Data Link retired, to stand at Claiborne Farm

Grade 1 winner Data Link has been retired from racing and will begin his stallion career in 2014 at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky.

The 5-year-old son of War Front finishes his career with eight wins from 18 races for earnings of $831,335. Four of those wins came in graded stakes company, highlighted by the Grade 1 Makers 46 Mile at Keeneland Race Course in 2012. Data Link, who was trained by Shug McGaughey, also set a course record on the Monmouth Park turf at 1 1/8 miles, winning the Grade 2 Monmouth Stakes in the same year.

Data Link was foaled and raised at Claiborne for owner/breeder Stuart Janney III, and now joins his sire War Front on the farm’s stallion roster. The horse is out of the stakes-winning Known Fact mare Database, who is the dam of two winners from four foals to race, including stakes-placed winner Wiki.

A second-generation product of the prominent Janney breeding program, Data Link is from the family of Grade 1 winner Hymn Book, Grade 3 winner Strike the Bell and stakes winners Vespers, Make My Heart Sing, and Citizen Advocate.

“We are pleased to have Data Link at Claiborne,” said Bernie Sams, Claiborne’s bloodstock manager. “He was a very good, very consistent racehorse. He has an attractive pedigree, and it has no Mr. Prospector until the fifth generation. I think he will be a good outcross for a lot of breeders.”