2013 Eclipse Awards: Adena Springs

photo by: Shigeki Kakkawa

Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs operation put together another strong year in 2013, battling Ken and Sarah Ramsey at the top of the North American breeders earnings list as the year drew to a close. Stronach and Adena Springs, who have been honored as outstanding breeder eight previous times, amassed $11,999,752 in earnings, $176,085 behind the Ramseys. In stark contrast to the Ramseys, who vaulted up the leaderboard on the strength of their flagship sire Kitten’s Joy, Stronach generated his earnings by breeding to a stacked roster of Adena stallions, led by Awesome Again, Ghostzapper, and Macho Uno.

Earnings machine Game On Dude has been a large part of Stronach’s success as a breeder over the past four years, and the 7-year-old Awesome Again gelding bankrolled more than $2.5 million in 2013 by capturing five graded stakes, including his second consecutive Hollywood Gold Cup and his first Pacific Classic. Other prominent stakes winners bred by Adena Springs in 2013 include Grade 1 Vosburgh Stakes winner Private Zone (Macho Uno), Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes winner and Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint runner-up Judy the Beauty (Ghostzapper), and two-time Grade 2 winner Alpha Bettor (Alphabet Soup).

Stronach and Adena Springs also garnered headlines through several top-class horses sired by Adena stallions and bred by other parties. Oxbow, a son of Awesome Again who was bred by Richard Santulli’s Colts Neck Stables, won the Preakness Stakes. Macho Uno’s son Mucho Macho Man, third in the 2011 Kentucky Derby and second in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic, reached his best form last fall when he broke through with a game win in the Classic. The 5-year-old Mucho Macho Man was bred by John and Carole Rio.