Stallions | Horse Racing Free Tips

Will Take Charge, Midshipman Shuttling To Uruguay For Southern Hemisphere Season

A pair of Eclipse Award-winning sons of Unbridled's Song will shuttle to Haras Phillipson in Uruguay for the upcoming Southern Hemisphere breeding season, in Will Take Charge and Midshipman, the South American publication Turf Diario reports.

Will Take Charge, an 11-year-old son of Unbridled's Song, will ship to Haras Phillipson for the second consecutive year. He is wrapping up his seventh Northern Hemisphere season at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., where he stood for an advertised fee of $5,000.

From four crops of racing age, Will Take Charge has sired 132 winners and he's compiled progeny earnings of more than $10.4 million. His runners are led by Grade 3 winner Will's Secret and Grade 1-placed Manny Wah. In South America, his offspring include Peruvian Group 2 winner Esidio.

Will Take Charge earned the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male in 2013 on the strength of a campaign that included wins in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes and Clark Handicap, the G2 Rebel Stakes and Pennsylvania Derby, and the G3 Smarty Jones Stakes, along with a runner-up effort in the Breeders' Cup Classic. At four, he won the G2 Razorback Handicap and ran second in the G1 Santa Anita Handicap, Donn Handicap, and Stephen Foster Handicap.

Midshipman is a veteran of the South American breeding ranks, having previously shuttled to farms in Brazil and Chile. The 15-year-old stands at Darley America in Lexington, Ky., where he was advertised in 2021 for $7,500.

With eight crops of racing age, Midshipman has sired 310 winners with combined progeny earnings of more than $28.4 million. Domestically, his highlights at stud include Grade 2 winner Princess Warrior, and Grade 3 winners including Lady Shipman and Sassy Sienna.

Midshipman has seen his greatest success in the Southern Hemisphere, including Brazilian 2,000 Guineas winner Royal Ship, who later shipped to the U.S. and became a Grade 2 winner. Other Southern Hemisphere runners of note include Brazilian Group 1 winners Tanganyka and Tweet, as well as Chilean Group 1 winner Succeso.

Midshipman was named champion 2-year-old male of 2008, after winning that year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile and the G1 Del Mar Futurity.

The post Will Take Charge, Midshipman Shuttling To Uruguay For Southern Hemisphere Season appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

California Sire Old Topper Dies At Age 26

Longtime California stallion Old Topper was euthanized due to issues from old age at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds. He was 26 and had been pensioned in 2019.

The son of Gilded Time was a perennial leading sire in California, with 27 stakes winners and lifetime progeny earnings of more than $22 million.

Old Topper's leading earner is Ain't No Other ($715,280) and his runners included multiple stakes winner Queen Bee to You, graded winner Top Kisser and this year's Evening Jewel Stakes winner, Becca Taylor.

On the track, Old Topper was a multiple graded winner.

The post California Sire Old Topper Dies At Age 26 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

First Starter Is A Winner For Florida Sire Neolithic

The first runner for multiple Grade 1-placed Neolithic, El Profe (out of Boston Maggie, by Boston Harbor), was also his first winner, running impeccably at Gulfstream Park today with an exciting wire-to-wire finish for first in the second race.

Trained by Angel M. Rodriguez and bred by Angel Hernandez and Jose Perez, El Profe sped to the front right out of the gate with an alert getaway, showed the way on the inside of the stretch, and continued to remain clear to the finish line earning a check of $28,550 from the $45,500 purse.

Neolithic is the highest earner by sire-of-sire Harlan's Holiday. During his career, Neolithic earned a total of $2,278,028 with three wins, four seconds, and three thirds.

He placed second in the Grade 2 Hagyard Fayette Stakes and the G3 Discovery Stakes. He was third in the G1 Woodward Stakes, the G1 Dubai World Cup, and the G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes. He recorded three triple-digit Beyers: 106, 102, and 100.

Neolithic stands for $5,000 with stallions Amira's Prince, Breaking Lucky, Bucchero, Curlin's Honor, Gunnevera, Handsome Mike, Long On Value, Ride On Curlin, Squadron A, and Sweetontheladies at the 220-acre farm located just northwest of Ocala, Fla.

