Northwest Stallion Spotlight A Publication of the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders & Owners Association

October 2014

The WTBOA is writing a series of articles about stallions standing in the Pacific Northwest. In this, the second edition of “Northwest Stallion Spotlight,” we highlight two young stallions – Abraaj and Preachinatthebar – who are having success among their progeny, as well as the promising Atta Boy Roy, whose first yearlings sell in 2015. We also invite you to watch for the 2014 Washington Thoroughbred Stallion Register.

ABRAAJ

2003, Carson City—Kris’s Intention, by Kris S. Standing at El Dorado Farms LLC, Enumclaw

by Darrin Paul ne of our newest stallions in Washington has had quite a journey, both in his career path and in the geography he’s traveled. Abraaj’s path can be traced from Kentucky to New York, Delaware, back to Kentucky and then on to British Columbia, Canada, prior to his arrival here in Washington at El Dorado Farms in Enumclaw in late 2010.

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His sire, Carson City, has proven himself in the history books to be a prolific sire of racehorses with 100 stakes winners to his credit. What is remarkable about that number is that Carson City died in December 2004 at age 17 with his book full of 125 mares already for 2005. The chestnut son of Mr. Prospector was bred, raced and stood at W. T. Young’s Overbrook Farm. Abraaj’s dam, Kris’s Intention, was a winning

Nina Hagen

Abraaj was foaled on April 9, 2003, in the Bluegrass of Kentucky. His family has become royalty, not only in reputation, but also in performance in the Thoroughbred industry.

Abraaj daughter of Kris S., who was the leading international North American sire in 2003 and who has become a top broodmare sire with 114 stakes winners – which support multiple distances and surfaces – already produced by his daughters.

Northwest Stallion Spotlight

WTBOA MISSION STATEMENT The Washington Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association seeks to unite and represent those who are interested in breeding, owning, racing and improving Thoroughbreds in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest. WTBOA STAFF M. Anne Sweet, General Manager & Editor [email protected] Susan van Dyke, Associate Editor & Sales [email protected] Julia Wolters, Administrative Assistant [email protected] Craig Lanouette, Typography & Statistics [email protected] WTBOA BOARD OF DIRECTORS Officers Dana Halvorson  President William P. Brewer   1st Vice President Darrin Paul   2nd Vice President Rosalia Noronha DiPietro  Secretary/Treasurer Trustees Emeritus Dan J. Agnew Claudia Atwell Canouse Guy C. Roberts Dr. John Traber Ralph Vacca Jerry Woods

2012-2014 William P. Brewer Mary Lou Griffin Dana Halvorson Karla Laird 2013-2015 Nina Hagen Debra S. Pabst Darrin Paul Keith Swagerty 2014-2016 Rosalia DiPietro Dr. Duane Hopp Candice Tollett Steve Zerda

The opinions expressed in signed articles are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily coincide with those of the association officers or staff of this magazine. Washington Thoroughbred and the board of the WTBOA reserve the right to accept or refuse any copy or advertisement at our sole and absolute discretion and will not accept liability for any loss or damage caused by any error or inaccuracy in the publishing of any advertisement or editorial in this magazine. Publications are welcome to reprint material contained herein, provided written permission is obtained from Washington Thoroughbred.

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Four Footed Fotos

Owned and Published by  WASHINGTON THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS AND OWNERS ASSOCIATION 3220 Emerald Downs Drive Auburn, WA 98001-1661 Phone (253) 288-7878 Fax (253) 288-7890 [email protected] wtboa.com

Abraaj’s juvenile filly Quatre Cat became his initial stakes winner after winning the 2014 BC Cup Debutante Stakes at Hastings Racecourse. In five starts, she has a 2-1-1 record and earnings of $60,583.

The Carson City x Kris S. combination has been quite successful. The nine Kris S. mares bred to Carson City have produced a total of 11 foals. All 11 have started, yielding nine winners and two stakes winners (18 percent), including Abraaj and his Grade 3-winning full brother Leelanau.

Abraaj’s stakes-placed second dam, Peaceful Intention, produced four stakes horses, led by Schuylerville Stakes (G2) winner How About It, dam of Grade 2 winner Lovely Lil and $191,341 New York stakes winner Sweet Sweet.

