This week we’ve hit the end of our “Kentucky Stallions” journey with a group of mostly young stallions at Spendthrift and Castleton-Lyons.
In November and January, I bounced back and forth between the sales and the farms to not only refresh myself on the established stallions but also see the new ones. I’m of the opinion that we’re in a golden era of young stallions and my inspections convince me that will continue with this generation of new sires.
Read November Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 and January Part 1.
The first up in today’s blog is Spendthrift Farm’s Free Drop Billy, who has first 2-year-olds this year.
Free Drop Billy won the G1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity at two in the same season his half-brother Hawkbill was putting in notable performances at tracks across Europe. The pair are two of five winners for Grade 3-placed Trensa, who s a daughter of Giant’s Causeway. It is notable to mention that Giant’s Causeway is the damsire of Gun Runner who really needs no introduction at this point. Free Drop Billy is also by Union Rags, who is proving to be a good top level sire though he hasn’t had a chance to show off his sire-of-sire skills to this point.
Free Drop Billy is standing for $5,000 in 2022 as part of Spendthrift Farm’s Safe Bet program.
A legendary racehorse who won or placed in 15 Grade 1 races with seven wins at the level, Gio Ponti returned to breeder Castleton Lyons for his stud career in 2012. In those seven crops of foals aged three or older he has sired five graded stakes winners, two champions, and 29 stakes performers from 369 Northern Hemisphere starters. His biggest accomplishment though may be as the sire of rising Japanese superstar stallion Drefong, who was also his first big racehorse.
Gio Ponti is standing for $5,000 in 2022 alongside Protonico, who you’ll see further down the blog.
I talked about Champion Sprinter Mitole in the November Spendthrift blog here, but this photo was too good not to include today. Not much has changed since my information about him in that previous blog– other than his half brother winning his Dubai World Cup prep race – so you can learn about him by clicking the link above.
This blog comes at the perfect time for Omaha Beach – right after his dam’s half-sister won her first Grade 1 in the G1 Beholder Mile on Saturday.
A grandson of the bluehen broodmare and three-time Grade 1 winner Take Charge Lady, Omaha Beach is a half-brother to Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Take Charge Brandi and was an exceptional racehorse himself. A G1 Kentucky Derby favorite who unfortunately had to miss that race due to injury, Omaha Beach won five of his 10 starts and was never worse than third with his record headlined by three Grade 1 victories.
Not surprisingly, Omaha Beach has been popular with his first weanlings averaging $142,692 during the winter breeding sales. He will stand his third season at stud for $30,000 in 2022.
In the midst of yet another COVID-19 surge in early 2022, Spendthrift staff were masked up – including the stone grooms on the team. Nashua decided to join the party and I think he handled it better than most of the other stallions would have if they were asked to wear a mask!
A useful racehorse who won seven of 16 starts with three other top three finishes, Protonico did exactly what a young stallion needs to do in his first crop – sired a Grade 1 winner. Medina Spirit was one of only 19 foals from Protonico’s first crop and one of six winners from 12 runners. In all, Protonico now has 11 winners from 23 starters with 68 foals of racing age, including 16 2022 2-year-olds.
He bred 50 mares last year during Medina Spirit’s 3-year-old season – his largest book yet – and stands for $10,000 this year at Castleton Lyons.
New to Spendthrift for 2022 is G1 Santa Anita Derby winner and turf stakes winner Rock Your World. The colt was in the top two in four of seven starts, with three of those coming at the stakes level, and he’s out of stakes winner and multiple Grade 1-placed Charm The Maker.
Rock Your World is by Candy Ride, who made a splash in 2021 as a sire-of-sires. In addition to record-breaking freshman Gun Runner, his son Twirling Candy sired G1 Preakness Stakes winner Rombauer among others.
Rock Your World kicks off his stallion career with a stud fee of $10,000 as one of five new stallions for Spendthrift this year.
It’s another week where I’m lucky enough to talk about a stallion whose dam I worked with in G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Vino Rosso.
From the same crop at Glennwood Farm as Triple Crown winner Justify, I worked with Vino Rosso’s dam the same year he was winning both his starts at two. His biggest performance at three was the G1 Wood Memorial but just like his sire Curlin, he got better at four. The chestnut won the G1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita over a field that included Gift Box (whose dam I also worked with), Mongolian Groom, and Higher Power but his biggest moment came in his final start when he won the Classic. With two Grade 1 victories and two Grade 1 placings, Vino Rosso earned Champion Older Dirt Male that year.
His first foals arrived last year with his weanlings averaging $95,484. He stands for $20,000 this year with his first yearlings hitting the sales this summer.
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