Pleasant Acres Stallions has received many accolades for excellence, including 2017 Florida Freshman Sire of the Year for Poseidon's Warrior, 2017 DRF Florida-bred Beyer Award, 2009 Florida Breeder of the Year, 2009 Florida Broodmare of the Year, Breeder of the 2009 Florida Horse of the Year, and was ranked third in the nation for leading breeders in 2009 by average earnings per starter with 10 or more starters.

The post First Starter Is A Winner For Florida Sire Neolithic appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Bloodlines: Country Grammer Piles On Laurels For Deep Juddmonte Family

This year has been a good one for the family of the mare Nijinsky Star, a half-sister to stakes winner Six Crowns (by Secretariat) who became the dam of champion Chief's Crown (Danzig). Nijinsky Star herself became the dam of three stakes winners who all produced stakes winners themselves.

In addition, her unraced daughter Willstar (Nureyev) also produced a pair of stakes winners, (Etoile Montante and Uno Duo), and this branch of the family has been making hay in 2021. In addition to the graded stakes winners Bonny South (Munnings) and Obligatory (Curlin), Country Grammer (Tonalist) added further laurels to this set of the family by becoming its first G1 winner since Etoile Montante.

That Miswaki filly won the G1 Prix de la Foret, as well as taking seconds in the Prix Marcel Boussac, Prix Maurice de Gheest, and Matriarch. Speed was her forte, but Country Grammer has shone over more extended trips, and his best effort to date came in the Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 31.

This branch of the Miss Carmie family through champion Chris Evert (Swoon's Son) has been developed by Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms from the Nijinsky mare mentioned above, Nijinsky Star. Juddmonte purchased her for $700,000 at the Keeneland November sale out of the consignment of Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services (John Stuart), agent for Carl Rosen.

Entrepreneur and sportsman Rosen had purchased Chris Evert as a yearling, named her for the tennis star who had branded a line of sportswear through his clothing business, and bred both Six Crowns and Chief's Crown, among others.

Juddmonte bred the subsequent generations of mares leading to Country Grammer, including his second dam Prima Centauri (Distant View), a half-sister to Etoile Montante who had been unplaced in two starts in France. That put Prima Centauri among those who were surplus to needs for Juddmonte, and the mare subsequently sold for $270,000 at the 2005 Keeneland November sale to Dixiana Farm, carrying a foal by Forestry (Storm Cat). Prima Centauri's best racer was the Marju gelding Bodes Galaxy, who ran second in the G2 Richmond Stakes and third in the G2 Gimcrack as a 2-year-old.

The mare's later Forestry filly of 2008 was Arabian Song, a winner at three. She is the dam of Country Grammer and his half-sister Joyful Cadence (Runhappy), who is a winner this year and was third in the G3 Miss Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in May.

Bred in Kentucky by Dixiana Stables, Arabian Song had sold for $40,000 to Rabbah Bloodstock at the 2009 Keeneland September sale, won a maiden claiming race ($40,000) at three, and subsequently changed hands privately prior to foaling Country Grammer, who was bred in Kentucky by Scott Pierce and Debbie Pierce.

A May 11 foal, the 4-year-old Country Grammer is from the first crop by Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist (Tapit) and is his sire's first Grade 1 winner. The breeders sold the bay colt as a yearling for $60,000 at the Keeneland September sale, and he resold as a 2-year-old in training to Bradley Thoroughbreds, agent for Paul Pompa, for $450,000 out of the Wavertree Stables consignment at the 2019 OBS April sale.

Country Grammer raced for Pompa, winning the G3 Peter Pan last season, but after his death in 2020, Pompa's Thoroughbreds were dispersed by his estate. At the 2021 Keeneland January sale, Country Grammer sold for $110,000 to WinStar Farm, was sent to trainer Bob Baffert, and made his first start of the year in the G2 Californian, finishing second.

The Hollywood Gold Cup was the colt's second start of the year, and he won by a head over the Brazilian-bred Royal Ship (Midshipman), who had won the Californian on April 17 by a neck from Country Grammer.

One of a half-dozen stakes winners to date by Tonalist, who won four G1 races and earned $3.6 million, Country Grammer appears to be the best athlete from this branch of his famous family for a couple of generations and is the best racer to date for his young sire, who stands at Lane's End Farm outside Versailles, Ky.

The post Bloodlines: Country Grammer Piles On Laurels For Deep Juddmonte Family appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post