Abraaj’s five-generation pedigree offers a 4S x 5D cross to *Nasrullah, through Mr. Prospector’s dam, Gold Digger, on top and through Roberto’s dam, Bramalea, on the female side. He also has an additional cross of *Nasrullah through Red God. Through his dam, Abraaj also sports a 4 x 5 cross to Belgium’s major contribution to 20th century bloodlines, *Princequillo. Abraaj also features the same cross (Mr. Prospector sire line out of Kris S. mare) as racing’s supermare Zenyatta.

Having such a pedigree landed Abraaj in book one of the 2004 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Bred by the partnership of Kidder, Griggs and J. and J. Mamakos, Abraaj was purchased by Shadwell Stable, out of the Gainesway consignment, for $450,000. (The runner was named after The Abraaj Group, an international leading private equity investor in global growth markets founded in 2002.) At two, Abraaj injured his pelvis and did not begin his race career until the summer of his three-year-old season in New York. He was trained exclusively throughout his 13-race career by Kieran McLaughlin.

After finishing fourth in his first race, Abraaj was runner-up in his next three starts that year while running in maiden special weight races at Saratoga and Aqueduct. He put it together in the spring of his four-year-old year, winning his first 2007 start by nine lengths and then added back-to-back wins in two six-furlong allowances at Aqueduct and Belmont Park.

Nina Hagen / Norm MacLeod

Cheri Wicklund

Among Abraaj’s offerings at the 2014 WTBOA summer sale were (left) a filly out of stakes producer Follow Your Shot, which was purchased by David Greenshields for $18,000, and (right) a filly out of Slew Tunes, which brought a $15,000 bid from Mediocre Racing.

He began his final campaign with a six-length trouncing of multiple stakes winner Stormin Normandy in an allowance at Belmont, after which his connections immediately vaulted him to the Grade 2 True North Handicap, another six-furlong race at Belmont where he was the victim of a fourwide trip and finished third, beaten two necks.

dirt and that certainly translates to Emerald Downs and the West Coast in general. With all of the statistical power Abraaj has, with earnings of over $338,000 plus a graded stakes victory and placing, McDonald summed up his horse with the horseman and horse lover shining through: “I really wanted a kind horse” and “Abraaj is kind and correct.”

Retired from racing, Abraaj was consigned to the November Keeneland Breeding Stock Sale, where he caught the attention of Rob McDonald of British Columbia. McDonald credits seasoned bloodstock agent Dana Halvorson for making the connection.

Through October 22, Abraaj ranks second on both the Washington juvenile list and Washington second crop sire list, with $139,749 in 2014 earnings.

The final career start for Abraaj came in July of 2008, back at Saratoga where his racing career had begun. He proved to be much the best, capturing the Grade 2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap by 2 1/2 lengths over multiple graded stakes winners First Defence and Thor’s Echo. The latter had won the 2006 Grade 1 TVG Breeders Cup Sprint, but finished behind Abraaj in their two meetings.

“Dana knew I was always looking for the right stallion for this region” said McDonald, a 50-year veteran of the racehorse business and a lifelong fan who grew up going to the races with his father. “My dad was an owner and I went partners on a horse with him when I was 16,” McDonald added of his beginnings. He describes himself as a small breeder with a few mares over the years, but can’t disguise the true horse lover he is. “There’s nothing like a new foal hitting the ground.” McDonald feels the success Abraaj had sprinting will allow him to be a successful sire in region. Abraaj’s Grade 2 victory was at six furlongs on the

This past summer Abraaj has had three winners from his first small crop. Leading his second crop is Quatre Cat, who in five starts, has two wins – led by a tally in the British Columbia Cup Debutante Stakes – one second, in the CTHS Sales (filly division) Stakes, one third, in the Fantasy Stakes, and has earned $60,583. Abraaj is also the sire of juvenile winner Carson’s Start, who was fourth in the 2014 NWSS Cahill Road Stakes. His fourth crop was represented by five yearlings at the 2014 WTBOA Summer Yearling and Mixed Sale who averaged $13,700, the best of any Washington stallion with two or more selling.

Abraaj’s pedigree page got a boost on September 25 when Maftool, a two-year-old son of Hard Spun, took the £50,000 Somerville Tattersall Stakes (G3) at Newmarket by 2 1/2 lengths. His dam, the unraced Mr. Greeley mare With Intention, is Abraaj’s half-sister. Maftool, a $260,000 Keeneland weanling purchase who races for Godolphin, has two wins and two seconds (including a runner-up finish in the Group 3 Sirenia Stakes at Kempton) from four starts and earnings of £45,009.

