thoroughbred times - Werk Thoroughbred Consultants

SID FERNANDO
War Front colts attack Triple Crown from both coasts
Soldat and The Factor have given Claiborne
Farm’s War Front a one-two punch of highly
regarded three-year-olds on each coast, and
the Danzig stallion currently leads secondcrop sires by 2011 progeny earnings. Behind him in second,
however, is Vinery’s Florida-based Pomeroy, whose Flashpoint
won the Hutcheson Stakes (G2) on Saturday at Gulfstream Park
on the same card as Soldat’s Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth
Stakes (G2) win.
Pomeroy, a grandson of Danzig, leads second-crop sires by 2011
stakes winners with four, and Vinery itself is represented by three
sires on the top ten
on the second crop
list with Congrats and
Silver Train joining
Pomeroy. That’s a
heady accomplishment for Dr. Tom
Simon’s growing stallion station, which is
spread between three
farms in Kentucky,
Florida, and New
York and quickly is
scaling the heights. POMEROY
Congrats, a son of
A.P. Indy bred by Claiborne and Adele Dilschneider, stands for
an advertised fee of $15,000 but good luck if you can get to him
at a sniff of that price; no guarantee seasons have sold this year
for more than twice that amount, and why not? Congrats was
the leading first-crop sire of 2010 by progeny earnings and had
two two-year-old Grade 1 winners! Like Pomeroy, he began his
career in Florida and is the heir apparent to Vinery’s top sire,
More Than Ready.
Pomeroy was bred by Claiborne’s Seth Hancock through his
Cherry Valley Farm and is a son of the pensioned Claiborne
sprinter Boundary—a son of Danzig and the sire of 2008 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner Big Brown.
Like his sire, Pomeroy was a notable sprinter, as was the Old
Trieste horse Silver Train. Both horses fit the distinct speed
profile that that Vinery recruits, but Congrats, Pioneerof the
Nile, and a few others are proof that the farm looks across the
spectrum for sires, too.
Tom Ludt is the president of Vinery and deserves much of the
credit for the farm’s upward profile, which has been engineered
by partnering with owners of stallions and racehorses. Simon’s
Grapestock LLC, for example, owns a 25% stake in Congrats with
John Sykes, and likewise a 25% stake in Pomeroy with Silverleaf.
Grapestock, by the way, also is the breeder of 2011 Southwest
Stakes (G3) winner Archarcharch, which it sold, and 2009 Louisiana
Derby (G2) winner Friesan Fire, which Vinery raced in partnership with Fox Hill Farm. Last year, Vinery was co-owner of Gotham
Stakes (G3) winner Awesome Act, which it purchased. The farm
also campaigned, with Fox Hill, 2009 champion sprinter Kodiak
Cowboy, another purchase and now a Vinery stallion.
Grant Williamson is the farm’s stallion director, and he’s taken
on the role of social media promoter, too. “It’s the way of the future, isn’t it?” he says more than asks. Vinery has a Facebook
page, as well as a Twitter handle, @vinerystallions, where
Williamson, whose personal Twitter handle is @gawilliamson,
posts useful and promotional information about the stallions on
the digital grapevine. The farm certainly is growing like one,
too.
www.thoroughbredtimes.com
Vinery/Louise Reinagel photo
Young Vinery’s growth
A talented sprinter on dirt made his first splash as a freshman sire
with a colt going long on the turf, but Soldat’s two-year-old success
was only an indicator of War Front’s versatility as a sire rather than
one of a specific specialty.
War Front is the sire of two of the top 14 Kentucky Derby Presented
by Yum! Brands (G1) candidates ranked in the latest THOROUGHBRED
TIMES Road to the Triple Crown poll: Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth
Stakes (G2) winner Soldat and San
Vicente Stakes (G2) winner The
Factor. Together, they are two of
the four stakes winners in War
Front’s first crop. War Front ranked
fourth among freshman sires last
year and, through Monday, ranked
third among second-crop sires.
War Front retired from racing
following a 2006 season in which
he won the Alfred G. Vanderbilt
Breeders’ Cup Handicap (G2) at WAR FRONT
Saratoga Race Course. He began his stud career at the Hancock family’s Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, for an advertised fee of $12,500.
His fee is listed at $15,000 this year.
“He was pretty easy to fill up in his first year at stud,” Bernie Sams
of Claiborne said. “He stood for a reasonable price and is by Danzig,
looked like Danzig, and was fast on the track, so it wasn’t any trouble.”
Soldat broke his maiden with a victory in last year’s With Anticipation
Stakes (G3) and finished second in his other four starts, including the
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G2). The Factor won in his second career start, blazing six furlongs in a track record 1:06.98 on December
26 at Santa Anita Park before going on to win the San Vicente. War
Front’s other stakes winners are Tensas Punch and Warning Flag,
who won the Irish Stallion Farms
E.B.F. Star Appeal Stakes on turf at
®
Dundalk in Ireland.
“He seems to be throwing runSponsored by
ners ever ywhere and on ever ything—turf, dirt, synthetic, Ireland,
East Coast, West Coast,” Sams said.
Joseph Allen bred and raced War Front, and Sams said the stallion
deal was borne out of a longtime relationship between Allen and the
farm. Claiborne boards some of Allen’s mares, and War Front was
raised at the Paris farm, which also stood Danzig.
Claiborne is on quite a run, having campaigned its homebred Blame
to a Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) victory and champion older male
honors last year. Blame began standing alongside his sire, Arch, this
season. The farm also has an active roster of racehorses at the track
led by sparkling debut winner Bind.
“Everyone at the farm is very excited about the offspring of our stallions and our racehorses,” Sam said. “Everyone at the farm works
toward experiences like this. It’s a fun situation to be in.”
War Front is out of the multiple stakes-winning Rubiano mare Starry
Dreamer, dam of multiple Grade 3 winner and sire Ecclesiastic and
multiple graded stakes winner Teammate.—Ed DeRosa
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Thoroughbred Times TODAY March 2, 2011
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