bellamy road rattling the sabers with juvenile prospects

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bellamy road, kinsman farm, stallion success, wood memorial

*The following post was rewritten from one published last week in Paulick Report Special at the OBS April sale.

Bellamy Road was a classic prospect of such quality that he brought experienced journalists from around the world to see his effort in the Kentucky Derby. At that point, Bellamy Road had won four of his five starts, and his prep for the Derby was a 17 ½-length victory in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial. Bellamy Road led all the way with fractions of :46.08 for the half and 1:09.84 for six furlongs, with a clocking of 1:47.16 for the nine furlongs.

It appeared to serious students of form that Bellamy Road had only to lope a 10^th furlong in :13 to win easily. If only racing were that easy.

Bellamy Road did make the lead between calls, then faded to seventh, in the Derby that Giacomo won in 2:02.75. Bellamy Road came out of the race with some issues, raced only once more, when a solid second in the Travers, and entered stud as a horse who “might have been.”

To his credit, the dark brown son of Concerto had impressed horsemen in Kentucky with his speed and stamina. As a stallion, Bellamy Road found a loyal following of breeders who wanted to add his size and scope to their matings.

The results paid off on the racetrack, with such quality performers as G1 Wood Memorial winner Toby’s Corner, G2 Adirondack Stakes winner Position Limit, G3 Lexington Stakes winner All Squared Away, G3 Schuylerville Stakes winner Georgie’s Angel, and other good graded horses.

Those graded stakes winners came from the stallion’s first two crops, bred just as the economy slipped over the edge, and Bellamy Road’s fortunes slipped too. So, the stallion had only 29 foals among the crop that form his current 3-year-olds, but such was the impression of his initial crops on the track that his 2014 2-year-olds number 137, with 119 yearlings following.

Those numbers are the tangible evidence of Bellamy Road’s resurgence as a significant stallion. The big, rangy and dark horse is a consistent sire of athletes that combine bone, scope, and athleticism with speed.

That last component was not lost on the savvy horsemen who buy yearlings for resale at the in-training auctions, and at the OBS April sale, there are 21 juveniles by Bellamy Road consigned. Bellamy Road himself came through the OBS April sale in 2004 when he was purchased by George Steinbrenner’s Kinsman Stud for $87,000 out of the Ocala Stud consignment, agent. So it is not a big surprise that the stallion gets good juvenile prospects.

Among those are some highly promising lots who have shown speed in the brief trials that form the basis for judging which prospects are the most desirable future racing. The breezes indicate which horses are naturally athletic and look like sound racers, although there are no graded stakes at these abbreviated distances.

Several have worked well, and these include Hip 280, a colt who worked in :10 1/5. Standing 16 hands already, this May foal appears mature and well-grown, with medium bone and substance. Another appealing prospect by the stallion is Hip 515, a filly with a huge shoulder standing 16 hands and having great length through the body.

** The sales results for the Bellamy Road offspring were about standard for the 2yo sales this season. The prices for the better selections were quite good, showing a median of $72,500, but the market split. The premium horses sold for a lot better than median. The other half, except for the $55,000 colt, brought a lot less.

Of the 21 consigned to the sale, 12 went through the ring, with 10 sold. The results are summarized below:

34 out C Bellamy Road For All We Know Eisaman Equine, Agent Withdrawn Out
143 10.1 C Bellamy Road Hollywood Classic Casse Sales LLC, Agent for Kinsman Farm Sallusto & Albina, Agent 175,000
217 10.3 C Bellamy Road Kelly Mac Best A Luck Farm LLC, Agent VI 95,000 Not Sold
225 out C Bellamy Road Kiss the Diva Kilbride Stables, Agent Withdrawn Out
276 out F Bellamy Road Living On the Line Off the Hook LLC, Agent IX Withdrawn Out
280 10.1 C Bellamy Road Long Drive Home Bo Hunt, Agent David M. Clark 340,000
297 21.4 F Bellamy Road Magical Mist Woodford Thoroughbreds, Agent Jeff Heslep 25,000
333 10.1 C Bellamy Road Mindy Queen Northwest Stud Northwind Thoroughbreds LLC 105,000
475 10.1 C Bellamy Road Princess Eliza Eisaman Equine, Agent Eddie Plesa, Jr., Agent 90,000
515 21.2 F Bellamy Road Real Quick Pic Woodford Thoroughbreds, Agent Cam Allard 135,000
557 23.0 C Bellamy Road Rouge Lady Derby Daze Farm, Agent III Carlo Tucci 30,000
582 out C Bellamy Road Save My Place Off the Hook LLC, Agent IX Withdrawn Out
721 out C Bellamy Road Sweet Again Casse Sales LLC (Justin Casse), Agent for Kinsman Farm Withdrawn Out
735 10.3 C Bellamy Road Tale of Honoree Casse Sales LLC (Justin Casse), Agent X John P. Warren 55,000
822 out F Bellamy Road Unbridled Blessing de Meric Sales, Agent XI Withdrawn Out
843 out C Bellamy Road Villa D Marie Eddie Woods, Agent LI Withdrawn Out
973 34.1 F Bellamy Road Battle Hymn Eddie Woods, Agent LXXVIII 23,000 Not Sold
999 10.4 C Bellamy Road Bluster de Meric Sales, Agent XVIII K.O.I.D. Co., Ltd., (Kim, Jing Young) 30,000
1087 out F Bellamy Road Cosmic Wing A. R. Equine, Agent Withdrawn Out
1171 22.2 C Bellamy Road Dynameesch Paul Sharp, Agent V Russ Smith 42,000
1176 out C Bellamy Road Easy Action Crupi’s New Castle Farm, Agent Withdrawn Out

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swift star: now dam of belmont park stakes winner bellamy star

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bellamy road, bellamy star, belmont park, early success with racers, export of breeding stock, kinsman farm, new york stakes winner, overseas buyers, success of broodmares, swift star, vagaries of the sales ring, xtra heat

Over the past couple of years, young mares with a single knock on them have been going begging at the sales, bringing next to nothing. Older mares with a knock frequently have brought nothing: “no bid” or “RNA $1,000,” which is the minimum hammer price at Kentucky auctions.

The dam of Bellamy Star, winner of the Xtra Heat Stakes at Belmont Park on Sunday, ran through the ring at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s sale in January 2009 and brought $7,500 from Jose Uzcategui and is now a broodmare in Venezuela. The sales catalog listed the mare as in foal to Trippi on a June 11 cover, but that is surely inaccurate. Most mares are given a final pregnancy check shortly before sales time, and some inevitably turn up empty.

As a barren mares, she would have been more interesting to a breeder from the Southern Hemisphere, where a May foal would be virtually unraceable for a long time and would prevent the mare from being bred back on the correct time schedule until 2011.

But now Swift Star is the dam of a nice New York stakes winner, who is the sixth SW by the talented young stallion Bellamy Road, winner of the Wood Memorial and an emerging force as a sire of two-turn stock with class.

A tall and rangy horse, Bellamy Road is a proper type-to-type mate for a mare by turf star Theatrical, also a force for quality at a distance of ground. Bellamy Road also has succeeded notably for Bellamy Star’s owner-breeder Kinsman Farm where the first two mates for Swift Star did not.

The mare’s produce record through 2011, per JC records, is below:

1st Dam: Swift Star, b, 2001. Bred by Kinsman Farm (KY). Raced 2 yrs in NA, 2 sts, 0 wins, $1,496. ($7,500, 2009, obsjan, brdmr)

2006:	Free Light, ch f, by Crown Delite. Raced 4 yrs in NA, 24 sts, 3 wins, $42,096 (ssi = 0.63).
2007:	Ostinato, ch c, by Concerto. Raced 1 yr in NA, 1 st, 0 wins, $150.
2008:	BELLAMY STAR.
	At 3: Won Xtra Heat S.

Broodmare sire: THEATRICAL (IRE), b, 1982. Sire of 351 dams of 1509 foals, 1034 rnrs (69%), 661 wnrs (44%), 138 2yo wnrs (9%), 57 sw (4%).

2nd Dam: Rivermorn, ch, 1992. Bred by Gallaghers Stud (NY). Raced 1 yr in NA, 2 sts, 0 wins, $420. ($475,000, 1999, keenov, brdmr; $8,500, 2007, obsjan, brdmr) Dam of QUIET RULER (g, Woodman. $399,698, Won Mohawk Handicap (R) twice).

