four starts before his retirement. He has had an incredible influence on racing in Alberta.

“Cape Canaveral has been a great fit for our program, and has been an asset to racing in Alberta. His offspring are precocious, athletic and have a lot of speed, he definitely stamped them with his best qualities,” says Adrian Munro. “He's been a great stallion for us.”

Cape Canaveral has sired multiple Alberta champions, including Pearl of Knowledge, Onestaratatime and Capitalism. His progeny also helped Highfield Investment Group win leading breeder of Alberta-breds in 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2020. Cape Canaveral progeny remain strong at race tracks and sales in Alberta.

”For 13 years Cape has been the undisputed king of the farm, and he still has his paddock outside where he can keep an eye on things, and he will remain in the same stall in the stallion barn every night,” says stallion manager Jennifer Buck. “He's been a huge part of our breeding program and we've been blessed to have him. We wish him a long and happy retirement.

As a broodmare sire, Cape Canaveral continues to make his mark on racing. He is the sire of 72 dams of foals of racing age with 182 runners, 128 winners (52 percent) and 12 stakes winners.

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Bloodlines Presented By Indiana Thoroughbred Alliance: Connect Enters The Lead Pack In Freshman Sire Race

Victory in the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland made Rattle N Roll the first Grade 1 winner for his sire Connect (by Curlin), who ranks now as the second-leading freshman sire behind crop leader Gun Runner (Candy Ride).

Connect is the third freshman sire from this group to have a G1 winner, so far, and the Lane's End stallion stood for $15,000 live foal in 2021. Three Chimneys Farm stallion Gun Runner has a pair of G1 winners, Echo Zulu (Spinaway and Frizette) and Gunite (Hopeful), and Caravaggio (Scat Daddy) has Tenebrism, winner of the Cheveley Park at Newmarket on Sept. 25.

The latter ranks fourth on the freshman list, with progeny earnings of about $30,000 less than Practical Joke (Into Mischief) and with about $100,000 more than juvenile champion Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile). The latter trio all stand at Ashford Stud, and the quintet are at least a quarter-million ahead of the nearest pursuer in the 2021 freshman sire race.

If this group appears rather above average, with three already siring a G1 winner, the sale and resale markets have likewise placed them highly those young sires likely to succeed.

In 2020, the first yearlings by Connect brought an average price of $51,266 for 59 sold, and in 2021, his first juveniles in training brought an average price of $112,118, with 34 sold.

Rattle N Roll is Connect's second stakes winner, following G3 Pocahontas Stakes winner Hidden Connection, and the young stallion has a pair of stakes-placed runners, as well.

Bred in Kentucky by St. Simon Place, Rattle N Roll is out of the Johannesburg mare Jazz Tune. He is the dam's third foal and first winner. The mare's first foal, a Mineshaft filly named Jazz Festival, brought $160,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale in 2018; so she looked the part of a good prospect. She is unraced, however, and the next foal, a filly by Outwork, is a nonwinner in four starts.

Jazz Tune has a yearling colt by Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit (Tapit) who brought $55,000 at the Keeneland September sale last month.

Rattle N Roll brought the same price as a weanling at the 2019 Keeneland November sale and then resold for $210,000 at the September sale last year. The chestnut colt brought the second-highest price for a yearling by his sire last year.

The buyer was trainer Kenny McPeek, agent for Lucky Seven Stable, who now has a live prospect both for the Breeders' Cup and for the classics next year.

The trainer said, “We're still walking him. I like to give them three days of walking after a race, and he's going back to Churchill Downs on Wednesday. I'm still wondering whether it might not be best for this colt to point for something like the Kentucky Jockey Club to finish this year and then the classics next year. I believe this colt really wants 10 furlongs. He's a big, leggy colt who stands over a lot of ground, and there's a lot of stamina back in his pedigree, with Pleasant Tap as the sire of the second dam and Dance Review (Northern Dancer) as the third dam.” The latter produced three stakes winners, including G1 winners Another Review (Buckaroo) and No Review (Nodouble).

Rattle N Roll is the first G1 winner for this branch of Dance Review's family since the pair above, but another mare out of Dance Review, the winning Pleasant Colony mare Promenade Colony, is the dam of three-time G1 winner Cavorting (Bernardini), who's the dam of 2021 G1 winner Clairiere.

