Ohio: Stalwart sires and new faces in market

Cowtown Cat began his stud career in Florida and established himself among the leading stallions there, siring horses such as Canadian champion Calgary Cat. He moved to Mapleton Thoroughbred Farm in Polk, Ohio, beginning with the 2015 season and has made himself right at home in the Midwest region. Represented by his first locally sired runners, Cowtown Cat reigns as Ohio’s leading general sire for 2018.

Cowtown Cat, who will stand $2,000 this year, had 43 winners, 31 of those repeat winners, from 73 starters in 2018 for progeny earnings of $1,874,214. He led Ohio’s general sires in all those regards, followed on the earnings list among those who stood in the state in 2018 by Mobil ($943,370), Factum ($916,392), and Awesome Patriot ($761,953). Canadian champion Mobil and Awesome Patriot, who moved from Spendthrift Farm to Ohio for the 2018 season, both stand alongside Cowtown Cat at Mapleton, giving the farm a dominant hand in the state. Factum stands at Poplar Creek Horse Center in Bethel, Ohio.

Cowtown Cat, a Grade 2-winning son of Distorted Humor, was led in 2018 by stakes winners Downtown Cowboy, a Florida-bred who took the Karl Boyes Memorial Stakes at Presque Isle Downs, and Pat’s Karma, who won the Joshua Radosevich Memorial Stakes for Ohio-accredited juveniles at Mahoning Valley Race Course. Those two pushed his career number of stakes winners to seven, and, through Jan. 8, the stallion boasted a 76 percent career-winners-from-starters ratio.

Mobil, who has been among Ohio’s top three sires every year but once since moving to the state for the 2013 season, was powered on the year by Mobil Solution, who won the Catlaunch Stakes at Thistledown and Horizon Stakes at Belterra Park. In the Catlaunch, he defeated state stalwarts Leona’s Reward and Eightthehardway. Mobil Solution also finished second in three other stakes.

High-end partnership brings new talent

WinStar Farm and Blazing Meadows Farm, which have campaigned several stakes-winning Ohio-breds together in recent years, announced in December the launch of a formal partnership entitled WinBlaze LLC. The partners will stand graded stakes winner National Flag at Blazing Meadows in North Jackson, Ohio – not only bringing a new and exciting young stallion to the state, but likely boosting the population of mares to support him.

National Flag, by WinStar stallion Speightstown, was a $600,000 yearling purchase by WinStar and China Horse Club. The colt won 3 of 6 career starts, highlighted by a four-length score in last year’s Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct.

National Flag will stand for a fee of $2,500.

WinStar and Blazing Meadows entered into a partnership several years ago to breed Ohio-breds. Blazing Meadows owner Tim Hamm – who has partnered with a number of other prominent operations in breeding and ownership, including Three Chimneys Farm, Siena Farm, George Bolton, and Bradywine Farm – bred mares to WinStar stallions. The mares returned to Ohio to foal, with the offspring trained by Hamm for WinStar. Top Ohio-breds raced by the partnership in recent years include Awaken (by Super Saver), winner of the 2017 Juvenile Stakes on the Best of Ohio showcase program; Diamond Dust (Paynter), winner of the 2018 Juvenile; and Coincidentally (Super Saver), second in the 2018 Best of Ohio Sprint.

WinStar executive Elliott Walden said that his operation recently purchased 10 mares to base in Ohio for WinBlaze LLC and plans to have a total of 16 in the state with an eye toward supporting National Flag.

“This partnership provides a great opportunity, not only for us, but it should be exciting for guys up there who breed to race,” Walden said. “National Flag will be a part of our ‘Dream Big’ program. We are offering 20 shares where, if a breeder brings two mares and have foals by him, they will inherit lifetime breeding rights.”

Poplar Creek brings in strong duo

Italian Group 1 winner Biondetti, Florida’s leading freshman sire of 2016, will relocate to continue his stallion career at Poplar Creek Horse Center. He will move onto the state's leading general sires list as part of a duo of incoming stallions for the farm, with the other coming from much closer to home, as Ohio champion sprinter Rivers Run Deep retires for 2019.

Biondetti, who formerly stood at Woodford Thoroughbreds in Reddick, Fla., had been entered in the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale. Poplar Creek’s Robin Murphy moved to acquire the Bernardini stallion privately prior to sale time. Meanwhile, she also had secured Rivers Run Deep, by Ready’s Image, who last started in November at Fair Grounds for James Travis and Ywachetta Driver.

Rivers Run Deep, multiple times voted Ohio’s champion sprinter, finished his racing career with a record of 20-12-6 from 46 starts and earnings of $1,187,945. He won the Best of Ohio Sprint in 2014, 2015, and 2016, finished second by a nose in 2017, and was third in 2018 in his penultimate start. Overall, he recorded 14 stakes wins and an additional nine stakes placings.

Biondetti, who is from the immediate family of champion Royal Delta, won 3 of 9 starts, winning the Group 1 Gran Criterium in Italy as a juvenile and finishing second in the Group 3 Prix Messidor in France the following season. As a stallion, he is the sire of stakes winner Bella Vincenza and three other stakes-placed runners, including Mr Chocolate Chip, second in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor last year.