Coil brings versatile record to California's Magali Farms

On Jan. 7, Coil was vanned 135 miles from Santa Anita Park to Magali Farms in Santa Ynez, Calif., for the first day of his new life as a stallion at the prominent California farm.

It was a day that Magali general manager Tom Hudson had sought for several months.

“I’ve been trying to get him for a long, long time,” Hudson said of the multiple Grade 1 stakes winner.

Now, Hudson has to find the mares. He has started promoting the stallion to California-based breeders with the hope of giving Coil a major boost in his first year at stud.

“I’d be extremely disappointed to not get 50 or 60 [mares to him], but in California you never know,” Hudson said. “We got a lot of calls to congratulate us.”

Coil comes off the track as a hot prospect with an attractive race record. He won his final start, the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 5, after successful 3- and 4-year-old seasons in 2011 and 2012. Racing for Mike Pegram, Paul Weitman, and Karl Watson and trained by Bob Baffert, Coil won seven of 14 starts and earned $1,154,360.

Coil is by Point Given, the 2001 Horse of the Year, and is out of Eversmile, a 12-year-old Theatrical mare who is a half-sister to Possibly Perfect, a millionaire and multiple Grade 1 winner who raced from 1992 to 1995.

At 3, Coil won the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at 1 1/8 miles at Monmouth Park in a season that included a second in the Grade 2 Swaps Stakes and a third in the Grade 1 Goodwood Stakes against older horses.

As a 4-year-old in 2012, Coil’s best performances came in sprints, with a win in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes at six furlongs in October. He was also second in the Grade 1 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs in August and third in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct in November.

Coil’s successful regression in distance after his 3-year-old season left Hudson impressed.

“This horse won the Grade 1 Haskell and won the Grade 1 [Santa Anita Sprint],” he said. “Not a lot of horses can do that. They can do the six [furlongs] and the mile and an eighth, but not go backward like that.”

In the Cigar Mile, Coil was beaten two lengths by Stay Thirsty and Groupie Doll, the outstanding sprint female.

The retirement of Coil was announced in late December. “They got him out of here before I changed my mind,” Baffert said a few days after the horse shipped.

Coil is part of a six-stallion roster at Magali that includes Atticus, Decarchy, Good Journey, Mr. Broad Blade, and Roi Charmant.

Global Hunter, who stood at Magali last year, has been sold for stud duty in Argentina. Giacomo, the winner of the 1995 Kentucky Derby, stood at Magali Farms for one season in 2012 and has been sent back to Adena Springs Farm in Paris, Ky.

“He’ll replace Giacomo in a second, in my opinion,” Hudson said of Coil. “We couldn’t have asked for a better horse to stand here.”