Heartwood among the new faces in California stallion ranks

The well-traveled Heartwood is scheduled to begin a stud career at Rancho San Miguel in San Miguel, Calif., early next year. By the time Heartwood reaches the central California farm, he could have a significantly enhanced race record.

Owned by Stuart Tsujimoto and David Bernsen and trained by James Chapman, Heartwood is scheduled to have as many as two more starts in the early weeks of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. He is being pointed to the Joe Hernandez Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on turf on Jan. 1 and the Palos Verdes Stakes at six furlongs on the main track on Jan. 23. Both races are Grade 2 and worth $200,000.

Wins in those races would boost Heartwood’s status as a stallion. Farm owner Tom Clark said earlier this month that Tsujimoto and Bernsen will support the stallion with their own mares.

Heartwood, 6, has won 8 of 33 starts and earned $486,691.

By Tapit, Heartwood has won three six-furlong dirt stakes – the Steel Valley Sprint Handicap for 3-year-olds at Mahoning Valley in Ohio in November 2017, the Sen. Robert Byrd Memorial at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia in August 2018, and the King Cotton Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas in February 2019.

Heartwood’s best result in a graded stakes is a second by three-quarters of a length in the Grade 3 Fall Highweight Handicap at six furlongs at Aqueduct in November 2018.

Purchased as a weanling for $500,000, Heartwood in his first five starts raced for Three Chimneys Farm and Bridlewood Farm when trained by Steve Asmussen. Tsujimoto and Chapman acquired control in the summer of 2017.

Heartwood is the most successful foal out of Maple Forest, a three-time stakes winner by Forestry who earned $275,066.

Heartwood is one of five new stallions in California for the 2021 breeding season, a smaller number than in recent seasons. Some of the new stallions were bred to a small number of mares in 2020 but will essentially have their first seasons at stud in the new year. There might be more new stallions before the start of the breeding season on Feb. 15, with late retirements from the racetrack and relocations from other farms.

Faversham, G.G. Ryder, Sawyer’s Hill, and Tough Sunday are the other new stallions in the state for 2021.

Faversham, a 5-year-old full brother to two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome, will stand for $2,000 at Daehling Ranch.

Faversham won 2 of 19 starts and earned $81,086 in a three-year career from 2018 to earlier this year. Faversham won a maiden special weight race at Santa Anita in June 2018, and an allowance race at Turfway Park in December 2019.

A California-bred by Lucky Pulpit, Faversham raced for Perry and Denise Martin, who co-owned California Chrome, the winner of the 2014 Kentucky Derby. California Chrome was Horse of the Year in 2014 and in 2016, his final full year on the track. California Chrome began his stud career in the United States and has since been sent to Japan.

G. G. Ryder’s name should be familiar to followers of California racing.

G. G. Ryder, by Chhaya Dance, won 16 of 64 starts and earned $747,819 racing from 2013 to February. G. G. Ryder won five stakes, including three one-mile Grade 3 stakes at Golden Gate Fields – the 2015 San Francisco Mile on turf and the All-American Stakes on the synthetic main track in 2015 and 2017.

G. G. Ryder is the most successful foal out of Stormy Gigi, a Storm Boot mare who is a full-sister to the stakes winner Barber and a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Force Freeze.

G. G. Ryder will stand at Victory Rose Thoroughbreds for $2,000.

Owner and breeder Nick Alexander bred Tough Sunday to a few of his mares in 2020 and plans to stand the 8-year-old at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez for $2,000 in 2021.

Tough Sunday, by Grazen, won 5 of 22 starts and earned $362,228 in a career that lasted from 2014 to 2019. Tough Sunday won the 2018 Sensational Star for California-breds at Santa Anita and placed in four other stakes, including second-place losses by a neck in the Grade 3 Midnight Lute Stakes at Santa Anita in December 2017 and the Thor’s Echo Stakes for statebreds in April 2018.

The fact Tough Sunday had any career was remarkable. Tough Sunday had a difficult foaling and was hospitalized at a central California clinic with numerous health issues in the first days of his life. There was widespread concern that he would not survive because of a loss of oxygen for several minutes.

Tough Sunday was unable to nurse and was hand-fed in the initial months of his life, Alexander said.

Tough Sunday is a half-brother to Sunday Rules, a four-time stakes winner in sprints for California-breds who earned $579,580.

Sawyer’s Hill had his final start in November 2018 and will go to stud at Milky Way Farm in Temecula, Calif., for a fee of $2,000. Since the end of his career, Sawyer’s Hill’s younger siblings have been in the racing news on the track and the sales ring.

Sawyer’s Hill, by Spring At Last, is a half-brother to Yaupon, the winner of two graded stakes who won his first four starts and then finished eighth as the 6-5 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland on Nov. 7.

In late summer, Sawyer’s Hill’s yearling half-sister by American Pharoah sold for $1.2 million at the Keeneland September yearling sale. The yearling was the fifth most expensive filly of the sale.

Sawyer’s Hill won 6 of 25 starts and earned $366,705. In 2014, Sawyer’s Hill was second in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby and Grade 2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita.