BC Classic upsetter Cat Thief stays under the radar in second career

Cat Thief sprang a $41.20 upset in the 1999 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park. Cat Thief, who now stands in Saudi Arabia, has flown similarly under the radar in his second career and is now quietly fashioning a good reputation as a broodmare sire, with champion Classic Empire on his résumé and Highway Star a contender for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

Highway Star is out of Stolen Star, who was multiple stakes placed for owner-breeders Chester and Mary Broman, perennial leaders in the New York Thoroughbred industry. The daughter of Cat Thief is now the dam of three winners from four starters, led by Highway Star, who has carried the Bromans’s colors to three graded stakes scores this year, including the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom Handicap last out at Belmont.

Cat Thief’s other most-well-known daughter, Sambuca Classica, is the dam of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and unanimous juvenile champion Classic Empire, who came back to win this year’s Arkansas Derby and finish second in the Preakness. She also produced stakes winners Anytime Magic and Uptown Twirl.

In addition to the Classic, the hard-knocking Cat Thief won the Grade 1 Swaps Stakes and finished in the top three in nine other Grade 1 events, including third-place finishes in both the 1999 Kentucky Derby and 1998 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. After initially standing at the Overbrook Farm of owner-breeder William T. Young, the son of Storm Cat relocated to Penn Ridge Farm in Pennsylvania for the 2009 season and was exported to Almusaadiyah Stud in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the 2014 season.

As a broodmare sire, Cat Thief’s 24 stakes winners also include Grade 1 winner Street Fancy, Grade 1-placed Grade 3 winner Stealcase, Grade 3 winner Brazen Persuastion, Chilean champion Wow Cat, and Belleza, a champion in the Dominican Republic.