Pennsylvania-Bred Horse of the Year and Champion 3-year-old Male in 2023, Angel of Empire, has been retired from the racetrack for a second career in the breeding shed.
The decision was bittersweet, said Jason Loutsch, racing manager for Albaugh Family Stables, who campaigned Angel with trainer Brad Cox. He won two of six starts during his 3-year-old season, which included the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes. He also placed third in the Kentucky Derby. His career earnings topped $1.4 million and no other Pennsylvania state-bred earned more, including Champion Sprinter Caravel.
Loutsch said they were excited to see Angel run as a four-year-old, having reached full physical maturity as a striking colt who was both big and balanced with a great mind and a competitive spirit.
He was put back into training this spring but developed some minor foot bruising, so the decision was made to give him a longer rest and ideally get him back to the races during Churchill Downs fall meet where they believed he’d be a “major player” in the older division, much the same as he was during last year’s season.
But after a fast three-furlong workout in late August that had trainer Brad Cox “so excited” that they discussed pointing him toward the Breeder’s Cup in November, Angel developed some knee swelling – his second training setback – and the decision was made to send him to the breeding shed – a hard choice to make, Albaugh said.
“It was really upsetting, but he did so much for our family that it wouldn’t be fair to go on with him unless he was 100 percent,” he said. “We always take of our horses.”
Bred by Christian Black of Blackstone Farm in Pine Grove, Pa., Angel of Empire now enters another highly competitive arena, the commercial breeding industry, which for a variety of factors can make or break a horse’s stud career in just a handful of years.
Black and Loutsch believe Angel is going to have a good chance to succeed as a sire: his stud fee of $7,500 is modest but competitively priced; he’s going to Taylor Made Farm, one of the leading breeding and sales operations in the world; and his looks, nearly flawless conformation and size, 16.3 hands, all play well in today’s breeding game.
“Angel of Empire is as good-looking of a first-year sire you will see this year, and in this commercial market, big and pretty sells,” said Travis White, director of sales for Taylor Made Stallions.
Taylor Made also sold Angel’s mother, Armony’s Angel, earlier this year for $1.8 million to one of Japan’s leading racing operations. She was sold in foal to top North American sire, Gun Runner, and produced a colt in January that just sold in Japan for 300 million yen, the equivalent of $1.8 million.
That’s quite a family, and the impact on Black’s small breeding operation is not lost on him. Angel will be the first horse he’s bred to stand at stud. “It’s amazing,” he said. “This is what we all dream of.”
Original source credited to lancasterfarming.com
Cover Photo Credit to BloodHorse
