WinStar welcomes pair of newcomers

As new stallions have been announced through the fall, much of the attention has focused on the horse WinStar Farm isn’t standing – Triple Crown winner Justify, whom it co-campaigned and who will begin his career at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud.

But WinStar will have two incoming stallions, by current or former WinStar sires, from lines it has long invested in. Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming, from the first crop of Bodemeister, and the versatile Grade 2 winner Good Samaritan, by the late Harlan’s Holiday, both begin their new careers in 2019.

Always Dreaming won the 2017 Florida Derby in his fifth start, completing the 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.47, the fastest time in that race since Alydar won it in 1978. He subsequently won the Kentucky Derby by 2 3/4 lengths on a sealed track. It turned out to be the final victory of his career, in which he made five more starts.

“He was brilliantly fast, and he has everything you want in a stallion – looks, pedigree, and performance,” Elliott Walden, president, CEO, and racing manager of WinStar Farm, said. “We dream about the Kentucky Derby every day, but the race I really liked was the Florida Derby. When I saw the teletimer, I was amazed. We are excited to add a potentially breed-shaping stallion from the Unbridled line, which has proven to be today’s preeminent classic sire line.”

The Unbridled line has been responsible, in recent years, for the likes of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and champions Arrogate and Will Take Charge. American Pharoah is by WinStar stallion Pioneerof the Nile. Pioneerof the Nile leads the WinStar stud roster with an advertised fee of $110,000. Like Bodemeister, Pioneerof the Nile is by Unbridled’s son Empire Maker.

Good Samaritan won Grade 2 races at ages 2, 3, and 4. The millionaire captured the Summer Stakes on turf at Woodbine as a juvenile and later in his career successfully ran on dirt, taking the Jim Dandy in his debut on the surface and the New Orleans Handicap in his 2018 debut.

“He is the last great son of Harlan’s Holiday, one of the most dominant American sire lines we have currently, and he was ultra-consistent,” said Sean Tugel, WinStar’s director of bloodstock services and assistant racing manager. “In this day and age of retiring horses with limited starts, he started 15 times over three years, including 14 straight graded stakes contests.”

Good Samaritan, who was bred by WinStar and raced for the farm in partnership, is from the family of successful stallions Bernstein and Sky Mesa.