Bucchero, son of Kantharos, enters Florida stallion market

Kantharos entered stud in Florida in 2011 and rapidly rose to national prominence, moving from his regional pond into Kentucky’s deep waters for the 2017 season.

Among the stakes winners helping to propel Kantharos forward has been Bucchero. The multiple graded stakes winner gets a chance to make a splash of his own, an anticipated addition to the Florida stallion ranks this year, as he fills the void as the first son of Kantharos to enter the market.

“We could not be more excited to have Bucchero join our expanding stallion roster for 2019,” Joe Barbazon, owner of Pleasant Acres Stallions, said of his new addition. “Kantharos was a very successful stallion in Florida. The opportunity to offer his son to the many breeders in Florida who were successful with his sire is exciting. Pleasant Acres Farm and Bucchero’s ownership will be supporting him with some of our best mares.”

Bucchero won 11 of 31 career starts, earning $947,936. He won back-to-back editions of the Grade 2 Woodford Stakes at Keeneland. The world traveler was a creditable fifth in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes at the renowned Royal Ascot meeting last June, and was fourth, beaten a length, in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar.

Bucchero also was a four-time stakes winner at Indiana Grand, in the state of his birth, and a stakes winner at Mountaineer. His seven stakes placings included a runner-up finish in last year’s Grade 2 Shakertown Stakes at Keeneland and a third in the Grade 3 Twin Spires Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs.

“He is as game a horse as I have ever trained,” trainer Tim Glyshaw said. “He has everything you want in a horse – speed, versatility, durability, and most importantly, heart.”

Other seasoned stakes competitors retiring to Florida for 2019 include Grade 1 winner Girvin, who joins the roster at Ocala Stud in a deal involving several parties, including major Kentucky operation Airdrie Stud.

Brad and Misty Grady of Grand Oaks Farm, who campaigned Girvin on the racetrack, have partnered with Kentucky-based Airdrie to co-own Girvin through his stallion career. The deal was structured by West Bloodstock.

“We’ve been big fans of Mr. Grady’s horse for a long time and are hugely appreciative of the opportunity he’s given us to partner on his stallion career,” Airdrie’s Brereton Jones said. “Girvin was a tremendously talented racehorse that was versatile enough to outsprint his rivals at 2 and stretch out to win the Louisiana Derby and Haskell at 3, and he’s as gorgeous as he is gifted.”

Girvin, a Tale of Ekati colt trained by Joe Sharp, won three of his first four outings, including the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby and Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes, to establish himself as a classics candidate. But the colt was nursing a troubled foot in the weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby and finished 13th on a sloppy track.

Girvin made five more starts in his career, highlighted by his narrow victory over McCraken in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational. He finished second in the Grade 3 Steve Sexton Mile last May in his only start of 2018.

In addition to their new standouts, Pleasant Acres and Ocala Stud have other additions for 2019. Pleasant Acres has a strong one-two punch with Grade 1 winner Long On Value debuting alongside Bucchero, while Ocala will add graded stakes winners Ami’s Flatter and Awesome Slew, both Grade 1-placed.

Wait, by Distorted Humor and out of champion Wait a While, enters stud at Arindel Farm.