Calumet Farm adds four stallions for 2017

Calumet Farm announced fees for its stallions, and in doing so indicated it will have four new stallions for the 2017 breeding season. Big Blue Kitten, War Correspondent, Slumber, and Optimizer all will be standing their first season at stud in 2017 at the Lexington, Ky., farm.

Highest-priced stallion on the Calumet roster for 2017 is English Channel, at $25,000, the same fee as in 2016.

Big Blue Kitten, champion turf male of 2015, will stand for $15,000. He is a son of leading sire Kitten’s Joy and won four Grade 1 races and earned $2.98 million while racing from ages 3 to 8.

The other three new stallions will each stand for $5,000.

War Correspondent, by War Front, won the Grade 3 Appleton last year and won 4 of 10 career starts and earned $227,189. He is a full brother to Group 1 winner War Correspondent.

Optimizer, by English Channel, was campaigned by Calumet Farm and won three Grade 3 races - the Kent, Fair Grounds Handicap, and Col. E.R. Bradley Handicap - while winning 5 of 33 career starts and earning $979,289. He competed in all three Triple Crown races.

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Slumber, by Cacique, won the 2015, Grade 1 Manhattan Handicap in a racing career in which he won 3 of 19 starts and earned $1.37 million.

Oxbow, winner of the Preakness in 2013, will see his stud fee rise in 2017 to $20,000. It has been $17,500 the past two years. His first foals are 2-year-olds of 2017.

Americain, whose first foals are 2-year-olds, will see his fee increase to from $7,500 in 2016 to $10,000 even though he is 46th on the freshman sire list and has but one winner from nine starters, with no stakes horses.

“Our roster features a wide variety of bloodlines possessing soundness, conformation, and a propensity to winning classic two-turn races on both dirt and turf,” said Eddie Kane, Calumet Farm general manager. “We are focused not only on building long term relationships with breeders but also sharing in the commercial and racing success of our stallions. We invite breeders to join us as Calumet’s legacy is reborn.”

Following are the fees for the Calumet stallions for 2017, including the stallions it stands outside Kentucky.

Calumet Farm stallions

English Channel, $25,000 – same as in 2016

Oxbow, $20,000 – up from $17,500 in 2016

Big Blue Kitten, $15,000 – first year at stud

Americain, $10,000 – up from $7,500 in 2016

Red Rocks, $10,000 – down from $12,500 in 2016

Smarty Jones, $7,500 – same as in 2016

Aikenite, $5,000 – down from $7,500 in 2016

Grey Swallow, $5,000 – down from $7,500 in 2016

Musketier, $5,000 – same as in 2016

Optimizer, $5,000 – first year at stud

Point Given, $5,000 – down from $7,500 in 2016

Raison D’Etat, $5,000 – down from $7,500 in 2016

Ready’s Image, $5,000 – down from $7,500 in 2016

Real Solution, $5,000 – down from $7,500 in 2016

Slumber, $5,000 – first year at stud

War Correspondent, $5,000 – first year at stud

Eye of the Leopard, $2,500 – down from $7,500 in 2016

Snapy Halo, $2,500 – down from $7,500 in 2016

Regional stallions

Hightail , $2,500 – same as in 2016 – stands in Arkansas at Trophy Club Training Center

Lentenor, $2,000 – same as in 2016 – stands at Indiana Stallion Station

Vertiformer, $2,000 – same as in 2016 – stands at Poplar Creek Horse Center in Ohio