Reed Palmer Photography

Atta Boy Roy winning the 2009 Governor’s Handicap at Emerald Downs.

ATTA BOY ROY by Steve Zerda

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2005, Tribunal—Irish Toast, by Synastry Standing at Blue Ribbon Farm, Buckley

Atta Boy Roy was purchased by Roy and Ellie Schaefer of Port Orchard at the 2006 WTBOA Summer Yearling Sale. Roy credits trainer Valorie Lund for picking him out. Roy explained, “Valerie was really high on the yearling and wanted him badly. We were willing to go up to 15 or 20 thousand for him. I entered the bidding at $3,000 and when someone bid four I nodded slightly to the bid spotter. Valerie did not think that we had the bid and when the gavel went down at $4,500 she was white as a ghost thinking that we had lost him. When they immediately brought the sale

Cheri Wicklund

ine year-old Washington-born ridgeling, Atta Boy Roy, after a six-year racing campaign across the United States, including races at Saratoga, Churchill Downs, Santa Anita and Keeneland, is now back home in Washington State. He is a Grade 2 stakes winner, multiple graded stakes-placed and a Breeder’s Cup participant with 14 wins at six different racetracks and career earnings of $602,276. Bred in partnership by Patricia J. Murphy and Rick and Debbie Pabst, he is only the fifth Washington-bred to earn over $600,000.

paperwork to me she relaxed, turned to me and said, ‘Atta boy, Roy.’”

The Schaefers raced Atta Boy Roy under the stable name of REV Racing and they refer to their runner as “Atta Boy,” while everyone else calls him “Roy.” The multiple Washington champion is a son of the late Washington-based sire Tribunal and is out of the 2009 Washington broodmare of the year Irish

Atta Boy Roy’s sire Tribunal stood at El Dorado Farms in Enumclaw where he sired five crops before his premature death in 2008 after fracturing a cannon bone while recovering from anesthesia. Tribunal was Washington’s leading freshman sire in 2006 and the state’s leading juvenile sire in 2009. From those limited crops have come a dozen stakes winners and a further dozen which were stakes-placed. In addition to Atta Boy Roy, Tribunal sired Washington champion juvenile fillies Judicature and Knight Raider, champion sophomore male Mulcahy and Canadian champion female From three-time champion Atta Boy Roy’s first crop, this 2014 colt sprinter and Grade 3 winner Tribal Belle.

Steve Zerda

Toast, who also produced 2007 Longacres Mile (G3) winner The Great Face.

is out of 2011 Washington broodmare of the year Peaceful Wings. Shown at three days, he is a half-brother to two Emerald Derby winners: champion Jebrica and 2014 winner Mebossman, as well four other stakes horses.

Tribunal, who placed in both the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap and Grade 2 San Bernardino Handicap, was a son of multiple champion and leading sire Deputy Minister, himself a sire of the champions Open Mind, Go for Wand, Dehere and Canadian champions Diva’s Debut and Hello Seattle. In addition, Deputy Minister sired Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner and highly successful sire Awesome Again, Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Touch Gold and Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Keeper Hill. He also became a prominent damsire and among his daughters – which have so far produced 229 stakes winners – is broodmare of the year Better Than Honour, dam of Belmont Stakes winners Jazil and the filly Rag to Riches.

Tribunal’s dam side is equally illustrious, as his dam was the well-named stakes winner Six Crowns, whose champion parents, Secretariat and Chris Evert, won two Triple Crowns between them. Six Crowns also produced champion and noted sire Chief’s Crown and addition Grade 1 winner Classic Crown. This is the same female line as champion and Kentucky Derby (G1) heroine Winning Colors. Unraced at two, Atta Boy Roy began his racing career at Turf Paradise in Phoenix in 2008 by quickly breaking his maiden by 12 lengths in his second start. From there he raced in a series of allowance and stakes races at Canterbury Park, Prairie Meadows and then back at Turf Paradise, but without a stakes win. After a freshening in early 2009, he returned to

