Gio Ponti, three-time Eclipse Award winner, got off to a slow start as a sire when his first foals reached the racetrack last year. He failed to get a stakes winner and had just eight winners from 46 starters and progeny earnings of $452,601. As could be expected for a horse who himself got better with age and distance, Gio Ponti’s progeny are performing far better as 3-year-olds – and he has a chance for two of his runners to be champions by year-end.
Samantha Siegel’s Jay Em Ess Stable enjoyed coast-to-coast success last weekend.
A few hours after the homebred By the Moon ran a game second in the Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga, Masochistic, whom Jay Em Ess co-owns with Will Shamlian’s Los Pollos Hermanos Racing, won the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes. He defeated just two other horses but did so handily in 1:20.31 for seven furlongs, just off the track record of 1:20.
Doug Scharbauer purchased Valor Farm, located in the North Texas town of Pilot Point, from the estate of his late father, Clarence Scharbauer Jr., earlier this month, according to farm general manager Ken Carson.
Doug Scharbauer has raced such horses as Fiftyshadesofgold, a Grade 3 winner of more than $400,000 bred by his father, and He’s Comin In Hot, winner of last year’s Grade 3 Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs.
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It took some time for Washington state freshman sire Atta Boy Roy to get his first winner, that coming on August 13 when first-time starter Risque’s Legacy won by nine lengths at Emerald Downs. That filly also turned out to be his first stakes winner. Risque’s Legacy, a Washington homebred of Karl Krieg, came back on August 28 to win the $50,000 Washington Cup Two Year Old Filly Stakes at Emerald Downs.
Turf or dirt, homebred or sales selection, older horse or younger, East Coast or West – the international Juddmonte Farms operation dominated Saratoga with any type of horse last Saturday.
First, the European type Flintshire, a product of Juddmonte’s outstanding homebred program, posted a repeat victory in the Sword Dancer Invitational on turf as the heavy favorite for trainer Chad Brown. Then, the unheralded Arrogate, specifically purchased for American-style racing under the care of Bob Baffert, made it a Grade 1 double by turning the Travers Stakes into a runaway.
Few, if any, Thoroughbreds have given their connections the kind of roller-coaster ride provided by the late Unbridled’s Song. Sold for a then-record $1.4 million at the 1995 Barrett’s sale of selected 2-year-olds in training, the thrill ride took a sickening turn two days later when the buyer returned the horse to former owner Ernie Paragallo because of a suspicious ankle radiograph.
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.
First-time starter Regere won a $20,000 maiden-claiming race at Delaware Park today to become the first winner for his freshman sire, Rule.
Rule, who stands for $4,000 at Montesacro Farm in Georgetown, Ky., has had four starters from his first crop of 22 foals, and he also is represented by the juvenile gelding Ruled, who was second in the Graduation Stakes at Assiniboia Downs as a maiden.
