Friends Lake, Beethoven headed to stand in Saudi Arabia

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Grade 1 winner Friends Lake and Grade 2 winner Beethoven will stand in Saudi Arabia in 2011 after undisclosed Saudi interests purchased the two central Kentucky horses.

Chad Schumer’s Schumer Bloodstock Agency brokered the deals.

Friends Lake is a 9-year-old son of A. P. Indy and multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Antespend. He sired the late Grade 3 winner Screen Your Friend, 2010 stakes winners Soundwave and Friend of Foe, and seven other stakes winners or stakes-placed runners. From three crops to race, he has progeny earnings of more than $3.9 million. Friends Lake won the 2004 Florida Derby.

Beethoven, a 4-year-old Sky Mesa colt, heads to Saudi Arabia with a win in the 2008 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, a Grade 2 race, to his credit. He also finished third last year in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes. Trained by John Ward for John Oxley, he won 3 of 7 starts and finished third twice for a a career bankroll of $182,413.

Beethoven is out of the Carson City mare Moonlight Sonata, a Grade 3 winner.