It is also interesting that this filly, whose dam and granddam have sold rather cheaply in the past few years, won the Xtra Heat Stakes. Xtra Heat, champion racer and the earner of several million ($2.1), sold three times at public auction: $9,100 at Keeneland November as a weanling, $4,700 at OBS August as a yearling, and $5,000 at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic’s May sale of 2yos in training. [The mare also went RNA at the FT Kentucky November sale as a broodmare prospect but was sold privately shortly thereafter for seven figures.]

cotter is second-time lucky in the wood memorial

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aqueduct racetrack, bellamy road, ben walden, churchill downs, dianne cotter, george steinbrenner, homebred racehorses, kentucky, kentucky derby preps, liberation farm, pauls mill, Rob Whiteley, sales of 2yos in training, Seattle Slew, silver charm, stallion management, stallion success, stallion syndication, toby's corner, wood memorial, woodford county

The following article was posted earlier this week at Paulick Report.

In a telephone interview with owner-breeder Dianne Cotter after her colt Toby’s Corner won the Grade 1 Wood Memorial on Saturday, the breeder said “luck is often better than skillful planning.”

That is important for breeders, as well as punters, to remember in this joyous season of the Triple Crown. Luck can certainly change your life.

For Cotter, the luck has shown up several times. Specifically with Toby’s Corner, Cotter bred both the Wood Memorial winner and his sire, Bellamy Road, who won the race in 2005 by 17 ½ lengths and equaled the Aqueduct track record with a clocking of 1:47.16 for nine furlongs in one of the most impressive Kentucky Derby preps ever.

The previous spring, Cotter had sold Bellamy Road as a 2-year-old in training to George Steinbrenner, and the colt started as the favorite for the classic at Churchill Downs but finished seventh. There was a reason. Bellamy Road injured a suspensory that kept him on the sidelines till Saratoga, when he returned to run second in the Travers and had a recurrence of the suspensory issue.

The premature termination of the horse’s racing career eventually proved a benefit for stallion manager Ben Walden, who syndicated and stood Bellamy Road at stud.

Walden stands the stallion at Pauls Mill in Woodford County south of Versailles, Ky., and said that “Bellamy Road was the apple of my eye the year he was on the Derby trail. His victory in the Wood was such a head-turning effort, but I never imagined I would get Bellamy Road.”

The farms looking to acquire the near-black son of Concerto dwindled after the Travers, however. Walden said, “Mr. Steinbrenner kept Bellamy Road in training after he repulled the suspensory in the Travers and took him to the farm, where the suspensory was pinfired. Those pinholes became infected after the horse went into swimming therapy, and then I heard he was on the market as a stallion.

“So John Stuart and I went to meet Mr. Steinbrenner at the Yankees spring training camp, and to our surprise, the horse was quite affordable. We put together a syndicate to purchase Bellamy, and he became the first stallion at Hurricane Hall.

“After the ownership at Hurricane Hall went different ways to pursue our dreams, we brought Bellamy Road to Pauls Mill, where I built only four stallion stalls to invoke restraint on myself.”

The change of location made no difference to Bellamy Road, who has continued to be supported by a loyal following of breeders since his retirement. In the wake of the stallion’s sterling successes with his freshman racers last year, the demand for Bellamy Road’s stud services increased to the point that his book was closed early on at a stud fee of
$15,000 live foal.

Walden said, “We have a very good syndicate behind the horse,” and among those with substantial interests in the horse are the Steinbrenner family, which owns 10 shares (20 percent of the syndicate), and the Liberation Farm of Rob Whiteley, who bred the first stakes winner by the stallion.

One of the things that’s made Bellamy Road successful is his natural athletic brilliance, and Walden noted that “horses with brilliance have been good to me, and that is the quality this horse had in spades.”

A big, rangy horse who had great speed, Bellamy Road carried his speed at least 10 furlongs, and Walden emphasized how important that consideration is to racing and to breeding horses at a high level. “We need to be able to breed to horses with the dream of going to the Kentucky Derby,” he said, because that is the greatest two minutes in sports.

Cotter bred one horse who had the talent to make the race in Bellamy Road, and now she has the chance to go to the Kentucky Derby herself as the owner and breeder of the stallion’s first Grade 1-winning colt.

And her connection to this Wood Memorial winner goes back generations.

“We bought the third dam of Toby’s Corner (the Poker mare Bumble) at the OBS January sale because my husband liked Poker and wanted a Poker mare,” Cotter recalled.

As the broodmare sire of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew and of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Silver Charm, Poker enjoyed a reputation for siring broodmares with potential. Bumble did little as a producer but did foal two winners, including Mrs. Bumble, the second dam of Toby’s Corner.

Mrs. Bumble produced three winners, including Brandon’s Ride, who was named for family, like many of the Cotter-bred stock. Brandon’s Ride was a winner from six starts but became something notably better as a producer. Four of her first five foals have won, and two are stakes winners.