With Rattle N Roll's victory in the Breeders' Futurity, Connect becomes the second son of Curlin to sire a G1 winner; the stallion's first-crop classic winner, Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice, had a first-crop G1 winner in Structor, victor in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.

It is one of the fascinations of breeding that both sons have sired a G1 winner at two, when Curlin was unraced and which is not the prime strength of the stallion as a sire. Instead, he is one of America's eminent classic sires, already counting a Belmont winner and a Preakness winner (Exaggerator) among his progeny. In addition to those two, Curlin's champion juvenile, Good Magic, was second in the Kentucky Derby, and the sire's other G1 stars include older champion Vino Rosso (BC Classic), Stellar Wind (Apple Blossom, Beholder Mile, Santa Anita Oaks, etc.), Keen Ice (Travers), Curalina (Acorn), Global Campaign (Woodward), Off the Tracks (Mother Goose), and five G1 winners this season: star 3-year-old filly Malathaat (Kentucky Oaks, Alabama); Known Agenda (Florida Derby), Clairiere (Cotillion), Idol (Santa Anita Handicap), and Grace Adler (Del Mar Debutante).

As a sire who produces a consistent stream of G1 performers, Curlin also sires colts and fillies of equal high merit, as well as juveniles, 3-year-olds, and older horses. He is a stallion who had it all on the racetrack: speed, stamina, consistency, and toughness, and he is proving to reproduce those attributes in his offspring under a wide variety of conditions and trainers.

Curlin was also a yearling that McPeek picked out at the September sale, when the brawny chestnut was still a work in progress and was faulted by some. The son of Smart Strike, however, proved a sterling performer who won 11 of 16 races over two seasons, including the Preakness, BC Classic, Jockey Club Gold Cup twice, Woodward, and Dubai World Cup, all under the training of Steve Asmussen.

How fitting would it be, then, if McPeek found himself back at the Kentucky Derby with a son of Curlin?

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Claiborne Farm Acquires Breeding Rights To Met Mile Winner Silver State

Claiborne Farm announced today that it has acquired the breeding rights to multiple graded stakes winner Silver State. He will stand at the Paris, Ky., farm upon his retirement from racing.

The 4-year-old son of Hard Spun has won seven of 13 career starts, hitting the board in 12 of those starts, and has made over $1.9 million. In 2021 alone, he is 4-1-1 from 6 starts and has made over $1.6 million.

“We are very excited to stand Silver State in 2022,” said Walker Hancock of Claiborne Farm. “Danzig is one of the legends of Claiborne, and we anticipate his legacy continuing through his grandson, Silver State.”

Silver State is being pointed toward this year's Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar on Saturday Nov. 6, after earning a “Win and You're In” berth by winning the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. In the stallion-making Met Mile, he defeated three Grade 1 winners, including Knicks Go, a four-time Grade 1 winner of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes.

The highlight of his career thus far is a six-race winning streak spanning 2020 and 2021, which included wins in the listed Fifth Season Stakes and Essex Stakes at Oaklawn Park, the G2 Oaklawn Handicap, and culminating in his signature Met Mile triumph at Belmont Park.

Trained by Steve Asmussen for the partnership of Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC and Willis Horton Racing, the most accomplished son of Hard Spun has posted wins in each of his three campaigns. Silver State won on debut as a juvenile in a maiden special weight during the September meet at Churchill Downs. At age three, a minor setback knocked him off the Triple Crown trail, but he returned to the races later that year to score allowance wins at Keeneland and Churchill Downs.

“He's a tremendous physical,” said trainer Steve Asmussen. “Everyone that's been around this horse is struck by his presence. He really must be seen to be believed.”

Ron Winchell of Winchell Thoroughbreds, who co-owns Silver State with Willis Horton Racing, added, “For any horse to win six races in a row, especially when those victories included races as well-regarded as the Oaklawn Handicap and Met Mile, is pretty incredible and puts him in a special category. Looking ahead to his stud career, we couldn't be more excited about Silver State finding a home at Claiborne. We're looking forward to supporting him with our mares and can't wait to see his offspring.”

A product of the vaunted Stonestreet Farm breeding program, Silver State is out of the Grade 3-placed stakes-winning Empire Maker mare Supreme, and he hails from the family of Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos. He sold for $450,000 as a yearling at the 2018 Keeneland September sale.

An advertised stud fee will be announced at a later date.

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