Meet the new stallions in Pennsylvania for 2025
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A Kentucky Derby winner. . . a Canadian champion. . . Hall of Fame pedigrees. . . dazzling racing careers – the Pennsylvania stallion roster has been enriched with the addition of nine new stallions for the upcoming breeding season. Pennsylvania stallions offer breeders added punch – in addition to their runners earning more through the state’s lucrative breeders program, their offspring are eligible for the rich PA-Sired, PA-Bred Stallion Series stakes.
ALEJANDRO - Lola Cash and Built Wright Stables’ Alejandro offers a Hall of Fame pedigree as a son of Preakness-winning two-time Horse of the Year and leading sire Curlin out of the only daughter of Preakness-winning Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra.
The first foal out of Grade 1-winning juvenile filly Rachel’s Valentina, a daughter of Preakness-winning champion and top sire Bernardini, Alejandro earned $453,836 in a 35-start career as he competed at 11 different tracks, won four times and placed in 16 others over five seasons. Victories came at Churchill Downs, Fair Grounds, Oaklawn Park and Remington Park, at distances up to 1 3/16 miles.
Rachel’s Valentina was a Grade 1 winner of the Spinaway, and recorded seconds in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies-G1 and Ashland Stakes-G1 in six career starts while earning $738,800.
Rachel Alexandra was named 2009 Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly after wins in the Preakness, Haskell and Woodward, each over males, the Kentucky Oaks-G1 by more than 20 lengths and Mother Goose-G1 by 19 1/2 lengths. A 13-time winner with five seconds in 19 starts, she earned $3.5 million and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility in 2016.
Curlin, a notable sire of sires, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2014.
Bay, 2018, Curlin—Rachel’s Valentina, by Langfuhr
Standing his first season at Mountain Springs Farm, Palmyra, PA
Stud fee: $1,500 LFSN; a free lifetime breeding award is included if paying $3,000 to send two mares
BEREN - Pennsylvania-bred champion 3-year-old and sprinter of 2021, Susan Quick and Christopher Feifarek’s seven-time stakes-winning homebred Beren stands his first season alongside his sire, Weigelia, at WynOaks Farm.
In 2021, he raced at least once a month from January through November, won seven times, five in stakes – the Gold Fever and Paradise Creek (by 10 3/4 lengths) at Belmont Park, the Crowd Pleaser (by 9 1/2 lengths going 1 1/16 miles) and Parx Summer Sprint (by 6 1/2 lengths) at Parx, and the Danzig at Penn National – and was second in the Steel Valley Sprint at Mahoning Valley Race Course.
Racing through age 6, Beren’s richest victory in 35 career starts came in the 2022 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash. Eleven of his 12 wins were at distances from 6 to 7 furlongs. He also ran in 17 consecutive stakes and finished fourth or better in 14 times. His nine stakes-placings included a third in the 2023 Grade 3 General George at Laurel. Beren retires with earnings just shy of $1 million ($944,890).
He is out of Quick and Feifarek’s homebred millionaire Silmaril (by Diamond). His third dam is graded stakes-winning Kattegat’s Pride. The family includes graded stakes winner Chip and millionaire Smooth B.
Bay, 2018, Weigelia—Silmaril, by Diamond
Standing his first season at WynOaks Farm, Delta, PA
Stud fee: Private Contract
CURLIN’S WISDOM - Bred on the same cross as Grade 1-winning millionaire Connect, one of the nation’s leading young sires, Curlin’s Wisdom enters stud after a career in which he was a stakes-placed runner of $455,853 from 29 starts.
The dark bay son of Curlin was a model of consistency at 2 and 3. In 15 straight starts, from October 2021 through December 2022 while racing at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga, he finished in the top three 13 times and was fourth in the other two. He was second in the $250,000 Empire Classic Stakes at 3 in his stakes debut after three straight wins, from 1 mile on the turf to 1 1/8 miles on the main track.
His dam, the winning Rockport Harbor mare Whisper Wisdom, is a half-sister to two stakes winners including Curlin’s son Connect, winner of the Grade 1 Cigar Mile and the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby. Connect has sired the likes of Grade 1 winner and $2-million earner Rattle N Roll.
