Awesome Again, 25, pensioned from sire duty

Frank Stronach's homebred Canadian Hall of Famer Awesome Again, the sire of multiple champions and classic winners, has been pensioned from stud duty, Adena Springs announced on Wednesday. The son of Deputy Minister is 25, and had been servicing select books of mares for a private fee in recent years.

"He is still my signature horse and will continue to be treated like the champion he is," Bill Drury, Adena Springs Kentucky's stallion manager, said in a release. "Any time people come by for shows, he is the first one we bring out, and they still marvel at his condition even though he is 25 years old."

Awesome Again won the 1997 Queen’s Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, at 1 1/4 miles in just his third start. He then raced at Saratoga for the rest of that summer, winning the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes and finishing third in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes.

:: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales

The following season, Awesome Again won all six of his starts, with five graded stakes scores, including Grade 1 triumphs in the Whitney Handicap and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He defeated dual classic winner and champion Silver Charm by three-quarters of a length in the Breeders’ Cup, leading home a star-studded field that also included Horse of the Year Skip Away, Belmont Stakes winners Touch Gold and Victory Gallop, and Grade 1/Group 1 winners Arch, Coronado’s Quest, Gentlemen, and Swain.

"I don't think you'll ever see as strong a field that he beat in 1998 in the Breeders' Cup Classic, with eight Grade 1 winners and six of those multiple Grade 1 winners," Drury said.

Awesome Again is the sire of 72 stakes winners, and is less than $5 million away from passing the $100 million milestone in career progeny earnings, with a bankroll of $95,406,177. His top runner is Adena’s homebred Ghostzapper, the 2004 Horse of the Year. Ghostzapper earned more than $3.4 million while winning 9 of 11 career starts and won at distances from six furlongs to the 1 1/4 miles of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, earning Beyer Speed Figures as high as an astonishing 128.

Awesome Again’s other standouts include Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner and Eclipse Award champion Ginger Punch; 2013 Preakness Stakes winner Oxbow; 2019 Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston; 2004 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Wilko; 2006 Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Round Pond; Grade 1 winner Paynter, second in the 2012 Belmont Stakes; Grade 2 winner Bravazo, second in the 2018 Preakness Stakes to Triple Crown winner Justify; and Grade 1 winners Awesome Gem, Daaher, Dubai Escapade, Game On Dude, Spun Sugar, and Toccet.

Ghostzapper, now standing at Adena Springs, has carried on his sire's legacy. His top runners include Canadian champion and multiple Grade 1 winner Shaman Ghost; fellow Queen’s Plate winner and Canadian champion Holy Helena; Canadian champion Hunters Bay; Better Lucky, a multiple Grade 1 winner on turf who was second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint; and Grade 1 winners Guarana, Molly Morgan, Moreno, Paulassilverlining, Stately Victor, and Za Approval.