Dixieland Band, one of the original three stallions at Lane’s End Farm, died at age 30 in 2010. A decade later, his great-grandson Catalina Cruiser will enter stud at the farm for the 2020 season as Lane’s End continues to invest in this sire line. Multiple Grade 2 winner Dixieland Band, a son of the great Northern Dancer, entered stud in 1985, when the stallion division of Lane’s End was established by William S. Farish and his wife, Sarah. Dixieland Band, who had been bred and raced by Sarah Farish’s mother, Mary Sharp, stood alongside Fit to Fight and Hero’s Honor on the initial stallion roster. He developed into a consistent stakes sire and a leading broodmare sire. Among the stallion’s best runners was multiple Grade 1 winner Dixie Union, who raced for Herman Sarkowsky in partnership with Gerald Ford’s Diamond A Racing. Dixie Union entered stud in 2001 at Diamond A Farms as the property of a syndicate managed by Farish, but swiftly moved to Lane’s End in order to better manage a fertility issue he experienced in his first season. The stallion went on to sire multiple Grade 1 winners, including 2012 Belmont Stakes victor Union Rags, a Phyllis Wyeth homebred who entered stud at Lane’s End in 2013. To date, Union Rags is the sire of Grade 1 winners Dancing Rags, Free Drop Billy, Paradise Woods, and Union Strike. Catalina Cruiser is a member of Union Rags’s first crop. Catalina Cruiser, who inherited Union Rags’s flashy white markings, was bred and raised at Lane’s End. He was a $370,000 Keeneland September yearling, moving on to run in the colors of Hronis Racing. “He was raised on the farm and he was always a standout,” said bloodstock agent David Ingordo, an adviser to Kosta Hronis. “His sire is coming off of a huge September sale, and this horse is one of Union Rags’s best physicals. He has tremendous commercial potential.” Catalina Cruiser won 7 of 9 career starts, his only losses coming in a pair of Breeders’ Cup outings. He was a five-time graded stakes winner who captured those victories both sprinting and routing, taking two editions each of the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs and Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles, both at Del Mar. He also traveled to New York to win this year’s Grade 2 True North at Belmont. :: NEW STALLIONS 2020: See DRF’s special section with a complete listing of incoming stallions worldwide and more