Corningstone retired, will be bred

The near-millionaire Corningstone has been retired and is scheduled to be bred during the upcoming season, according to her trainer, Kenny McPeek.

The 6-year-old daughter of Kantharos won 10 of 31 starts and earned $979,978. She raced for Payson Stud Inc. and RTA Trust.

Corningstone made her final start Dec. 26, finishing fifth in the Pippin Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

“She’s officially retired,” McPeek said last week. “She came out of the race fine, and Christian Erickson, principal for Payson Stud, we talked about it. And we were hopeful to get her over a million, so she’s going to fall just shy. But she’s going to go to Kentucky – she’s actually already in Kentucky – with intentions to be bred this spring.”

McPeek said stallion plans are to be determined.

“I know some top horses are being considered, like Gun Runner,” he said.

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Corningstone was a pillar of consistency throughout her career, winning six stakes. She was a past winner of the Pippin and two starts ago ran a big second in the Grade 3 Falls City at Churchill Downs, with a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 91.

McPeek said last fall that Corningstone was likely to be retired in late 2025 or early 2026.

“She’s been an honest, consistent, hard-knocking mare,” he said. “Every time she went over there, she gave her best.”

Corningstone is out of the Street Sense mare Ice Women. Ice Women has another stakes winner in Ice Cold, who was trained by McPeek, while another of Ice Women’s foals, the stakes-placed First Division, was to have run Friday for McPeek in an overnight stakes at Oaklawn.

Corningstone was bred in Indiana.

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