Protonico retired to stand at Taylor Made Farm

Multiple graded stakes winner Protonico is the latest addition to the expanding stallion roster at Taylor Made Farm.

Protonico, a 5-year-old son of Giant’s Causeway, will stand for a debut fee of $6,500 in 2017, with Taylor Made offering, as an incentive, a lifetime breeding right after breeders have two live foals and pay the stud fees.

This is the fourth new stallion at Taylor Made for 2017, joining Horse of the Year and leading money winner California Chrome, versatile Grade 1 winner Mshawish, and Grade 3-winning juvenile Not This Time. The farm, which lost flagship stallion Unbridled’s Song three years ago, more than doubles the size of its roster after standing just three stallions in 2016.

Protonico, winner of the Grade 3 Discovery Handicap and Grade 3 Smarty Jones Stakes as a 3-year-old, scored his biggest career victory the following spring, when he captured the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs over a field that included eventual champion Honor Code and subsequent Grade 1 winner Noble Bird. He also won the Grade 3 Ben Ali Stakes at Keeneland that year.

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Protonico also finished second in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, beaten half a length by Hoppertunity, as a 3-year-old, and third behind that rival and Effinex in this year’s Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, his final career start. In total, he compiled a career record of 16-7-1-2 for earnings of $997,587.

“I believe Protonico was very unlucky not to win a Grade 1, but he was one of the most versatile and better-looking horses we had in the barn,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.

Protonico is out of an A.P. Indy mare, and his second dam is multiple Grade/Group 1 winner Wild Spirit.