It’s a big deal for a regional farm to unveil a Kentucky Derby winner at stud, and the addition of 2022 upset victor Rich Strike would have been enough to bring headlines to Rich Miller’s Mountain Springs Farm in Palmyra, Pa.

But Mountain Springs isn’t just adding Rich Strike. Grade 2 winner and promising young sire Enticed is moving north from Darley in Kentucky for the 2025 season. Uptowncharlybrown and Eastwood, both top 20 sires in Pennsylvania, are making intrastate moves to Mountain Springs from Blackstone Farm in Pine Grove. New to stud are multiple stakes winner Uncle Benny, second in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf; the winner Alejandro, who is out of Grade 1 winner Rachel’s Valentina, only daughter of the great Rachel Alexandra; and war horse Beverly Park, who won 29 of 64 starts and well over half a million.

Mountain Springs will have a 2025 stallion lineup of nine horses – more than quadrupling its roster, as the newcomers join residents Tight Ten and Well Spelled.

Enticed and Uptowncharlybrown will be two of the top active sires in Pennsylvania. Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing, who entered stud in 2019 at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky but moved to Pin Oak Lane in Pennsylvania beginning with the 2024 season, leads the Keystone State sires by seasonal earnings, regardless of conception area, with $4,163,190.

Enticed, who entered stud in 2020, checked in with earnings of $3,219,744 in advance of his first Pennsylvania season. Warrior’s Reward is next on the earnings list at $3,108,833. The former Wyn-Oaks Farm stallion has been pensioned to Old Friends in Kentucky. That leaves Uptowncharlybrown, fourth on the earnings list, as the leading active Pennsylvania stallion in state-sired progeny, with earnings of $2,770,052.

In coming years, he will have to contend with newcomer Enticed, a Grade 2 winner himself. The young stallion was a top 10 freshman sire for 2023 and second-crop sire for 2024, and he’s the sire of Grade 3 winner Visually.

“With his impressive pedigree and striking presence, Enticed has already garnered attention from breeders and enthusiasts alike,” Mountain Springs said in a press release. “As he embarks on this new chapter in Pennsylvania, we are committed to providing him with the best environment to continue his legacy and support the breeding community.”

Meanwhile, Rich Strike is set to finally launch his stud career after last racing in May 2023. What followed included comeback attempts from nagging ligament injuries and owner Rich Dawson’s pursuit of a long-stated wish to stand the horse domestically. The son of Keen Ice arrived in Pennsylvania in early January after Dawson completed a deal with Miller. The horse has “settled in very well,” Dawson said.

“As stated, I will support Richie through his stallion career and beyond,” Dawson wrote on social media. “In many ways, it was a sad day for me, family, and friends when he transitioned to a new owner group, but this process is necessary. It’s not the end of my participation in Richie’s life and career.”

Rich Strike officially retires with a record of 14-2-1-3. The former claimer raced through the Kentucky Derby prep series at Turfway Park, finishing third in both the Leonatus Stakes and Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks on the Tapeta.

With the points he earned in that series, Rich Strike drew in to the Kentucky Derby field the day before the race as an also-eligible. In the Derby, he rallied from 15th at the quarter pole with an inside move for a shocking upset by three-quarters of a length. His winning payout of $163.60 made him the second-longest shot to ever win the Derby, behind only Donerail in 1913.

Rich Strike was winless in six starts following the Derby, although he was a close second in the Grade 2 Lukas Classic Stakes in October 2022 at Churchill Downs.

Great Notion continues to lead Maryland

Veteran sire Great Notion, who resides at Northview Stallion Station, has led the Maryland general sire list every year since 2018. His dominance continued in 2024, as he again led the state’s progeny earnings list with $6,086,941. Among stallions with state-sired progeny, Northview residents Golden Lad and Uncle Lino checked in second and third.

Cupid stood his first Maryland season in 2024, moving to Atlanta Hall Farm after previously standing at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky. The sire of Grade 1 winner Carson’s Run had progeny earnings of $4,285,934 on the season, which would place him second to Great Notion regardless of foal conception area.

But Great Notion, who is 25 this year, led the state in both individual winners and individual stakes winners. His six stakes winners were led by a pair of graded winners, as Maryland-bred Future Is Now was a multiple graded stakes-winning turf sprinter in solid company, and Coastal Mission, foaled in West Virginia, won the Grade 3 Forty Niner at Aqueduct.

