SirePowered Results: Birdstone

Noble Bird earned the first Grade 1 victory of his career in Saturday night’s Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs, holding off Lea in a furious stretch rally.

The Foster was the first Win and You’re In qualifying race toward the Breeders’ Cup Classic, to be contested Oct. 31 at Keeneland. With Noble Bird now targeting the major summer stakes en route to the fall event, sire Birdstone, standing at Gainesway in Lexington, Ky., is poised for a solid season.

Birdstone, a son of Grindstone, has gotten on a roll recently, as Daily Racing Form’s SirePowered Results shows him with nine winners since May 1, three of those coming this past weekend. Ack Feisty won a maiden-claiming race at Belmont Park on Friday; Noble Bird took the Foster on Saturday night; and Rare Eagle scored in a maiden special weight at Belmont on Sunday.

Noble Bird, who is trained by Mark Casse for John Oxley, earned a 107 Beyer Speed Figure for his Foster victory, the highest among Birdstone’s winners since May. The second-highest figure belongs to Tuckers Point, who posted a 95 while winning an optional-claiming event on June 5 at Charles Town.

Birdstone was a three-time Grade 1 winner during his own career, taking the Champagne Stakes as a juvenile, denying Smarty Jones’s Triple Crown bid in the Belmont Stakes the following June, and then adding the Travers Stakes that summer. He entered stud at Gainesway in 2005, and produced two classic winners from his first crop: Kentucky Derby winner and Canadian champion Mine That Bird and Belmont Stakes winner and Eclipse Award champion Summer Bird.

Get complete results for Birdstone and other stallions using DRF’s SirePowered Results, now with international results. To access the app, click here.