Graded stakes winner Unified retired, will stand at Lane's End

Multiple graded stakes winner Unified has been retired and will begin his stud career at Lane's End in 2018, the farm announced Thursday.

The son of Candy Ride, a prominent stallion at Lane's End, will debut for an advertised fee of $10,000.

Unified, trained by Jimmy Jerkens for Centennial Farms, won the first three starts of his career, graduating to graded company in just his second start to win the Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes at seven furlongs and subsequently taking the Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes at 1 1/8 miles.

“It’s rare that a horse with that kind of speed can carry it and win the traditional prep for the Belmont Stakes in one of the fastest times ever,” Jerkens said in a release. “It’s those types that make great sires.”

A fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Pegasus Stakes ended Unified's 3-year-old season. He returned from an eight-month layoff to win the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint by a neck over Mind Your Biscuits, then finished second by a neck to Green Gratto in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap. He finished seventh in the Grade 2 Belmont Sprint Championship in his final start.

Out of the stakes-placed Dixie Union mare Union City, Unified is a half-brother to stakes-placed Honkeytonk Man. Union City is a full sister to Grade 2 winner Dixie City, and this is the extended family of juvenile champion and prominent sire Dehere.