Folsom, Louisiana — Faversham, the only full brother to two-time Horse of the Year and 2023 Racing Hall of Fame inductee California Chrome — sire of 2021 Louisiana Horse of the Year Cilla, is relocating to Clear Creek Stud in Louisiana for the 2024 breeding season.
Faversham’s introductory fee for Louisiana is $3,000 payable when foal stands and nurses or $2,000 payable by September 1, 2024; both options offer a live foal guarantee. The multiple winner and promising young sire, now 8, is nominated to Breeders’ Cup.
By two-time leading California sire Lucky Pulpit out of two-time California Broodmare of the Year Love the Chase, a winning daughter of 12-time leading Maryland sire Not For Love, Faversham was a dual-surface winner in California and Kentucky for owners Perry and Denise Martin. A California-bred who was named after respected Thoroughbred pedigree analyst Rommy Faversham, he stood at Daehling Ranch in his home state from mid-2020 through 2023, and will be represented by his first full crop of 2-year-olds in 2024.
Faversham shares an identical pedigree with racing icon California Chrome, his older sibling who earned four Eclipse Awards and $14,752,650 from 2013 through 2017. California Chrome won the 2014 Kentucky Derby (G1), the 2016 Dubai World Cup (G1) and five additional Grade 1 races on dirt and turf before he retired to stud in Kentucky with extraordinary credentials as North America’s highest-earning runner in history and as Horse of the Year for 2014 and 2016. California Chrome stood three seasons domestically and shuttled twice to Chile before he was sold and exported to Japan in 2019.
The top performer to date from California Chrome’s three U.S.-sired foal crops is the Grade 1-placed Louisiana-bred Cilla, a Grade 2 winner out of 2020 Louisiana Broodmare of the Year Sittin At the Bar. Cilla won three stakes races and two championship titles in her home state and earned $509,000 overall.
“Faversham is a tailor-made fit for Louisiana,” said Perry Martin, who also bred and campaigned California Chrome in partnership. “I believe breeders in this state will appreciate his championship pedigree, his very reasonable stud fee and his ability to win on two different racing surfaces, a skill that should equip his Louisiana-bred foals to compete throughout the state’s racing circuit in the future.”
Faversham will be available for inspection during Clear Creek Stud’s 2024 Stallion Roster Presentation on December 16, 2023. He joins a quality line-up that is led by Star Guitar, a four-time leading sire of Louisiana-bred runners.
Owner of Louisiana stallion Peppered Cat and active participant in the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders program
Perry and Denise Martin in 2020.
It is with great sadness that Martin Racing announces the passing of Denise Martin, the co-founder, and heart, of Martin Racing, a Thoroughbred and Standardbred breeding and racing organization based in Alpine, Wyo., with global equine holdings. The accomplished chemist, business leader, horse owner and mother to two died on June 14 at age 61.
With her husband and co-founder Perry serving as the public voice and operations manager for Martin Racing, Denise took on the critical role of managing all communications and behind-the-scenes business needs for the small, family-owned organization, which was founded in 2016.
The Martins were thrust into worldwide fame in 2014, when their wildly popular and charismatic colt California Chrome won the Kentucky Derby and the first of his two Eclipse Award titles as North America’s Horse of the Year. The California-bred superstar, whom the Martins co-bred and initially raced in partnership with Steve and Carolyn Coburn under the stable name Dumb Ass Partners, also won the 2016 Dubai World Cup and eight additional graded stakes races before he retired in 2017 with earnings of $14,752,650 — a North American record at the time.
California Chrome’s storybook success enabled Martin Racing to expand internationally. In addition to supporting their first homebred via stallion syndicate participation, originally in Kentucky and now in Japan, the Martins currently stand Thoroughbred stallions in California, Louisiana and Wyoming, and the Hambletonian-winning Standardbred sire Trixton in Canada.
Their homebred colt Mo Mosa won Lone Star Park’s Grade 3 Steve Sexton Mile Stakes on May 31.
“Denise greatly enjoyed interacting with racing fans, whether she communicated with them in person or through California Chrome’s official social media channels,” said Perry Martin. “She also was solely responsible for all of Martin Racing’s charitable giving endeavors.”
A trained chemist and California State University graduate, Denise was CEO of Martin Testing Labs in Sacramento, Calif., from its creation in 2000 to its sale in June 2020. She previously worked for the United States Air Force as a civilian employee at McClellan Air Force Base.
In semi-retirement, the Chicago native served her adopted Wyoming community on the North Alpine Water District Board of Directors. She also recently began taking online university courses on Astronomy, and was building a telescope to view the clear Wyoming night sky.
Denise is survived by her loving husband of 35 years, Perry, her daughter Kelly Martin, her son Perry Martin Jr., her brothers Andrew Brudniak and Richard Brudniak, her Golden Retriever Tizzy, 76 Thoroughbred horses and seven Standardbred horses.
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