Back in Maryland, Brilliant Ice took the Maryland Million Classic and Starstruck won the Maryland Million Turf. Witty and Speedyness were both stakes winners at Laurel. Witty also was Grade 2-placed, and Great Notion’s son Twisted Ride was Grade 1-placed in New York.

Positive signs for Virginia

The hard-knocking graded stakes winner Five Star General will begin his stud career at Covilar LLC’s Owl Hollow Farm in Floyd, Va., in 2025. A new stallion retiring directly to Virginia rather than moving in from elsewhere is a positive sign for a state that finally has a thriving Thoroughbred track again.

There was no live Thoroughbred racing in Virginia between the end of the 2013 meet at Colonial Downs and when the track opened in 2019 under new ownership, causing a period of magnified struggle for Virginia’s breeding industry and horsemen. With the nation already grappling with an overall foal crop decline, the state found its numbers shrinking even further. The Virginia-registered foal crop was 540 in 2001, according to state fact book statistics from The Jockey Club. The crop dropped to 133 in 2022, the most recently published year available in the fact book.

A Virginia-certified program was launched in 2016 to support farms and training centers by encouraging young horses to come to the state. Any horse conceived and foaled outside Virginia but maintaining residency in the state at a registered facility for a mandated period became eligible for bonus money when winning at Mid-Atlantic tracks.

The program thus worked to keep infrastructure for the Thoroughbred industry, and related jobs, in the state. Still, there was little incentive to stand horses in the state. According to The Jockey Club, just 10 stallions covered 31 mares in Virginia in 2024.

The numbers are beginning to shift upward, though. Owner and breeder Larry Johnson based his Legacy Stallions at Roland Farm in Maryland for several years, but then moved to his own Legacy Farm in Virginia for the 2024 season. His Street Magician was Virginia’s leading sire, regardless of progeny conception area, for 2024, with 15 winners from 28 starters for earnings of $814,768. The next stallion on the list had earnings of $93,947, providing more evidence of the lack of numbers for in-state stallions.

Five Star General, who earned more than $900,000 in his career, comes to the Owl Hollow of Covilar, founded by Dr. Josep Bassaganya-Riera. Covilar acquired 50 percent of the now 9-year-old son of Distorted Humor and will stand him in partnership with racing owner Kenny Alhadeff of Elttaes Stables.

Bassaganya-Riera acquired Owl Hollow in 2021, has made many facility upgrades, and is now working to establish a prominent stallion operation. In a press release, Bassaganya-Riera said he is “thrilled” to add a graded stakes winner to the roster.

“Our unique breeding program has already produced two crops of foals from Snapy Halo, sired by top Southern Hemisphere producer Southern Halo,” he said. “Our breeding programs are designed to maximize performance, speed, and stamina of the offspring. We believe that the addition of ‘Ike’ as our leading stallion is a natural choice and excellent complement to our emerging Thoroughbred breeding program.”

Five Star General is standing for an advertised fee of $6,000, but incentive programs are being developed to support breeders in Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic region and to incentivize broodmares with proven racing or production credentials.

“We’re looking forward to partnering with Covilar to launch ‘Ike’ as a sire and to bring this accomplished stallion prospect to breeders in the Mid-Atlantic region,” Alhadeff said. “The partnership is exceptionally beneficial to our family, to Covilar and Owl Hollow Farm’s plans, and to breeders in the Virginia and Mid-Atlantic region. I am elated to be partnering with Dr. Josep Bassaganya-Riera, and his determination to improve the breed is thrilling. What better place than Virginia?”

Five Star General concluded his racing career with a record of 39-13-6-9 and earnings of $902,202. He is known for competing in Emerald Downs’s Longacres Mile five years in a row. He finished second in the 2020 edition and third in 2021, when the race was run as a Grade 3 event, and third in the listed 2022 edition. He broke through to win the 2023 and 2024 editions of the race, with the latter victory marking his career finale.

Five Star General also won the Grade 3 British Columbia Derby at Hastings in 2019. His other stakes wins came in the 2018 Central Park at Aqueduct, 2019 British Columbia Cup Sir Winston Churchill Derby Trial at Hastings, 2023 Evangeline Mile, and 2023 Tenacious Stakes at Fair Grounds. Along with his Longacres Mile efforts, he placed in nine other stakes races as his career took him to 15 tracks in nine states and Canada.

 

Original source credited to drf.com

Cover Photo Credit to Debra Roma

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