Alphabet Soup pensioned to Old Friends

Alphabet Soup, winner of the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Classic and a longtime sire for Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs operation, has been pensioned from stud duty and retired to Old Friends Equine in Georgetown, Ky.

The 24-year-old son of Cozzene previously resided at Adena Springs in Paris, Ky., bringing to an end a stallion career that also included stints in New York, Florida, and Ontario. He stood the 2015 breeding season for an advertised fee of $3,500.

"He arrived safely today and looks terrific," Old Friends president and founder Michael Blowen said on Monday. "We are so grateful to Frank Stronach and everyone at Adena Springs for entrusting us with this fabulous champion. We're really looking forward to meeting his fans."

Alphabet Soup has sired 15 crops of racing age with 483 winners and combined progeny earnings of more than $40.9 million. His leading runners include Canadian champions Alpha Bettor and Phantom Light; Grade/Group 1 winners Our New Recruit, Alphabet Kisses, and Egg Drop; Grade 2 winner Leprechaun Kid; and Grade 3 winners M B Sea, Mark One, Watchem Smokey, Silver Whistle, Beautiful Bets, and Fugitive Angel.

On the racetrack, Alphabet Soup won 10 of 24 starts over four seasons of racing for earnings of $2,990,270. His best season came in 1996 at age 5, when he won the Grade 2 San Antonio Handicap and San Pasqual Handicap and the Grade 3 Pat O’ Brien Handicap en route to a victory in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Woodbine.

The previous year, Alphabet Soup won the Grade 2 Del Mar Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap, the Grade 3 Native Diver Handicap, and the non-graded Harry F. “Bud” Brubaker Handicap.

Alphabet Soup raced the bulk of his career for Ridder Thoroughbred Stable and trainer David Hofmans. Stronach bought into the horse following his Breeders’ Cup victory.

Bred in Pennsylvania by Southeast Associates, Alphabet Soup is out of the multiple Grade 3-winning Arts and Letters mare Illiterate, whose 11 foals were all winners.