Real Quiet on the move

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Champion and 1998 Kentucky Derby winner Real Quiet will relocate within Pennsylvania for the 2008 breeding season, moving from William Solomon's Pin Oak Lane Stud in New Freedom to launch a new operation, Penn Ridge Farm, in Middletown, Pa.

Penn Ridge is owned by Real Quiet's syndicate manager Mike Jester and partner Joe Besecker. Real Quiet will be the first stallion for the 115-acre property. Penn Ridge is home to nearly 50 broodmares owned by Jester and Besecker.

Real Quiet will stand for $10,000, up from his $5,000 fee this year, with special consideration and a discount for mares foaling in Pennsylvania.

Jester said he bought the farm last year. It sits near the Pennsylvania Turnpike about two miles south of Harrisburg. With Real Quiet due to arrive by the end of December, Jester said he is busy with construction at Penn Ridge.

"We're building a new stallion barn and converting another barn for mares and foals, he said. "In the next three or four months, there's going to be a lot going on."

Jester said Penn Ridge might add stallions in the coming years but does not immediately plan to offer boarding for mares. Jester has about 26 mares at the farm, including six he purchased at the November mixed sales, and Besecker has about 20.

"We're not going to make this a commercial operation, at least for this year," he said. "I want to leave that open. But if we make it commercial, it would be for a select clientele."

Real Quiet, a 12-year-old son of Quiet American, leads all Pennsylvania sires and is ranked in the top 50 nationally. His 2007 stakes performers include Midnight Lute, winner of this year's Breeders' Cup Sprint and runner-up to Daaher in the Cigar Mile on Saturday; Grade 1 winner Pussycat Doll; Grade 3 winner Silent Pleasure; Grade 2-placed Wonder Lady Anne L; and stakes-winner Shuffling Maddnes.

From five crops to race, Real Quiet has progeny earnings of $12,341,086.