Dark bay or Brown, 2019, Curlin—Whisper Wisdom, by Rockport Harbor
Standing his first season at Cabin Creek, Gettysburg, PA
Stud fee: Private Contract
ENTICED - A top-10 nationally-ranked sire with two crops of racing age, Medaglia d’Oro’s graded stakes-winning son Enticed moves to Pennsylvania and immediately jumps into second on the state’s 2024 stallion earnings list. Bred and raced by Godolphin, he previously stood at Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Kentucky.
Now owned by a syndicate, Enticed has four stakes winners in his first crop, including graded winner Visually, winner of Santa Anita’s Senorita Stakes-G3. His runners in 2024 earned more than $3.2 million, for an average of $31,879.
Enticed’s first crop of 2-year-olds put him solidly in the top-10 on the freshman sires list in 2023, with 23 winners and earnings of more than $1.2 million. Daughter Shimmering Allure, who made her stakes debut in Grade 1 company, earned $239,095 while winning Aqueduct’s Tempted Stakes and finishing second in the Demoiselle Stakes-G2.
Enticed was a graded winner at 2 and 3 who earned $595,680 in seven starts. He won the 1 1/16-mile Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes-G2 at 2 over Tiz Mischief and Promises Fulfilled, and finish third in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes in his second start after winning his debut at 6 furlongs at Saratoga. At 3 he won the 1-mile Gotham Stakes-G3 by daylight and finished second in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial.
His dam, $1,666,500-earner and six-time stakes winner It’s Tricky, won eight of 14 starts including three Grade 1s – the Coaching Club American Oaks, Acorn and Ogden Phipps. She is also the dam of graded stakes-placed 2-year-old filly Enliven. Second dam is graded winner Catboat.
Dark bay or Brown, 2015, Medaglia d’Oro—It’s Tricky, by Mineshaft
Standing at Mountain Springs Farm, Palmyra, PA
Stud fee: $5,000 LFSN
IMPOSING - Royally-bred Imposing, out of Tapit’s champion daughter Untapable, is the first son of Hall of Famer Gun Runner to stand in the region.
Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male, ranks as one of the top stallions in the world today, with more than $22 million in progeny earnings in 2024 alone. Counted among his four Grade 1 winners last year are Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone.
Gun Runner won six Grade 1s including the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and amassed $15,988,500. Imposing’s dam Untapable earned the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old filly in 2014 when she won six of seven starts, all graded stakes, five Grade 1, including the Breeders’ Cup Distaff against older mares as the favorite. She earned of $3,926,625 from 20 starts.
Second dam Fun House, a daughter of Breeders’ Cup Turf-G1 winner Prized, was a graded winner of $432,922. She was named Broodmare of the Year after also producing Grade 1 winner and sire Paddy O’Prado. The family includes multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Red Route One, a son of Gun Runner out of a full sister to Untapable.
Imposing was unraced due to injury.
Bay, 2021, Gun Runner—Untapable, by Tapit
Standing his first season at Cabin Creek, Gettysburg, PA
Stud fee: Private Contract
MAGIC SPOON - Undefeated juvenile Magic Spoon is the first son of champion 2-year-old Good Magic to stand at stud in the region. The chestnut 4-year-old is one of 20 stakes winners by one of the hottest young sires in the world today. With just three crops to race, Good Magic is already the sire of Kentucky Derby winner Mage and Preakness winner Dornoch, plus 10 other graded winners. The son of Curlin ranked in the top 20 nationally by progeny earnings in 2024.
A member of Good Magic’s second crop, Magic Spoon captured Santa Anita’s Golden State Juvenile Stakes over 11 rivals at 7 furlongs as the favorite in only his second start. In his debut he produced a great closing kick - flying at the end to get up after a troubled trip to break his maiden at 6 furlongs over Santa Anita’s main track. He was sidelined by injury after his stakes victory and retires with earnings of $136,350.
Magic Spoon is out of stakes-placed Canadian Mistress, a full sister to $389,420-earning stakes winner Frontier Warrior (by the Gone West stallion Canadian Frontier) and half-sister to $237,213 stakes winner Midnight Ruler.
Chestnut, 2021, Good Magic—Canadian Mistress, by Canadian Frontier
Standing his first season at Cabin Creek, Gettysburg, PA
Stud fee: Private Contract
RICH STRIKE - Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike becomes the latest classic winner to stand in the state. The son of Travers Stakes-G1 winner Keen Ice and grandson of Curlin enters stud with career earnings of $2,526,809 in 14 starts.
