Swept Overboard sold to Shadai

Swept Overboard, who won this year's Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap and has been a nationally ranked sprinter for more than two years, has been sold to Shadai Farm in Japan and will go there at the conclusion of his racing career, trainer Craig Dollase said Wednesday.

Swept Overboard, currently in training at Hollywood Park, is scheduled to make two more starts, in the Ancient Title Breeders' Cup Handicap at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting and then the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Arlington Park. He will continue to race for his current owner, Paul Reddam, then be turned over to Shadai following the Breeders' Cup, Dollase said.

"They made us an offer we couldn't refuse," said Dollase, who declined to reveal the details. "We get to enjoy another two races from him."

Japanese interests have been on a buying spree for stallion prospects racing in the United States. Swept Overboard joins War Emblem and Squirtle Squirt as horses sold as stallion prospects to Japanese interests in recent weeks.

Swept Overboard, a 5-year-old horse by End Sweep, has won 8 of 18 starts and $1,125,205. In addition to the Met Mile, his major victories include last year's Ancient Title and Hollywood Turf Express. Last year, he finished fourth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Swept Overboard was trained initially by John Shirreffs and owned by Marshall Naify. After Naify's death, Swept Overboard was sold as part of a Naify dispersal sale at Barretts in July 2000. Reddam paid $700,000 for Swept Overboard at that auction.