Not many stallions go to stud each year with what most breeders would consider ideal qualifications. As a graded stakes winner at 2, Grade 1 winner at 3 and 4, with an outstanding pedigree and excellent conformation, To Honor and Serve came very close to that ideal when he retired to Gainesway in 2013. Despite those credentials, things have not worked out as expected for To Honor and Serve, and he was recently sold to stand in South Korea. Predictably, his best American-raced offspring to date, Mr Freeze won the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby last Saturday, but since he is To Honor and Serve’s first graded stakes winner from 173 foals age 3 and up, his departure will hardly be lamented by Kentucky breeders. Bred in Kentucky by Twin Creeks Farm, Larry Byer, and Rancho San Miguel out of the stakes-winning Deputy Minister mare Pilfer from the great family of Golden Trail, To Honor and Serve was the best colt from the sterling first crop of 2006 champion 3-year-old male Bernardini. He was listed as sold for $250,000 as a weanling to Sommer Smith, agent, at the 2008 Keeneland November sale and purchased for $575,000 by Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation at the 2009 Keeneland September yearling sale. He came to hand more quickly than many of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott’s juveniles, winning his second outing at Belmont Park on Oct. 2, 2010, at 1 1/16 miles by 8 3/4 lengths. He followed up quickly with front-running scores in the Grade 2 Nashua and Grade 2 Remsen Stakes, leaving Mucho Macho Man in second place each time. That put To Honor and Serve solidly in the reckoning for the 2011 Triple Crown races, but he finished only third in both the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby the following spring, earning four months off. He returned with a desultory sixth in the Amsterdam at Saratoga but captured a nine-furlong allowance at the same track later that month, followed by another easy win in the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby. To Honor and Serve finished seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Classic but was beaten only 3 1/2 lengths by Drosselmeyer after pressing the pace. He closed his 3-year-old form with his first Grade 1 victory, beating Hymn Book in 1:33.89 in the Cigar Mile. To Honor and Server opened his third season in training with a promising win in the Grade 3 Westchester but won only once more in an in-and-out season, capturing the Grade 1 Woodward by a neck from his old rival Mucho Macho Man. Retired to Gainesway with career totals of eight wins in 17 starts and earnings of $1,798,840, he was well-patronized by breeders, but did not repay them with high-priced sales yearlings and stakes winners. The only stakes winners in his first crop were Korean champion Cheongdam Dokki (out of Elusive Gold, by Strike the Gold), American listed winner Blueridge Traveler (Unobstructed View, by Yes It’s True), and Panamanian stakes winner Steps to Heaven (Aunt Beth, by Devil’s Bag), but the best of that first crop was probably State of Honor (State Cup, by Elusive Quality), who ran second in the Grade 1 Florida Derby but has yet to win a stakes. Mr Freeze is the only stakes winner to date from To Honor and Serve’s second crop. Bred in Kentucky by Anthony Manganaro’s Siena Farms, he is the 11th foal and fourth stakes winner out of Heavenly Cat, a beautifully bred Tabasco Cat mare out of stakes-placed In Excelsis Deo, by Forty Niner, whose dam was the brilliant turf mare Sabin, by Lyphard. Winner of 18 of 25 starts including the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon and Gamely, Sabin would likely have been champion turf female if that category had existed during her career. She produced stakes winners Fatah Flare, by Alydar; Al Sabin, by Alydar; Sabina, by Cox’s Ridge; and Binya, by Royal Solo. Her daughters Andora, by Conquistador Cielo; Fanny Cerrito, by Gulch; and Lady of the Light, by The Minstrel; are stakes producers. Binya is the granddam of Grade 1 winner Sadler’s Joy, by Kitten’s Joy. Sabin herself was half-sister to two other high-class fillies and highly productive broodmares in Kittiwake, by Sea-Bird, and Ivory Wings, by Sir Ivor. Mr Freeze is half-brother to Grade 3 winner Heavenly Ransom, by Red Ransom, and stakes winners Capitano, by Belong to Me, and Dilemma, by Grand Slam. Heavenly Cat has produced one more foal, the unraced 2-year-old Uncle Mo filly Up at Dawn. Mr Freeze sold for only $75,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale to his trainer Dale Romans as agent. Obviously, this is a very high-class family, and it is no surprise that To Honor and Serve would get a good horse from it. The only surprise is that he has not sired more.