Ken Ramsey has never hesitated to support his homebred pride and joy, turf champion and leading sire Kitten’s Joy, with the lion’s share of the mares from his own broodmare band, and he has been rewarded for his faith with many high-end runners. Still, one target remains elusive. He’s brought three homebred colts by the stallion to the Kentucky Derby, with all of them running unplaced.
There is very little Giant’s Causeway hasn’t done while fashioning one of the most complete racing and breeding careers in the last two decades.
On an anecdotal basis, few things seem to get a stallion’s foals hot like sending him overseas.
Such is the case with Eskendereya, who will be represented by his first Kentucky Derby starter in Mor Spirit about eight months after being sold to the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association and exported to that country to continue his stud career.
:: Sires of the 2016 Kentucky Derby | Download the Derby Sire Guide
It was no surprise to see Uncle Mo atop the freshman sire list in 2015. After all, he was an unbeaten juvenile champion himself, with every right to start his stud career off fast.
No one could have predicted this level of dominance, though.
Trappe Shot is at the vanguard of the Tapit movement. He’s just the third son of leading sire Tapit at stud to have foals age 3 or older, and so far, so good. In his first crop, Trappe Shot will be represented by a Kentucky Derby starter in My Man Sam.
Exaggerator was part of a career year last year for young sire Curlin, as he ran with a maturity beyond his years to become a well-traveled multiple graded stakes winner. However, the best was yet to come, as the colt romped in the slop in the Santa Anita Derby to establish himself as a serious threat in the Kentucky Derby.
The best could be yet to come for Curlin, as well, thinks Steve Asmussen, who trained him to Horse of the Year honors in 2007 and 2008.
The tagline associated with Tiznow in WinStar Farm’s promotion of the stallion is, “The Big Horse Sire.”
The line fits the horse’s offspring on a variety of levels. Sons and daughters of Tiznow have won awards and races on the grandest of stages and have been hammered for sticker-shock prices in the auction ring.
Lane’s End stallion Candy Ride has his bases well covered in this year’s Kentucky Derby.
If his son Gun Runner continues his run of strong performances in Louisiana that made him the points leader heading into the Derby, Candy Ride might pick up his first Derby winner and would add the classic accolade his otherwise sterling résumé had been missing.
In September 2002, longtime Thoroughbred owner and breeder Verne Winchell picked out the last horse he would ever buy – a $625,000 son of Pulpit at the Keeneland September yearling sale. Winchell sent the horse to Keith Asmussen in Texas for his early lessons on being a racehorse. Two months later, Winchell died of a heart attack.
More than 13 years later, that horse, Tapit, has continued to pay dividends for Winchell Thoroughbreds, now led by Verne’s wife, Joan Winchell, and her son Ron.
Bernardini won one of the most tragic runnings of the Preakness ever, but he has confirmed that triumph – and year-end champion 3-year-old male title – by becoming a top sire and source of high-quality runners who can get two turns, a number of which have been successful at the 10-furlong distance of the Kentucky Derby.
