Sire City Zip's versatility will be evident at Breeders' Cup

Late sire City Zip’s hallmark versatility will be on display at the upcoming Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar.

The stallion is likely to be represented by Eclipse Award champion Finest City, defending her victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint; a dirt router in prominent Breeders’ Cup Classic contender Collected; and a fleet-footed turf-route mare in Filly and Mare Turf hopeful Zipessa. He also has a Juvenile Turf pre-entrant in Snapper Sinclair, who owns a stakes win sprinting on turf.

Finest City can play more than one game, displaying versatility during her own championship season. In addition to her signature win sprinting, she finished third going longer in the Grade 1 Vanity Mile behind champions Beholder and Stellar Wind and started twice on turf with a Grade 2 placing. The mare is one of three Eclipse Award champions for City Zip, joining 2014 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Work All Week and 2014 Filly and Mare Turf winner Dayatthespa, both divisional honorees. He also sired 2015 Canadian Horse of the Year Catch a Glimpse, winner of the Juvenile Fillies Turf.

City Zip was euthanized earlier this year at age 19. The Carson City stallion, who had stood at Lane’s End since relocating from New York for the 2005 season, had suffered from chronic foot problems.

“City Zip’s extraordinarily kind disposition and strong spirit endeared him to all, and he will be greatly missed,” Lane’s End owner Will Farish said.

City Zip won four graded stakes races in New York as a juvenile, winning the Grade 3 Tremont at Belmont before sweeping the Grade 2 Sanford, Grade 2 Saratoga Special, and Grade 1 Hopeful – the latter in a historic dead heat with Yonaguska. He went on to add another quartet of stakes to his resume as a 3-year-old, highlighted by graded sprint victories in the Grade 3 Jersey Shore at Monmouth and the Grade 2 Amsterdam at Saratoga.

City Zip’s other career highlights as a stallion include multiple Grade 1-winning sprinter Palace; millionaire graded stakes winners Alert Bay and Get Serious; Grade 2 winner Reneesgotzip, third in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and second the following year; Grade 3 winner Unzip Me, third in the 2010 Turf Sprint; and the well-traveled City Style, a Group 3 winner in England, a stakes winner in the United States, and Group 1-placed in Dubai.

◗ Another Lane’s End stallion, Lemon Drop Kid, is poised for a big Breeders’ Cup. The 1999 Belmont Stakes winner and 2000 Eclipse Award champion older male, the stallion will be represented in the Breeders’ Cup Turf by Beach Patrol, winner of the Arlington Million and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational, and in the Distaff by Spinster winner Romantic Vision.

Lemon Drop Kid is also the broodmare sire of champion Finest City and her Filly and Mare Sprint challenger Bar of Gold, and is the broodmare sire of Distaff contender Forever Unbridled.