A New Year, A New Breeding Season, New Stallions
Every new year brings new breeding opportunities. Race horses retire from the track. Stallions that started their careers in Kentucky migrate to regional markets. 2022 brings several exciting stallions to Louisiana, giving breeders in the state several promising new opportunites.
by Tom Early
A New Year, A New Breeding Season, New Stallions
WinStar stallion Carpe Diem has been sold and will take up stud duty in Louisiana for 2022, the farm announced today.
Carpe Diem will be syndicated in Louisiana by a group led by Picard Racing (Dawn and Jeff Picard) and David Tillson and he will stand the upcoming breeding season at Acadiana Equine at Copper Crowne in Louisiana. By Giant’s Causeway out of the graded stakes-placed Unbridled’s Song mare Rebridled Dreams, Carpe Diem, a dominant Grade 1 winner at two and three for WinStar Farm and Stonestreet Stables and an earner of $1,519,000, will be available for inspection at Acadiana Equine beginning on Dec. 18.
Carpe Diem is the sire of 11 black-type horses in 2021, led by stakes winners Bella Aurora, Wait for Nairobi, and graded stakes-placed Thisismytime, runner-up in the Grade 2 Inside Information Stakes. A $1.6 million juvenile purchase, Carpe Diem is also a leading sire of 2-year-olds this year (21 juvenile winners) and is represented by Romancer, runner-up in the $500,000 Juvenile Sprint Stakes at Kentucky Downs.
“We have a strong relationship with David Tillson and Acadiana Equine,” said Liam O’Rourke, Director of Bloodstock Services for WinStar Farm. “We look forward to continued success with Carpe Diem.”
David Tillson added, “Our goal is to provide Louisiana breeders the best opportunity for future success, and we’re excited to stand Carpe Diem, a multiple Grade 1 winner and proven stallion.”
Imperial Hint has more Grade 1 sprint wins than any other stallion in Louisiana and twice sizzled six furlongs in less than 1:08.
Competitive Edge, a Grade 1 winner and nationally ranked first- and second-crop sire over the past two years, was purchased by Douglas Scharbauer to stand at Valor Farm in Pilot Point, Texas. The son of Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Super Saver previously stood at Ashford Stud in Kentucky. His 2021 fee will be $5,000.
Bred by WinStar Farm LLC and sold for $750,000 as a 2-year-old, Competitive Edge broke his maiden at first asking by more than 10 lengths at Saratoga Race Course. Then in just his second career start, he romped to a 5 ¾-length win in the historic Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, also at Saratoga.
His win streak continued as a 3-year-old, when in consecutive starts he won the Tamarac Stakes at Gulfstream Park and the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile Stakes at Churchill Downs, stopping the timer at 1:34.18. All told, he earned $519,280 on the track.
Competitive Edge, who also covered mares in the Southern Hemisphere while with Ashford, was North America’s #6-ranked first-crop sire with more than $1.3 million in progeny earnings in 2019. He is currently ranked among the top 15 second-crop sires, with total progeny earnings of nearly $3.6 million thorough early December. He is represented by 12 stakes horses, including Saratoga stakes winners Fierce Lady and My Italian Rabbi, Grade 2- and Grade 3-placed Reagan’s Edge and Grade 3-placed Edgeway.
Peppered Cat, a veteran stallion whose offspring includes the multiple graded stakes winner Pepper Crown, has been purchased privately by Perry and Denise Martin of Martin Racing and relocated from California to stand at Val Murrell’s Clear Creek Stud in Folsom, Louisiana for the 2020 breeding season.
A California stalwart since he retired to the breeding shed as a multiple winner in 2005, the 19-year-old son of Tabasco Cat most recently stood at Daehling Ranch in Elk Grove. From 12 crops of racing age, he has sired 67 winners from 85 starters, and is represented by lifetime progeny earnings of $4,253,371 and average earnings per starter of $50,040.
His seven black-type runners are led by Pepper Crown, a $472,298-earner who won Golden Gate Fields’ Berkeley Handicap (G3) and San Francisco Mile Stakes (G3) in 2014.
Produced by Meadowlake’s Grade 3-winning daughter Morning Meadow, Peppered Cat is a half-brother to the dam of 2015 Hopeful Stakes (G1) winner Ralis and the multiple graded stakes-placed, multiple stakes winner B Squared.
Peppered Cat’s 2020 fee is $3,000 live foal guarantee, payable when foal stands and nurses, or $1,500 live foal guarantee, payable September 1, 2020. He stands for the partnership of Martin Racing and Clear Creek Stud, and is nominated to Breeders’ Cup.
The Jockey Club board of stewards, concerned with the narrowing of the diversity of the Thoroughbred gene pool, today announced its consideration of a rule to limit the annual breeding of individual stallions starting with the 2021 breeding season.
