Stonesider relocated to Valor Farm in Texas

Stonesider, a winning son of Giant’s Causeway and sire of multiple stakes winners, will relocate to Valor Farm in Pilot Point, Texas, for the 2017 breeding season.

The 13-year-old had previously resided at Keane Stud in New York, where he was most recently advertised for $3,500.

Stonesider has sired six crops of racing age, with 71 winners and combined progeny earnings in excess of $6 million. His top runner is Galiana, a Grade 3-placed winner of eight stakes races in Maryland and Delaware. Other notable foals include stakes winners Hey Kiddo, Sinistra, and May Shares, and stakes-placed runners Stock Fund, Lady Kreesa, and Shelly’s Cider.

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The stallion is owned by Bob and Janice McNair, who relocated Stonesider to Texas in order to consolidate their stallion interests. The McNairs also wholly own Congaree and have a sizable interest in Too Much Bling, who were each moved to Valor Farm earlier this year after the closure of Lane’s End Texas.

“New York is wonderful if you have the mares and are breeding for that program,” said John Adger, a longtime bloodstock adviser to the McNairs. “They don’t have mares anymore, but their son Cary has a dozen mares in Texas. With Lane’s End Texas closing, they decided just to consolidate their stallions in one place, and Valor does a wonderful job.”

Stonesider raced as a homebred for the McNair family’s Stonerside Stable, winning his lone start at Belmont before being forced to retire due to injury.

“He had a world of talent, but we just had back luck when he got hurt,” Adger said.

Stonesider is out of the Grade 2-winning Gilded Time mare Added Gold, whose five foals to race are all winners. He is from the family of Peruvian champion Mr. Ninja; Grade 1 winners Irish Smoke and Book Review; Grade 3/Group 3 winners Added Elegance, Added Asset, and As Mother; and Barbados Horse of the Year Feet on Flames.