The chestnut burst onto the racing scene in spectacular fashion in the 2022 Kentucky Derby. The longest shot in the field of 20 – getting in last minute after a late scratch – he rallied from more than 17 lengths back, weaved his way through the field, caught favorite Epicenter in deep stretch and edged away. He earned his way into the field when third in his previous start, the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks over Turfway Park’s all-weather track.
Rich Strike won or placed in four stakes, three graded. From the end of his juvenile campaign until his final start in May 2023, he raced exclusively in stakes. He missed by a head to the year-older Hot Rod Charlie in the 2022 Grade 2 Lukas Classic Stakes at Churchill and finished fourth behind Epicenter (in a three-horse photo with Cyberknife and Zandon for second) in the Travers Stakes-G1 as well as behind Flightline in the Breeders’ Cup Classic-G1.
Out of Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Gold Strike (by Smart Strike), Rich Strike is a half-brother to graded winner Llanarmon and to the dam of graded-winning Pennsylvania-bred millionaire Neecie Marie.
Chestnut, 2019, Keen Ice—Gold Strike, by Smart Strike
Standing his first season at Mountain Springs Farm, Palmyra, PA
Stud fee: $6,500 LFSN, special consideration for PA foaling mares
TYSON - Canadian champion older horse of 2023, Tyson stands his first season as the property of Darryl and Jill Myers’ new Thoroughbred operation, Stone Jug Ranch, in Dillsburg.
On the board five times in seven starts his championship season, four in consecutive graded stakes, the son of leading sire Tapit counted wins in beyond a mile in Seagram Cup-G2 and Dominion Day-G3 and a third in the Eclipse-G2, all over Woodbine’s synthetic track. He traveled to Saratoga for his main track debut in the Jockey Club Gold Cup-G1 and ran third, less than 3 lengths behind Bright Future. In his first start in 2024 he was second in the Eclipse-G2. Tyson retires with a record of 10-4-1-2 and earnings of $378,548.
From the dynamic family of Broodmare of the Year Better Than Honour, the most expensive broodmare ever sold (at $14 million), he is out of the winning Smart Strike mare Honouring, a full sister to Grade 1-winning juvenile filly Streaming and stakes winner Treasuring and a half-sister to three other stakes performers. Her half-sisters include the dams of Belmont Stakes-G1 and Travers Stakes-G1 winner and champion 3-year-old Arcangelo, and multiple graded stakes-winning sprinter Cezanne.
The rich family history boasts additional Belmont Stakes winners Jazil and champion 3-year-old filly of 2007 Rags to Riches, as well as Irish champion Man of Iron and multiple graded winners Casino Drive and Greatest Honour.
Gray/Roan, 2019, Tapit—Honouring, by Smart Strike
Standing his first season at Stone Jug Ranch, Dillsburg, PA.
Stud fee: $3,500, or $2,500 for multiple bookings, with special consideration for PA foaling and stakes-producing mares
ZOZOS - Graded stakes-winning miler Zozos, the first son of major sire Munnings to stand in the region, has been acquired by Rodney Eckenrode for the Equistar Training and Breeding roster.
A millionaire with seven wins in 15 starts, from 6 furlongs to 1 1/16 miles, Zozos excelled as a miler. His victories at the distance came in the Ack Ack Stakes-G3 and Knicks Go Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs and Ellis Park’s Hanshin Stakes.
Zozos made his stakes debut at Fair Grounds in his third start, the 2022 Louisiana Derby-G2 at 1 3/16 miles, and finished second to Epicenter, who would later win the Travers Stakes-G1. That effort earned him a berth in the Kentucky Derby-G1 (he finished midpack). He ran third in the 2024 Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes at 7 furlongs, missing second by a neck to Gun Pilot, and retired with earnings of $1,011,463.
His dam Papa’s Forest is a winning daughter of Forestry who earned $233,593 while racing from 2 to 6. Her other foal of racing age, $334,948-earner Emerald Forest, is the current 7-furlong track record holder at Louisiana Downs after zipping 1:21.07 in 2021.
Zozos’ third dam Barbara Sue, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner and sire Super May and four-time graded winner and sire Ide, raced through age 8, won five stakes, and produced graded winner Diamond On the Run and additional stakes winners Tropical Blossom and Barbette.
Dark bay or brown, 2019, Munnings—Papa’s Forest, by Forestry
Standing his first season at Equistar Training and Breeding, Annville, PA .
Stud fee: $2,500 LFSN
