Hightail returns to Calumet in Kentucky

Mongolian Groom punched his ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Classic with his victory in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes in September at Santa Anita, prompting his connections to supplement him to the race. He also punched a ticket home to Kentucky for his sire, Hightail, who has found stakes success from a limited sample size and now returns from several seasons in Arkansas to Calumet Farm for the 2020 season.

Hightail’s lone win in 10 career starts, all made as a 2-year-old, came in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint at Santa Anita. The son of Mineshaft covered just six mares in 2013 and four in 2014 in Kentucky, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. Remarkably, his first foal crop included multiple stakes winner Dynatail and Imperial Royal, a group stakes winner in the Dominican Republic. Mongolian Groom, from Hightail’s small second crop, finished third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, second in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap, and third in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic before scoring his upset win in the Awesome Again.

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While Mongolian Groom has put his sire in the headlines, Dynatail is also continuing to rack up earnings for him. Two of Dynatail’s four stakes victories have come this season, pushing her earnings past the half-million marker.

Hightail moved to Trophy Club Training Center in Royal, Ark., to stand for Calumet beginning with the 2015 season. In his five seasons in that state, Hightail covered books of 17, 24, 29, 12, and 12 mares, according to the the Report of Mares Bred.

“With small crops and only nine starters, producing a Grade 1 winner and two stakes winners, each with earnings of over $500,000, is a significant feat,” Calumet director of stallions Jak Knelman said in a release announcing Hightail’s return. “As the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint, Hightail offers the breeder both precocity and speed. He is also demonstrating that his progeny can carry that speed at a distance and continue to develop with age.”