By far, the most important is Toby’s Corner. The chestnut colt was born May 4, 2008, and Cotter said that “he’s still really immature,” but clearly quite talented nonetheless.

Following the birth of Toby’s Corner, “his dam was not bred for two years,” Cotter said, “because you couldn’t sell them. So we bred only Bellamy Road’s half-sister, Miss Tullamore Dew,” in 2009 and 2010.

Just last week, however, Brandon’s Ride made the journey to Kentucky, where she will be bred to Bellamy Road.

 

bellamy road making the most of his chances

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adirondack stakes, bellamy road, ben walden jr, fasig-tipton kentucky july sale, freshmen sires, george steinbrenner, Kentucky Derby, lazy lane farms, liberation farm, missuma, nick zito, northern dancer, payable on demand, position limit, Rob Whiteley, starlight partners, summing, wood memorial

The post below appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Position Limit’s blowout in Sunday’s Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes at Saratoga proved a pleasant reminder of her sire Bellamy Road’s 17 1/2-length victory in the G1 Wood Memorial of 2005.

Bellamy Road’s dominating performance in the Wood Memorial was so overpowering, so convincing, and so inspiring that journalists from around the world came to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby in tingling anticipation of seeing Bellamy Road become the next great American racehorse.

Bellamy Road also was the best shot that the late George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, had at winning the Kentucky Derby. Having the ‘Boss’ win the Derby could only have been a massive boost to the visibility and general awareness of our sport, and just before the race, Steinbrenner told me that “there is nothing I’d rather do than win the Kentucky Derby. It’s the greatest race in the world. Standing in that winner’s circle would be the greatest thrill in the world. You know, I’ve already won the World Series!”

To the disappointment of his owner, as well as the thousands in the massive Derby Day crowd who made him the betting favorite, that did not happen. The big, nearly black, son of Concerto had a rough trip, and his effort in the Derby did not approach his outstanding form of the Wood.

Bellamy Road made his next start in the Travers, ran second to Flower Alley, and never started again. Although the horse remained in training at 4 in an attempt to regain his best form, even the attentive work of trainer Nick Zito could not quite keep the big horse comfortable enough to show what he could do.

Bellamy Road entered stud for a syndicate led by Kentucky horseman Ben Walden Jr. in February 2007.

It had been 18 months since Bellamy Road had raced. The horse’s amazing Wood performance was nearly 24 months in the past. And the sales economy was on the cusp of sliding into a recession.

That is not a combination of factors to aid any young stallion in the quest for success.

But this is truly a game of second chances, and apparently all that Bellamy Road needed was a fair chance.

In his career at stud, the big great-great grandson of Northern Dancer took advantage of the opportunity to prove that his talent was genuinely outstanding and would carry forward into the performances of the next generation.

Most of the time, that seems like a longer shot than winning the Kentucky Derby, but for Bellamy Road, his early innings are very promising.

Rob Whiteley, owner of Liberation Farm and a shareholder in Bellamy Road, bred Bellamy Road’s first stakes winner, Embellished.

Whiteley said, “As a commercial breeder, I realized that Bellamy Road’s pedigree would not turn heads in the marketplace. However, stallion prospects that carry uncommon achievements with them when they go to stud cannot be ignored.

“I was very much taken by his size, balance, and athleticism, and I considered his winning race in the Wood to be one of the top 10 races I’ve seen in the last 25 years,” Whiteley added. “Therefore, I stepped up and bought several shares, and my only regret is that I didn’t buy more.”

To date, the horse has had five winners, and on Sunday, he got his second stakes winner and first graded stakes winner when Position Limit ran away with the Adirondack.

The good-looking filly came home strongly to suggest that she will appreciate every increase in distance, and she won by five lengths from the promising Rock Hard Ten filly Alienation, who likewise had five lengths on the Successful Appeal filly Coax Liberty.

Bred in Virginia by Lazy Lane Farms, Position Limit sold for $55,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July auction of selected yearlings last year. The bay filly races for Starlight Partners and is trained by Todd Pletcher.

Position Limit is out of Payable on Demand, a daughter of Out of Place and the fine Procida mare Missuma, the dam of two stakes winners and a half-sister to four stakes winners, including Belmont Stakes winner Summing.

my chat with ‘the boss’

Tags

bellamy road, concerto, edward sexton, george steinbrenner, Kentucky Derby, kinsman farm, ocala stud

There are certain people you don’t expect to chat with on the phone, and George Steinbrenner would have ranked pretty high on that list for most people. Considering his reputation for volatility, that would be just fine, you’d imagine.

