Bonus offered to Saratoga maiden winners from Runhappy's first crop

Bonus money will be up for grabs for members of champion sprinter Runhappy’s first crop racing at Saratoga next year, the latest in a robust series of promotions for the stallion on the New York circuit.

A $100,000 bonus will be paid to any 2-year-old by Runhappy who wins an unrestricted maiden race during the 2020 meet at Saratoga, when the stallion will be among North America’s freshman sire class. Runhappy, who was campaigned by Jim McIngvale, stands at historic Claiborne Farm.

The availability of the lucrative bonus will presumably bring added interest from buyers when Runhappy’s first yearlings come to the commercial market this year. The stallion, who is by Super Saver, averaged a healthy $148,667, against a $25,000 stud fee, from 15 first-crop weanlings sold at public auction in the fall of 2018. He averaged $160,000 from three short yearlings sold earlier this year.

“It’s an incentive for the buyers, and it’s also a reward for the breeders that have invested in Runhappy,” McIngvale said. “Hopefully, it’ll make people more interested in the foals. It should be exciting for the breeders and the buyers and the trainers.”

McIngvale called the Saratoga bonus program a “natural outcross” of a relationship with the New York Racing Association, as Runhappy is the title sponsor of several Grade 1 races on the circuit. Those include the Metropolitan Handicap on the Belmont Stakes undercard. The stallion also will be the title sponsor of Saratoga’s Hopeful Stakes for juveniles; the H. Allen Jerkens, which he won when it was known as the King’s Bishop, for 3-year-old sprinters; and the Travers Stakes. There also is a $100,000 stakes race named for the stallion in May at Belmont.

“We’re very excited about keeping Runhappy’s name at the forefront of horse racing and letting people know that he was a great racehorse and hopefully he’ll be an even better stallion,” McIngvale said.

Runhappy won 7 of 10 career starts for earnings of more than $1.4 million and was the Eclipse Award winner as outstanding male sprinter of 2015. He posted four graded stakes victories that season, led by the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland.

Runhappy covered 127 mares in his first season at stud in 2017, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. Those included stakes-placed Lady Diplomat, who gives him a rooting interest in Saturday’s renewal of the Metropolitan. Lady Diplomat is the dam of three stakes winners, including Glacken’s Gal, who, in addition to producing Grade 2 winner Live Lively, is the second dam of Grade 1 winner and Met Mile entrant Mitole.

Runhappy’s first book also included Grade 1 winner Meadow Breeze, the dam of Grade 1-placed Royal Copy; Ms Cornstalk, dam of Canadian champions Biofuel and Tu Endie Wei; and Gold Vault, the dam of Grade 1 winner Contested, among other stakes performers or producers.

Young stallions typically garner strong books of mares when they retire to stud, with their supporters looking to get them off to a strong start, then see a decrease in numbers for a few years until their progeny are proven on the racetrack or in the sale ring. But Runhappy’s second book was nearly identical in number, at 128 mares. That second book included multiple Grade 1 winner Belle Gallantey, who is from the extended family of champion Arrogate; Grade 2 winner and multiple stakes producer Frolic’s Dream; and Orate, a multiple stakes-producing full sister to Grade 2 winner and prominent sire Pulpit.

“That was one of the goals” of the promotions, McIngvale said. Stallion manager “Bernie Sams and [farm president] Walker Hancock at Claiborne did all the heavy lifting – we just helped with the promotion. But his number of mares increases every year. It’s kind of unusual – but that was kind of the purpose, was to keep Runhappy relevant. It’s an exciting time.”