Coolmore acquires breeding rights for key BC Juvenile contender Eight Rings

The breeding rights to Grade 1 winner Eight Rings, who is among the favorites for next week's Breeders' Cup Juvenile, have been acquired by the international Coolmore group. The outfit plans to stand the colt at its Ashford Stud in Kentucky upon his eventual retirement.

Eight Rings is from the first crop of 2-year-olds sired by Empire Maker after he was repatriated from Japan. His bloodline is already well represented at Ashford, which stands Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and Eclipse Award champion Classic Empire, both by Empire Maker's son Pioneerof the Nile. Both of those runners, along with fellow Ashford stallions Lookin At Lucky and Uncle Mo, earned Eclipses as outstanding juveniles – a title Eight Rings would certainly lock up with a Breeders' Cup win.

Eight Rings, who was bred by WinStar Farm, is campaigned by SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Fred Hertrich III, John Fielding and Golconda Stables. He is trained by Bob Baffert.

"We are excited that Eight Rings will have the opportunity to stand at Coolmore following retirement," Tom Ryan of SF Racing said in a release. "As a member of the first racing stable of our co-ownership group, we are particularly proud of Eight Rings, and it is important to all of us that he be given the best possible chance at stud. We have the utmost respect for Coolmore and their ability to support world-class stallion prospects, which we hope and expect Eight Rings to be."

Eight Rings has won two of his three career starts, with the only blemish coming in a bizarre incident when he ducked in and lost his rider in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity. He rebounded to win the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes by six lengths on Sept. 27 at Santa Anita, host site of the Breeders' Cup.

"Eight Rings was awesome in the American Pharoah Stakes and looks to be a colt with a huge future," Ashford manager Dermot Ryan said in the release. "We're delighted he's going to end up in Ashford."