First Dude takes command of Florida sire list

First Dude had something of a star-crossed career. The dual classic-placed runner was among the most respected performers of his division, but suffered a frustrating string of narrow defeats in major events. He finally broke through with his first Grade 1 victory – but was promptly forced into retirement by an injury.

First Dude’s progeny are now taking the sting out of those disappointments by carrying on their sire’s obvious talent. First Dude, standing at owner-breeder Donald Dizney’s Double Diamond Farm in Ocala, Fla., was the Sunshine State’s leading freshman sire of 2015, continued on to rank among the state’s leading general sires in 2016 and 2017, and in 2018 assumed command of that list outright. First Dude, by the late Stephen Got Even, posted progeny earnings of $4,918,031 in 2018, edging the late Wildcat Heir, a perennial Florida leading sire whose runners earned $4,155,371.

First Dude was represented by eight stakes winners in 2018, led by two solid female sprinters. Shamrock Rose made a late-season surge to earn the divisional Eclipse Award as outstanding female sprinter. Multiple stakes-placed earlier in the season, the filly returned from a freshening to win four consecutive stakes – the Malvern Rose Stakes at Presque Isle Downs, the La Lorgnette Stakes at Woodbine, the Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland, and, finally, the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs.

Skye Diamonds was among First Dude’s standouts in 2017, winning the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes and the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap before finishing a creditable fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar. She returned for another strong season for her sire in 2018, winning the Grade 3 L.A. Woman Stakes and placing in three other graded events.