Washington and Emerald Downs where he won his first stakes race – the Governor’s Handicap – beating the prior year’s Longacres Mile (G3) winner Wasserman and Assessment in the 6 1/2-furlong event. The following month Assessment beat Atta Boy Roy in the Longacres Mile after Roy went 1:07 3/5 in the fastest three-quarter split ever in that race, despite losing a shoe on the backstretch. Atta Boy Roy wrapped up his season at Emerald Downs with a track record-setting performance in the Chinook Pass Sprint Stakes, winning by over 10 lengths in a record 1:07 flat. That mark still stands today as the track and state record for six furlongs. He earned the first two of his state championships that season. 2010 proved to be the most successful year for Atta Boy Roy when Lund took him east after starting the year with another allowance win at Turf Paradise. Lund loaded Roy, his pony and a few other racehorses in her van and set up operations at Churchill Downs. Atta Boy Roy’s most prestigious victory came soon after, when he won the $250,000 Churchill Downs Stakes (Grade 2) at seven furlongs under Calvin Borel on the first Saturday in May, Kentucky Derby Day, at odds of ten-to-one. He then finished second in a pair of races – including the Grade 3 Aristides Stakes – before winning the $200,000 Remington Park Sprint Cup Stakes in Oklahoma City later that summer,

time through Never Bend. Tribunal brings one more cross of the bluest of “Blue Hens” through sire Deputy Minister giving the young stallion six crosses total.

Steve Zerda

There are many daughters of Harbor the Gold in the area. If mated to Atta Boy Roy, they would be inbred to Vice Regent 4S x 4D. Granddaughters of Seattle Slew, which could be daughters of Slewdledo, Slew’s Saga, Seattle Shamus, La Saboteur, Cascadian, Taj Alriydah or Kentucky Lucky, for example , would have offspring inbred 4S x 3D to Seattle Slew. Other Slew line stallions with daughters include Matty G and Matricule. Mate Atta Boy Roy to one of the many available granddaughters of the great A. P. Indy and you would have inbreeding 4S x 4D of Seattle Slew and 4S x 5D of Secretariat, a very good combination indeed.

Atta Boy Roy shown with stallion handler Carly Doran.

again with Borel up. He was tried in the Woodford Stakes (G1) at Keeneland, before racing in the Sentient Jet Breeder’s Cup Sprint (G1) at Churchill Downs against the likes of Big Drama, Smiling Tiger and Wise Dan. Atta Boy Roy got bumped a few times on the turn when in third position near the lead in the Grade 1 sprint and chased eventual winner Big Drama. Atta Boy was vanned off the track that day, but the injury proved to be not too serious. He was given time off before his 2011 cross-country campaign, with hopes of getting back to the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

After a bit of a late start, Atta Boy Roy covered 29 mares in his first year as a stallion, with 26 mares ending up in foal which produced 24 foals in 2014. He covered 33 mares this spring, becoming one of the few stallions to increase his book in their second season in recent years.

Schaefer does not own any broodmares and when asked whether he will do any breeding he said, “I want to support Washington breeding and racing and bringing back Atta Boy Roy to stand in this state will help do that. It might be different if I owned my own acreage. The best way for me to support this industry is to buy from the Washington sale and besides, I want to be able to own the best Atta Boy Roy offspring available.”

Atta Boy Roy finished his career in early 2013 at the same track where he started, Turf Paradise, wrapping up his racing career at age eight with a second in the aptly named Swift Handicap. He retired with a record of 14-8-1 in 36 starts.

Atta Boy Roy’s pedigree includes Seattle Slew and Secretariat blood through the broodmare sires of his sire and dam. Tribunal is out of a Secretariat mare, while Irish Toast is by is Synastry, a son of Seattle Slew.

Irish Toast, a daughter of the brilliant race filly and multiple stakes producer Bix’s Bet, brings five strains of the foundation mare *La Troienne, 4x from Synastry through My Charmer (2x), Buckpasser and Evasive’s female line, and a fifth

Steve Zerda

Atta Boy Roy’s five generation pedigree shows 5S x 5D inbreeding to *Nasrullah through Bold Ruler and Municipal Bond, the daughter of Nashua who produced Synastry, but *Nasrullah also appears five more times in Roy’s pedigree.

Lite Nite, a $134,532 earning daughter of Conquistador Cielo who has two stakes horses among her eight winners, is the dam of this early April Atta Boy Roy colt.

PREACHINATTHEBAR by Mary Lou Griffin

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2001, Silver Charm—Holy Nola, by Silver Deputy Standing at Pulse Ranches, Union Gap

reachinatthebar was bred and raced by Michael Pegram and trained throughout his career by the legendary Bob Baffert. But I cannot talk about this gray, Grade 2 stakes winner without passing along some stories Todd Pulse told me. They are just too much fun.

