Eastern stallions: Friend or Foe feeling at home in Virginia

New York-bred Friend Or Foe is fashioning an unconventional stallion career in his adopted state of Virginia, with his offspring continuing to flourish back in his home state to make him a leading sire.

Friend Or Foe was the leading Virginia stallion with state-sired progeny in 2019, leading a small stallion list that could grow in coming years, as the return of racing at Colonial Downs last year could spark some activity in the state’s breeding program. One recent addition to the program is the regally bred Grade 1 winner Mr. Sidney, who is expected to cover his first mares in Virginia in 2020 after previously standing in Kentucky and West Virginia. Mr. Sidney’s progeny earnings would make him the Virginia leading stallion regardless of progeny conception location.

Friend Or Foe, who raced as a homebred for perennial New York leading owner-breeders Chester and Mary Broman, stands at Smallwood Farm in Crozet. The farm, which is owned and operated by Phyllis Jones and her daughter Robin Mellen, has been in operation for more than 50 years. Friend Or Foe has learned to jump since his retirement from the racetrack, and is available as both a racing and sport horse sire. He stands at Smallwood alongside the pony stallion Maple Side Wish List.

“We’ve bred everything from Clydesdales to event horses at Smallwood,” Jones told the Virginia Thoroughbred Association. “[Friend Or Foe’s] offspring have turned out to be wonderful and calm horses.”

The Bromans send two or three mares from New York every year to support Friend Or Foe. From 30 foals of racing age since he entered stud in 2013, according to Equineline statistics, the son of Friends Lake has nine winners from 11 starters. His most successful runners are multiple stakes winner Mr. Buff and stakes- placed Code Red, both bred by the Bromans.

Mr. Buff, who races in the Bromans’ colors, has remained in training for 2020 and will seek to achieve millionaire status, with earnings of $992,411 after his victory Jan. 25 in the Jazil Stakes at Aqueduct. Mr. Buff, who won the 2018 Alex M. Robb Stakes and placed third in the Empire Classic in 2018, kicked his game up a notch in 2019, with five stakes wins including the Empire Classic. He also repeated in the Alex Robb and won the Jazil Stakes, Evan Shipman Stakes, and Saginaw Stakes.

Friend Or Foe won the 2010 Empire Classic as a 3-year-old in his most successful season of racing, when his victories also included the Mike Lee Stakes at Belmont Park, part of the Big Apple Triple. Friend Or Foe was a stakes winner at 4 and stakes-placed at 5 in 2012. He also made several forays into graded stakes company, with his best effort a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap in 2011, beaten just a nose for third.

– Nicole Russo

West Virginia

The West Virginia breeding industry does not get a lot of love nationally, as it stands relatively inexpensive stallions and is outside the top 10 in number of mares bred annually. But in 2019, breeders should note that one of the state’s stallions, the little-known Fiber Sonde, had a terrific year, one that should have achieved some national notice while standing for the very modest fee of $1,000 at Beau Ridge Farm in Kearneysville.

Fiber Sonde in 2019 was West Virginia’s leading sire for the second straight year, but more notably, was 71st nationally on the general sire list with $3,859,723 in progeny earnings, sixth in the nation by median earnings per runner ($23,725), and 23rd by average earnings per starter ($40,523).

In 2019, Fiber Sonde, a son of Unbridled’s Song, was represented by four stakes winners, including two graded stakes winners. His gelded son Runnin’toluvya won the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic Stakes winner last year and earned $621,660, boosting his career total to his sire’s best $950,756. And his daughter Late Night Pow Wow won her second career graded stakes in 2019, taking the Grade 3 Barbara Fritchie Stakes at Laurel.

For his career, Fiber Sonde has sired 17 stakes winners from 277 foals of racing age (6.1 percent stakes winners from foals), with $11.9 million in total earnings, and a healthy average earnings per runner of $68,831.

Fiber Sonde was unraced but has the distinction of being a half-brother to 2004 champion sprinter Speightstown. In the 2007 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, Fiber Sonde was sold as a 2-year-old stallion prospect for just $8,000. He took up residence at Beau Ridge for the 2008 breeding season, and was West Virginia’s leading freshman sire in 2011.

Second on the 2019 West Virginia sire list was Windsor Castle, who stands at Taylor Mountain Farm for a fee of $2,000. Last year, Windsor Castle sired the winners of two West Virginia Breeders’ Classic stakes among his three stakes winners, and his progeny earned $2,236,992. The son of Lord Carson has stood in the state since retiring to stud in 2004.

Beau Ridge will stand four stallions in 2020, the other with foals of racing age being Master Rick, 25th on the state sire list. Newcomers to Beau Ridge in 2020 will be Redirect and Spiritus Invictus. Redirect, by Speightstown, is an unraced 4-year-old half-brother to graded stakes winner and sire Alternation, being out of the Seattle Slew mare Alternate. Spiritus Invictus, a 4-year-old by War Front, was unplaced in two starts and is out of the Grade 1-winning mare Centre Court, by Smart Strike. All four Beau Ridge stallions will stand for a fee of $1,000 in 2020.

– Mark Simon

New Jersey

Hey Chub has been a force in New Jersey for more a decade and a half, first as a racehorse and now as a sire. Last year, it was more of the same, as Hey Chub was New Jersey’s leading sire for the fourth straight year.

Being leading sire in New Jersey is not the same feat as it once had been, though, since the ranks of stallions in the state has thinned so dramatically in the past several decades. In 2019, there were only six stallions in New Jersey that covered mares, and the total of mares bred in the state was 33. In 2009, there were 24 active stallions and 206 mares were covered, so in a 10-year period, there was a 75 percent decline in stallions and 84 percent drop in number of mares bred. Twenty years ago, there were 51 stallions standing in New Jersey.

Hey Chub, a New Jersey-bred runner by Carson City, was bred and raced by Joe-Dan Farm. Racing from ages 3 through 8, he won or placed in seven New Jersey-bred stakes and earned $441,755. He retired to stand at his place of birth, Joe-Dan Farm in Medford, N.J., for the 2011 season and has been the preeminent state sire, getting four stakes winners from 51 foals of racing age, including graded stakes winner Chublicious. Hey Chub’s leading runner in 2019 was Brother Chub, winner of five of eight starts, including the Claiming Crown Express Stakes at Gulfstream Park, earning $158,540. Brother Chub, bred by Joe-Dan Farm, was also his sire’s leading runner in 2018, when earning $168,095, and the New Jersey-bred gelding has earned $539,036 overall.

– Mark Simon