The Jockey Club, established in 1894, is the keeper of the American Stud Book and maintains the Principal Rules and Requirements of the American Studbook in order to ensure the welfare of the Thoroughbred breed.
As has been widely reported, the size of the North American foal crop has diminished significantly, from 37,499 in 2007 to the 20,500 estimated for 2020.
In 2007, 37 stallions reported in excess of 140 mares bred each from a total of 3,865 stallions. By 2010, that number had declined to 24. Since then, the number has nearly doubled to 43 stallions reporting 140 or more mares bred from a population of stallions that now stands at less than one-half that of 2007.
On the mare side, in 2007, 5,894 mares (9.5% of the total) were bred by stallions that covered more than 140 mares. By 2019, 7,415 mares (27% of the total) were covered by stallions with books of more than 140, a threefold increase.
The combination of these changes has resulted in a substantial increase in the percentage of foals produced by a discreet segment of stallions — signaling a worrisome concentration of the gene pool.
The board of stewards of The Jockey Club is considering a cap of 140 mares bred per individual stallion per calendar year in North America, phased-in, as follows:
The stewards will continue to study the decreasing diversity of the Thoroughbred gene pool and its cause and potential effects over the course of time. As more data and analyses become available, the stewards may revise The Jockey Club’s approach to protecting the breed’s health and welfare.
The Jockey Club solicits and welcomes comments on the proposed rule from breeders, owners, and others with interests in the Thoroughbred breed and the industry. Contact The Jockey Club at jockeyclub.com.
Grade 3 Southwest Stakes winner One Liner has retired from racing and will stand stud at Whispering Oaks Farm, the farm of his owner Carrol Castille, in Carencro, Louisiana starting immediately.
Undefeated through his three-year-old year, One Liner was among Steve Haskins “Derby Dozen” before an injury took him off the Kentucky Derby trail. At four he ran second in the G3 Pimloco Stakes. Trained by Todd Pletcher, One Liner accumulated $475,250 in earnings from nine starts with four wins.
He is the only son of top sire and sire of sires Into Mischief (currently ranked #4 for 2019) standing in Louisiana. Into Mischief son Goldencents is the current leading second crop sire in North America and concluded 2018 ranked #2 among first crop sires in the country.
Bred in Kentucky, One Liner is out of the winning Cherokee Run mare Cayala and is from the family of Donn Handicap winner Albertus Maximus.
One Liner will stand for a 2019 fee of $3,500 live foal.
Louisiana Premier Night Ragin Cajun Starter S.
Delta Downs, 2-9-19, 5 furlongs
4YOs & Up, Accredited Louisiana Breds, $50,000
HUNKER DOWN
Musket Man-My Friend Bele, by My Friend Max
Breeder: Jo Ann Thompson
Owner: Ming Yan Ng and Ron Faucheux
Trainer: Ron Faucheux
Jockey: A. Bexchizza
2nd
Biblical Strength
Custom For Carlos-Ihavemyeyeonyou, by Crafty Prospector
Breeder: Coulee Croche Thoroughbreds & C.F. Newman
Owner: Timothy C. Guidry
Trainer: Karl Broberg
Jockey: T. Thornton
3rd
So Sorry Ruston
Interactif-So Sorry, by The Prime Minister
Breeder: Neal McFadden
Owner: Paul M. Gaudet
Trainer: Ricky Courville
Jockey: G. Melancon
Grade 1 winner Gemologist, who won a grade 2 race in his perfect juvenile sea- son, has been relocated from WinStar Farm to Acadiana Equine @ Copper Crown in Opelousas, La., for the upcoming breeding season.
In the deal brokered by David Tillson and Docatty Stables, the 9-year-old stallion will stand for $4,500.
A top five first-crop sire in 2016, a top 10 second-crop sire in 2017, and a leading third-
crop sire by winners for 2018, Gemologist sired Frizette Stakes (G1) winner Yellow Agate in his first crop and also is represented by Futurity Stakes (G3) winner Theory and
grade 3 winner Golden Diamond. The son of Tiznow also is the sire of promising 2-year-old colt Federal Case, an impressive maiden special weight winner at Keeneland in October, who was a $650,000 acquisition by Robert and Lawana Low out of the WinStar Racing consignment at the recent Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
Winner of the Resorts World Casino New York City Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) at 3, Gemologist capped an undefeated juvenile campaign by capturing the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs. He was bred in Kentucky by G. Watts Humphrey Jr. and Louise Ireland Humphrey Revocable Trust – 2, andretired in 2012 with five wins from seven career startsand earnings of $794,855.
Out of the Mr. Prospector mare Crystal Shard, the regally bred stallion is a half brother to stakes winners Sydenham and Clear Destiny and hails from a rich female family cultivated by breeder Ned Evans.
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