In an interview with Todd, he told me how he and his father, Bob, selected Preachinatthebar. It all started with a Quarter Horse mare named Starbright. Before he went into the Navy, Bob Pulse was a rider (starting at age nine) and one horse he rode was a Quarter Horse filly named Starbright. When he eventually got out of the Navy in 1954, Bob decided he wanted to buy Starbright, so he tracked her down in South Dakota. Her owner said he could have her if he could find her out on the Badlands. Bob found her, literally jumped her into the back of his pick-up and drove to Ekalaka, a little town in southeast Montana which was his home at the time. Ekalaka was named after a Sioux girl named Ijkalak. The town is now known for its dinosaur fossils, but that is another story. Maybe living in a town named after a notable young lady influenced Bob’s thinking about the importance of females. I should talk to his wife Phyllis about that. Anyway, Bob went to the local bank and managed to get a $700 loan or a $400 loan (depending on who you talk to) for the purpose of breeding his mare to the best racing Quarter Horse in the country at the time. Off he went to Oklahoma

with Starbright in the trailer to breed her to Hard Twist, the World Champion Quarter Horse running stallion of 1946 and 1951. The resulting 1955 foal was a filly named Star Twist, who became the foundation of Pulse’s whole operation. She has rewarded him handsomely through the years. Todd tells me his father sold two greatgreat granddaughters of Star Twist, Finely Tuned and Dazzling Departure for $250,000 each. That brings us to Shania Cash, dam of the Quarter Horse Snowbound Superstar, who was sired by Snowbound, a Thoroughbred stallion formerly owned by Pulse Ranches. Quarter Horses can have one Thoroughbred parent and still be registered as Quarter Horses. Are you keeping up here? Anyway, Shania Cash also traces in tail-female line to Star Twist. Snowbound Superstar turned out to be a superstar. He won 15 races in a row at 870 yards and was two time National Quarter Horse champion at that distance. That translated into $750,000 when Dr. Ed Allred (co-owner of Los Alamitos Race Course) purchased Snowbound from the Pulses. You can see why the Pulses are keen on Quarter Horses. Shania Cash is currently in foal to Preachinatthebar and the Pulses naturally are hoping for history to repeat itself. All of this is important because the Pulses say they place the most importance on a horse’s dam when picking stallions. The story of how the Pulses acquired Preachinatthebar

is all about his dam, Holy Nola. Bob and Todd were at Turf Paradise and watched when she won the Arizona Shoot-Out Futurity, a three-furlong stakes race for two-year-old Thoroughbreds with over $100,000 in purse money. A few years later when they saw that Holy Nola’s son Preachinatthebar was for sale, they were confident that Holy Nola would add the speed they were looking for in the stallion’s pedigree. By the way, Holy Nola went on to win $216,812 and has a full sister named Bare Necessities, a Grade 3 winner of $1,062,251. She obviously added some class as well. So how did the Pulse family actually acquire the horse? That turns out to be another story all about “who you know.” Bob has a good longtime friend named Jim Helzer. Together with R. D. Hubbard (former chairman of Hollywood Park and principal owner of Ruidoso Downs), Helzer established JEH Stallion Station with divisions in Texas and Oklahoma. Preachinatthebar spent his first three years at stud at the Oklahoma division.

Helzer sent a list of horses for sale to Bob and Preachinatthebar was on the list. I asked Todd if they went to look at the horse or had any special requirements physically and he said, “If Mr. Helzer said he was correct and nice, then put him on the van.” While we’re on the subject of “who you know,” Todd sent me an article written about his dad in the Quarter Horse Track magazine which stated: “Pulse also remembers passing out plenty of free advice to a young inquisitive trainer with a big smile, while stabled at Denver’s Centennial Race Track one year. The young trainer’s name was D. Wayne Lukas.”

Mini Blast, shown winning the 1977 Yakima Meadows Spring Futurity, was a great-great granddaughter of Bob Pulse’s foundation mare Starbright. Mini Blast would produce four stakes winners, including the Grade 2-winning Quarter Horse speedster Finely Tuned.

Todd told me, “Dad knows everyone and that is one of the reasons he has been successful.”

And the name, Preachinatthebar? I called Baffert, and he said that it came from his dam, (ahh, the importance of the dam again). Holy Nola was named after a lady bartender at Santa Anita, who is still there by the way. He said, “Nola is always telling us (Baffert and Pegram) how to live our lives so we were just having fun with the name.”

