With the addition of Colonel Liam late in the game, Ocala Stud will debut three new stallions for 2023, all Grade 1 winners, giving them one of the strongest new hands of any farm on the East Coast. Colonel Liam, a two-time winner of the Pegasus World Cup Turf, was retired prior to this year’s edition with an ill-timed ankle issue. He had been training in Florida for his repeat bid, and now remains in Florida for stallion duty. The son of Liam’s Map won five turf stakes, with a trio of Grade 1s – his Pegasus victories and the Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs. “So proud of what this colt was able to achieve on the track, and I can’t wait to see what he does in the breeding shed,” Jacob West, bloodstock adviser to racing owners Robert and Lawana Low, wrote on social media. “Super excited to have Ocala Stud stand him, and I promise those who support him will be rewarded.” Colonel Liam joins two previously announced Grade 1 winners entering stud in 2023 at Ocala Stud in Roadster and Gretzky the Great. Roadster, by Quality Road, earned his Grade 1 in the 2019 Santa Anita Derby in his fourth career start. He placed in six other stakes. “Roadster is all class, and he was an exciting colt on the racetrack,” Ocala Stud’s David O’Farrell said in a press release. “He was an extremely precocious juvenile . . . The following year, Roadster proved he was a serious racehorse with a tremendous win in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, turning the tables on [champion] Game Winner. “He competed against the best of his generation throughout his career, and we are excited to offer breeders the opportunity to breed to a top-class son of Quality Road who has the looks, pedigree, and performance to be a leading stallion.” Gretzky the Great is from the first crop of champion juvenile Nyquist – from a blossoming sireline, as he, in turn, is by champion and emerging sire of sires Uncle Mo. Gretzky the Great won the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine in a multiple stakes-winning campaign that earned him a Sovereign Award as Canada’s champion juvenile. He also was a stakes winner the following season. Mind Control to stud in New York Multiple Grade 1 winner Mind Control raced at 11 different tracks, and there was interest in him as a stallion prospect from farms around the world. But ultimately, he will stand in New York, the state where he had the greatest success, for a unique partnership of some of the state’s biggest interests. Mind Control now resides at Rockridge Stud in Hudson, N.Y., where he will be under the management of Irish Hill Farm, Dutchess View Stallions, and Rockridge. He will stand as the property of those three entities, along with Waldorf Farm and his racing owners, Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stable. Mind Control won the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct in early December in his career finale, with his connections letting it be known the horse’s stallion rights were still available. According to Rick Sacco, racing manager for Red Oak, there was interest in the son of Stay Thirsty from farms in the United States, Middle East, and Japan. “Given that his three Grade 1 victories were on the NYRA circuit, we believe Rockridge Stud in the state of New York is the perfect place for Mind Control to begin his stallion career,” Sacco said in a press release. Mind Control won 11 stakes during his career, with Grade 1 victories in the 2018 Hopeful and 2019 H. Allen Jerkens at Saratoga, and the Cigar Mile. “This is a significant development for Rockridge Stud, Irish Hill Farm, Dutchess Views Stallions, and for the breeding industry in New York,” Rockridge owner Lere Visagie said in a press release. “Getting this group of partners together to support Mind Control gives us a phenomenal opportunity to make him the most successful stallion to ever stand in the state.” Keepmeinmind follows sire's footsteps to Sequel Grade 2 winner Laoban, by breakout young sire of sires Uncle Mo, made a stellar start to his stud career at Sequel Stallions in New York. The stallion was second on the national freshman sire list in 2020 to Nyquist, another son of Uncle Mo, while having fewer starters. Off his early success, Laoban was “called up” to the deep Kentucky stallion market for 2021 at WinStar Farm, but died in his first season. Sequel Stallions now gets a chance to keep tapping into the sireline, as Keepmeinmind, one of the standouts from Laoban’s first crop, retires there for the 2023 season. Keepmeinmind was second to eventual champion Essential Quality in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, then finished third to Essential Quality and future classic-placed Grade 1 winner Hot Rod Charlie in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Future champion Jackie’s Warrior was fourth, and the following year’s Preakness Stakes winner, Rombauer, was fifth. Keepmeinmind closed his 2-year-old campaign with a breakthrough victory in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. Keepmeinmind crossed the line seventh in the Kentucky Derby – he would be promoted to sixth on the disqualification of Medina Spirit – and was a solid fourth in the Preakness Stakes. He recorded two more graded stakes placings that summer. Keepmeinmind closed his career by finishing third behind Life Is Good in the Grade 1 Woodward last fall. Sequel adds another graded stakes winner for the upcoming breeding season in Fire At Will, the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner. Brody’s Cause moves to Pennsylvania Pennsylvania has no first-year stallions for 2023, but does get a big name shifting to the state in Brody’s Cause, a young Grade 1 winner and sire by Giant’s Causeway. The stallion was acquired by Rodney Eckenrode to stand at Equistar Training and Breeding in Annville, after formerly standing at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky. Brody’s Cause swept the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. From his first three crops of racing age, he is the sire of Kalypso, winner of the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes and three other stakes races; graded stakes winner Sittin On Go; and stakes winners Brody’s Streak and Enbarr.