Khozan casting his own shadow as Florida's leading sire

When Khozan went to stud, he was commonly referenced in conversation as the half-brother to multi-time Eclipse Award champion Royal Delta. Now, he has made a name of his own as Florida’s leading sire.

Khozan, who has stood his entire career at Brent and Crystal Fernung’s Journeyman Stud in Reddick, Fla., led the Florida first-crop and 2-year-old sire lists with his initial runners in 2019. He has led the Florida general sire list for four consecutive years since, and turned in a particularly dominant performance in 2023, leading across a number of categories.

Khozan sired 104 winners from 188 starters in 2023 for progeny earnings of $6,292,158 – besting former Ocala Stud resident Jess’s Dream’s $3,277,995. Jess’s Dream has been pensioned, with an eye toward becoming a stable pony at owner-breeder Stonestreet’s training center in Florida, widening the gap even more between Khozan and the next active sire on the list. That is First Dude, standing at Double Diamond Farm, who had progeny earnings of $2,987,097 in 2023.

On the North American general sire earnings list, Khozan is the highest-ranked stallion standing outside of Kentucky. Among stallions who were alive and active in North America in 2023, Khozan finished 42nd on the earnings list. Next among non-Kentucky stallions was Maryland’s Great Notion, sitting 45th.

“It’s particularly gratifying to us, because he came along at just the right time – Wildcat Heir had just died, and he was our signature horse,” Brent Fernung recalled of welcoming Khozan to the stallion barn.

The son of Distorted Humor won his only two starts in exciting fashion in 2012 – posting a Beyer Speed Figure of 102 on debut – with a combined win margin of 16 1/2 lengths. Injury prematurely ended the career of the half-brother to Hall of Famer Royal Delta and Grade 1 winners Crown Queen and Delta Prince.

“When we got Khozan in there, at the risk of sounding foolish, I kind of thought he could step up, because I always loved him,” Fernung said. “It makes us very happy. . . . I kind of anticipated that he was going to be among the upper echelon among sires outside of Kentucky, but you never know until you get into it.”

Khozan powered his way to the top in 2023 with a state-leading six individual stakes winners. The runners showcased their talents over a variety of distances and surfaces.

Foggy Night won the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks at 1 1/16 miles on dirt, joining her sire’s five career graded stakes winners: Me and Mr. C, already a stakes winner on both synthetic and turf, won the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup going 1 1/4 miles on the grass at Ellis Park; juvenile filly R Harper Rose won 3 of 4 starts last year, including the FTBOA Florida Sire Susan’s Girl at seven furlongs; Shaq Diesel and Squints won dirt sprint stakes; and Sugar Boy won two stakes on dirt in Puerto Rico.

Khozan led Florida’s synthetic sire earnings list, with $683,893 to $487,147 for Pleasant Acres Stallions’ Neolithic. He was a close second to First Dude on the turf earnings list, $534,041 to $517,798 – but had more individual winners than First Dude.

That versatility is important in Florida, where all three surfaces are in play at a high level. Gulfstream debuted its Tapeta surface in 2021.

“I mentioned Wildcat Heir earlier – and he was known strictly as a sire of good sprinters,” Fernung said. “When these Khozans started running, some of them wanted to go long, some of them wanted to go short. Some of them wanted the grass. The same ones that wanted the grass usually love the synthetic – and, of course, the dirt horses have prevailed as well.”

With the help of R Harper Rose, Khozan also dominated Florida’s 2-year-old sire list, with juvenile earnings of $1,568,577 to $554,110 for Briardale Farm’s Social Inclusion.

“If you look at the Florida-bred stakes program, it leans heavily toward 2-year-olds with the Florida Sire Stakes series,” Fernung said. “So if you have a horse that gets them quick and early like [Khozan], he’s usually going to be a force in there.”

Fernung said Khozan, who will stand for an advertised fee of $6,500 in 2024, pairs well with a variety of mares, both from a pedigree and a physical standpoint, helping breeders with their chances of success. Khozan’s 17 career stakes winners are out of mares by 14 different broodmare sires. His six stakes winners in 2023 came from being paired with six different broodmare sires.

“He kind of checks a lot of boxes,” Fernung said. “He’s a pretty easy horse to figure out, too – which mares he works with. There’s certain sirelines he just really takes off with. . . . Normally, I like to put mares with a little bit of leg under him, because he’s not the biggest horse in the world, but the truth of the matter is, he’s had some really nice horses out of kind of shorter-legged mares.

“[Graded stakes winner] Hot Peppers’ dam was not a very big mare. Several of his stakes winners are more compact, and they look fast and they were fast, and they’re out of mares that physically match him. And then you have other horses like Foggy Night. She’s a big, stretchy filly out of a mare who wanted to run a mile, mile and an eighth. So I think with him, he fits and matches up so well with a lot of mares.”