Preachinatthebar’s race career would span five seasons, 32 starts and eight racetracks. He won a Hollywood Park maiden special weight in December of his two-year-old season and took his first stakes victory three months later in the Grade 2 San Long before he became involved in Thoroughbred racing, Bob Pulse was a significant member of the Quarter Horse racing industry. As well as racing in Washington and California, Pulse scored wins in other western states that are or were home to the 300- to 870yard challenges, including the Beaumont Track (near left) in Belgrade, Montana.

Reed Palmer Photography Photos

Among his seven winners – six at Emerald Downs – in his first Washington crop this year were four first-time winners: Preachinattheforum (shown winning May 24), Bella Colomba (August 2), Preachinmerit (August 15) and Preachinatsagoi (September 7). first foal – has produced German (G3) and Italian

Felipe Stakes. He added four allowance wins and a third in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at four. His best season came at five when he won three stakes, including the Grade 3 Tokyo City Handicap and Texas Mile Stakes. He also placed in two Grade 2 events that year. In addition to his 9-1-4 record, the gray colt finished fourth in eight stakes, all of but two which were graded events. The Pegram colorbearer retired from racing in 2007 with earnings of $836,338 and an SSI of 10.54. Preachinatthebar, who shows no inbreeding in five generations, is the best horse sired by 1997 near Triple Crown winner Silver Charm, a grandson of the great Buckpasser through his two-time Grade 1-winning son Silver Buck. A Grade 2 winner at two and champion three-year-old who missed winning the Belmont Stakes (G1) by less than a length to Touch Gold, Silver Charm – who was also trained by Baffert – also earned United Arab Emirates’ highweight status (9 1/2 to 11 furlongs) due to his victory in the 1998 Dubai World Cup (G1). In his 24 starts, which ranged over four seasons, Silver Charm won 12 races – 11 of them stakes – and placed in nine more races, eight of them black-type races, with six of them at the Grade 1 level. His $6,944,369 earnings earned the 2007 Racing Hall of Fame inductee a 101.67 SSI. On The Blood-Horse’s list of the top 100 racehorses of the 20th century, Silver Charm was ranked 63rd. He entered stud at Three Chimneys Farm in 2000 before being purchased by the Japan Breeders Association in 2003. He currently stands at the JBBA Shizunai Stallion Station where his 2014 stud fee was ¥100,000. Holy Nola, who since foaling Preachinatthebar – her

stakes-placed Nolas Lolly (Ire) and 2010 French stakes winner Royal Revival (GB). Her 2013 foal, a filly by Makfi (GB), sold for $50,250 at the August 2014 Arqana Yearling Sale held in Deauville, France.

Holy Nola and her full sister Bare Necessities, who won or placed 17 stakes – of which 13 were graded – are among the 88 stakes (which includes eight champions) sired by major North American sire Silver Deputy, who died on October 4 of this year at age 29. The sisters are out of $214,375 stakes-placed Shrewd Vixen.

Preachinatthebar, who is a homozygous gray – meaning it is impossible for him to sire other than a gray/roan foal – inherits his color from both sides of his family. Gray Silver Charm was sired by gray Silver Buck, whose gray dam Silver True was produced out of the gray mare Silver Fog, a daughter of grey 1936 Epsom Derby winner *Mahmoud. Gray Holy Nola is out of gray Shrewd Vixen. Both of Shrewd Vixen’s parents were grays and both were champions: Spectacular Bid – who also won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness before losing the Belmont – and French two-year-old champion Theia (Fr), who later raced in California for Joe Layman’s Forest Acres and produced Washington stallion Tabun Bogdo. Spectacular Bid’s dam Spectacular was a gray daughter of gray Promised Land; and Theia was a daughter of gray Caro (Fr).

Preachinatthebar’s first Washington crop hit the tracks in 2014 and he currently leads the state’s juvenile sire list by winners with seven, six of them at Emerald Downs: Preachattheforum, Bella Colomba, Preachinmerit, Preachatsagoi, Snow Bunny and Bar Room Riot. Iwannabeadiveatoo added a Portland Meadows maiden special weight on October 12. Four won their first starts by open lengths. The other three came home winners in their second starts.

Stallion News & Updates Northern Causeway to Rancho San Miguel Rozamund Barclay announced in mid-October that her 2011 British Columbia Horse of the Year and Grade 3 stakes winner Northern Causeway has been retired from racing and will enter stud at Rancho San Miguel in San Miguel, California, for the 2015 breeding season for a $2,500 fee.

