Alternation moves to Darby Dan Farm

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Successful sire Alternation has been re-syndicated and will continue his stud career at Darby Dan Farm as his birthplace, Pin Oak Stud, continues to wind down its operations.

Josephine Abercrombie’s Pin Oak had been downsizing its stock over the past several years as part of its strategic exit from commercial operations. The most serious step in that process took place in September, as Pin Oak’s broodmares, their 2021 weanlings, and some racing fillies were dispersed in a special auction at Fasig-Tipton.

More than a dozen retired mares and runners will remain as pensioners on Abercrombie’s Versailles, Ky., farm. Those will include successful homebred sire Broken Vow, 24, who has been retired after standing his final season in 2021.

However, the farm’s other homebred stallion, Alternation, a 13-year-old son of Distorted Humor, has many more years ahead of him. He will continue his career at Darby Dan, a solid gain for that roster as an already successful sire.

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“We’re excited to bring a horse of Alternation’s caliber to Darby Dan,” stallion director Ryan Norton said in a press release. “He was a top-class horse on the racetrack, he is from an active and accomplished Pin Oak family, and he is already making his presence felt as a stallion, siring the likes of Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress. He is a great-looking horse and possesses all the qualities to be a top sire.”

Millionaire Alternation won the Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes as a 3-year-old. He was even better as an older horse, winning, in 2012, the Essex Handicap, Grade 3 Razorback Handicap, Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap, and Grade 3 Pimlico Special in succession. He added the Governor’s Cup at Remington later in the year.

Serengeti Empress, from Alternation’s second crop, leads her sire’s 10 stakes winners to date, retiring with earnings of more than $2.1 million. A Grade 2 winner as a juvenile and early in her 3-year-old campaign, the versatile filly carried her natural speed to win the 2019 Kentucky Oaks. She cut back to one turn for a pair of runner-up efforts in Grade 1 events in New York, the Acorn and the Test. She then stretched back out to finish third against older horses in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

In 2020, Serengeti Empress turned in another consistent and versatile campaign, winning the Grade 2 Azeri at Oaklawn routing and the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga sprinting. She finished a close second in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff and was second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint to conclude her career.

Alternation also is the sire of Limation, winner of the Grade 3 Super Derby in 2018.

Alternation is out of the stakes-winning Seattle Slew mare Alternate, a half-sister to Canadian Horse of the Year Peaks and Valleys. Alternate also is the dam of Grade 1 winner Higher Power and stakes winner Interruption. Higher Power, who was sold by Pin Oak and campaigned by Hronis Racing, entered stud in 2021 at Darby Dan and now welcomes his half-brother to the roster.

◗ Grade 1 winner Lexitonian, campaigned as a homebred for Calumet Farm, will begin his stud career across town at Lane’s End Farm.

Lexitonian, a 5-year-old son of Speightstown, finished ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar in his final start. His biggest of three career stakes victories came when he won the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap in July at Saratoga. He was a close second in two other Grade 1 races.