Spendthrift Farm sponsors new fall stakes for progeny of its stallions
Spendthrift Farm will put forth another incentive for Thoroughbred breeders by sponsoring a stakes race for the progeny of its stallions during the fall meet at Churchill Downs.
The $300,000 Spendthrift Stallion Stakes, open to 2-year-olds of both sexes by current and past Spendthrift stallions nationwide, will be held Oct. 30 at Churchill. The seven-furlong event falls on the track's first of two "Stars of Tomorrow" programs, focusing on 2-year-old racing, and will be co-featured with a pair of $70,000 stakes, the Street Sense and the Rags to Riches.
The purse is structured to award $150,000 to the owners of the placed horses, with the other $150,000 allocated for breeders of the first- through fourth-place finishers.
“We’re hopeful the timing of the Spendthrift Stallion Stakes will make it an important springboard to such Kentucky Derby preps as the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, as well as the Derby itself the following spring at Churchill,” Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey said. “It’s another way we can give back to our patrons and help promote our great industry for years to come.”
Spendthrift is known for the pioneering breeder incentives Share the Upside, which allows breeders to earn a lifetime breeding right to a stallion by breeding multiple mares to him early in his career, and Breed Secure, under which a breeder pays his stud fee from the resulting foal’s sale price, and only if the sale is profitable.
Spendthrift currently stands 10 stallions with progeny of racing age eligible for the new stakes race, with its flagship horse being classic sire Malibu Moon. The operation appears to have some rising young talent. Into Mischief, the sire of Hopeful Stakes winner Practical Joke, ranks third on the juvenile sire list, and Dominus ranks fourth on the freshman list. Archarcharch, Court Vision, and Paddy O'Prado all finished among the top 10 freshman sires of 2015.
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