The $265,367 stakes winner became the 100th stakes winner sired by European Horse of the Year and three-time leading US-based sire Giant’s Causeway when he won the Richmond Derby Trial Handicap at Hastings Racecourse in August 2011. Now up to155 stakes winners and the earners of over $126-million (including over $10.4-million in 2014) in his first 11 crops, Giant’s Causeway is one of 181 stakes winners sired by champion sire and sire of sires Storm Cat. Known as “The Iron Horse” after winning five consecutive Group 1 events as a three-year-old, Giant’s Causeway currently ranks third on the North American leading sire list. His 2014 stud fee was $85,000. After winning the 1 1/16-mile Richmond Derby Trial in gate-to-wire fashion, Northern Causeway came back to win the $200,000 British Columbia Derby (G3) in an exciting finish over Jebrica in the ninepanel race. In addition to Washington champion and Grade 2-placed Jebrica, Northern Causeway’s beaten Derby foes included future Grade 3 and 11-time stakes winner Commander, Washington champion Couldabenthewhisky and 2013 Longacres Mile (G3) winner Herbie D.

Throughout his career, which also included a third in the Grade 3 BC Premier’s Handicap, Northern Causeway – a $150,000 Keeneland September yearling – was trained by Len Kasmerski. Northern Causeway’s female line is equally illustrious. He is one of five winners out of the winning Silver Deputy mare Getaway Girl, a half-sister to Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, who set a new track record in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), earned over $3.4-million and is a top sire; Grade 1 stakes winner and highly ranked sire City Zip; and Grade 3 winner City Wolf.

Smiling Tiger to Move to Harris Farms

Northern Causeway’s second dam, Baby Zip, a halfsister to stakes winner Lucette and Turkish champion Win River Win, was named 2005 broodmare of the year.

Gallant Son to Retire to Stud at Bar C Racing Stables for 2015 Season

2008 Emerald Downs champion two-year-old male Gallant Son, who took a trio of stakes - including the Gottstein Futurity and WTBOA Lads Stakes - in his four wins at two and has been a stakes winner in five of his six seasons of racing since, will retire at the end of the year to stand his first season at stud and Pam and Neal Christopherson’s Bar C Racing Stables in Hermiston, Oregon. Gallant Son, who began his race career at Emerald Downs for Chris and Dianna Randall and currently races for Randall and Rossi LLC, has made all his starts under the tutelage of Emerald Downs five-time leading (by wins) trainer Frank Lucarelli. A son of Grade 3 stakes winner and $325,622 earner Malabar Gold – a son of champion Unbridled – Gallant Son is one of three colts out of $40,960 winner Explicitly, a 2001 daughter of Exploit who was sold to Korean interests the fall after Gallant Son was born and has since produced 2011 KRA Cup Classic winner Ace Galloper, by Chapel Royal, and Royal Galloper, a son of Commendable who finished third in the 2013 Sports Chosun Cup.

In addition to his three stakes victories at Emerald, Gallant Son has won six stakes in California, including a win in the Grade 3 Inglewood Handicap at Hollywood Park in 2010. His latest victory came in his first start in 2014, in the Jess Jackson Owners’ Handicap at Santa Rosa on August 9. Among his seven other stakes placements, were five Grade 3 performances. His current record stands at 11-5-6 from 40 starts with $552,228 in earnings. According to Lucarelli, “He’s doing great, and he looks like a million bucks.” The runner’s stud fee and conditions will be announced after his retirement.

Philip Lebherz and Alan Klein’s three-time Grade 1 winner, Eclipse Award Sprint finalist and WTBOA Sale poster boy Smiling Tiger has been moved to Harris Farms in Coalinga, California, where he will stand his second season at stud for a $5,000 stud fee. The seven-year-old chestnut son of Hold That Tiger­—Shandra Smiles, by Cahill Road, has been reported as having over 80 mares confirmed in foal from his first season at Premier Thoroughbreds LLC. “He is a big good-looking horse, very consistent and hard-knocking, and was on the board in tough races, 19 of 23 times,” said John Harris, owner of Harris Farms, which also includes 2014 double classic winner California Chrome’s sire Lucky Pulpit and four-time leading California sire Unusual Heat on its stallion roster. “He keeps the Storm Cat line going and will be a fabulous sire for California and the nation. We plan to breed some of our best mares to him.”