But when Bellamy Road was coming to the Kentucky Derby in 2005, was the race favorite, and was Steinbrenner’s big shot at the Kentucky classic, I had an opportunity to talk to the owner about his horse.

Despite his press reputation, Steinbrenner was notably cordial and proved quite the raconteur. He said, “Frank, there is nothing I’d rather do than win the Kentucky Derby. It’s the greatest race in the world. Standing in that winner’s circle would be the greatest thrill in the world. You know, I’ve already won the World Series!”

To have Steinbrenner win the Run for the Roses would have been a great thing for the sport. For one thing, he would have screaming the joys of racing on national television and impressing on a different audience that sports are not all played with bats and balls.

Unfortunately, Bellamy Road had a terrible race, and that was that. But it was a great experience for Steinbrenner, he said, and he was closely associated with the production of Bellamy Road, including breeding the horse’s sire Concerto.

Bellamy Road was consigned through Ocala Stud to the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s April auction of 2-year-olds in training in 2004. And Steinbrenner acquired the colt through his Kinsman Farm manager, Edward Sexton.

Just a few months previously, the Irish-born Sexton had been breaking yearlings and galloping youngsters at Ocala Stud. While he was there, he worked with Bellamy Road.

Sexton said: “The first time I saw him, I fell in love with him. He’s not a typical American horse. He’s a real European horse” in physical type and distance ability.

In between working with Bellamy Road and the colt going to the sales, Sexton became farm manager at Kinsman.

“I was here a couple of months, and I saw Bellamy Road advertised in the April sale,” he said. “So, I came to Mr. Steinbrenner, and said, ‘If you want a Derby horse, this is the one who’ll do it.’ ”

“He said, ‘I’ve hired you to do a job. Go ahead and get him.’ ”

“How much will I bid to?” Sexton asked.

Steinbrenner looked at Sexton and said, “You go to the sale to bring the horse home.”

And for $87,000, Bellamy Road sold to Kinsman Farm. 

//

‘blizzard’ at fasig-tipton

Tags

bellamy road, fasig-tipton kentucky select sale, flashy bull

The concentration of quality athletes at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky’s select sale on Newtown Pike north of Lexington defies the concept of “sire power.” Instead, it’s all about the individual, with a special emphasis on new stallions.

And among the first- and second-crop yearling sires at the auction, the value leaders are Airdrie stallion Flashy Bull and Pauls Mill stallion Bellamy Road.

Hip 19, a powerful gray daughter of Flashy Bull (by Holy Bull), is a strong, lengthy, and very good-quartered young athlete. She has the balance and presence to attract considerable interest, as well as the mechanical prowess to develop into an important racehorse. Taylor Made consigns her.

Hip 211 is a chestnut son of Wood Memorial winner Bellamy Road, who is a tall, dark stranger among the leading Kentucky sires. But Bellamy Road had as much raw talent as any racehorse of the past decade. If he passes it on, this is going to be fun for Pauls Mill owner Ben Walden and the members of the stallion’s syndicate.

The handsome and well-balanced colt at Fasig-Tipton is consigned by Trackside Farm, agent for Liberation Farm and Oratis. This is the family of Horse of the Year Holy Bull, who is the male-line grandsire of Hip 18. Curious, isn’t it, how the old gray champion keeps coming up with the goods?

Holy Bull also has his share in perhaps the best story on the grounds. Hip 90 is a gray son of Flashy Bull. The colt is a very appealing individual with some odd blemishes on his hocks. When I asked about them, the consignor told me that the colt was born in a blizzard (Feb. 2, 2009), and since the mare was outside when foaling, the foal suffered slight frostbite before he could be whisked indoors.

The colt is consigned by Anzac LLC and bred by Dr. and Mrs. Norman Umphenour. They call the gray colt ‘Blizzard.’

freshman focus: bellamy road

Tags

bellamy road, ben walden, first starter, first winner, hollywood park, pauls mill, stallion physique, wood memorial

Wood Memorial winner Bellamy Road had his first starter and winner in the second race at Hollywood Park on May 19. The stallion’s daughter Bella Palooza won the 4 1/2 furlong race, which was a maiden claiming event for a tag of $40,000. The filly won her debut by 1 3/4 lengths in :52.39 and was the odds-on favorite. She was not claimed.

Out of the stakes-placed Cat Thief mare Steal the Show, Bella Palooza was bred in Kentucky by Secret Whispers Partnership. Bella Palooza had sold to Pablo Suarez for $32,000 at the Barretts March sale of 2-year-olds in training.

Bellamy Road, a big and rangy horse with immense scope and bone, became one of the hottest Kentucky Derby prospects of the past decade with his dominating victory in the Wood by 17 1/2 lengths. Although he never quite reproduced that exceptional effort (and its corresponding 120 Beyer Speed Figure), Bellamy Road ran second in the G1 Travers, which also prove to be the horse’s last start.

The 8-year-old horse by Concerto out of Hurry Home Hillary, by Deputed Testamony, stands at Ben Walden’s Pauls Mill in Woodford County, Kentucky, for a fee of $10,000 live foal.

New stallions for 2010: US Ranger

Tags

2000 guineas, andover way, artie schiller, bellamy road, ben walden, breeders' cup mile, cockney rebel, danzig, dearborn farm, dynaformer, his majesty, july cup, my annette, pauls mill, red ransom, us ranger, wood memorial

US Ranger (dark bay, 2004, by Danzig — My Annette, by Red Ransom)

The tall, dark son of the preeminent international sire Danzig is the first stallion addition to Ben Walden’s new Pauls Mill operation. US Ranger joins Wood Memorial winner Bellamy Road and Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Artie Schiller at Pauls Mill.

In the concept of Pauls Mill, Walden has taken a boutique approach to a stallion station, “modelled on my dad’s Dearborn Farm when he stood horses like No Robbery and Timeless Moment,” Walden said.

There are only four stalls at Pauls Mill, and now three of them will have occupants. Walden said, “If you are limiting yourself to four stalls, you have to make the stalls count.”

US Ranger, who placed second in the G1 July Cup over six furlongs and ran third in the G1 Prix de la Foret over seven furlongs last season, is a bigger, rangier type of Danzig. But, like all the successful sons of Danzig at stud, US Ranger had plenty of speed.

A winner of his first four starts, US Ranger plunged into the deep end of the class spectrum with his fifth start in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. He finished a respectable seventh, beaten three and a half lengths by winner Cockney Rebel.

Thereafter, US Ranger was pointed for high-end sprints until the last three starts of his career, when he moved back to eight and nine furlongs. Overall, US Ranger won five races for earnings of £244,806.

Standing 16.1, US Ranger is not the most typical Danzig, who was a rather chubby tugboat of a horse. Walden said, “US Ranger has the size from his female family, Andover Road [the horse’s second dam] and others. I’m sure that the female line was an influence on his size and structure, and that’s a real appeal to me. He should have foals with some leg and size to them.”

US Ranger’s dam, the Red Ransom mare My Annette, is a half-sister to leading sire Dynaformer, a 17-hand tank of a stallion who has the bone of a plowhorse allied with the power of a Lipizzan stallion.

Their dam, the His Majesty mare Andover Way, was one of three stakes winners out of On the Trail, by Olympia. Andover Way won the G1 Top Flight Handicap and four other stakes. Her siblings of note were listed winner Regal Road (by Graustark) and Darby Creek Road (by Roberto), who won the Saratoga Special at 2, ran third in the Belmont at 3.

Andover Way began her producing career splendidly with G2 winner Dynaformer (by Roberto) and stakes winner White Bridle (by Seattle Slew), and My Annette is the mare’s 11th of 14 foals. Andover Way’s last foal, the Arch mare Black Speck, is also a stakes producer.

US Ranger has the size and speed of his immediate ancestors, and now he must try to reproduce those qualities effectively in his offspring to take the next step to stallion success.

Walden has begun the work of assembling a syndicate of breeders to back the horse at stud. He said, “Our plan going in was to sell 15 shares, but maybe we will sell five more to breeders to help strengthen the book. He’s in a vulnerable place in the market, and I want to make this as positive a position as possible for all of us. The terms of the shares include one season annually for four years, and if you breed on that season, you get a second season each of those years if you use that season also to breed another mare for yourself.”

Clearly focused on rewarding season users, rather than season sellers, Walden’s plan also has the added effect of benefitting home breeders who like to race their stock, and that is part of his view of the industry at present. He said, “We are in a time of change, and being positioned to race as well as sell is wise for those who can do so.”

US Ranger will begin his new career in February 2010 at the new Pauls Mill stallion facility in Woodford County.