A fixture on the U.S. racing scene since 1935, the Experimental Free Handicap is a weight-based assessment of the previous year’s juvenile runners. Gainesway’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile-winning Tapizar led all other first-crop sires with four youngsters among the rankings: two colts and two fillies.
Gainesway stallions are well represented among the 418 early nominees for the 2017 Triple Crown.
Gainesway’s three-time Grade/Group 1 winner Karakontie sired his first reported foal Jan. 19, a filly bred by Jim and Pam Robinson’s Brandywine Farm and foaled at their Paris, Ky., property.
Gainesway was noticeable among stallion owners bidding on mares at the Keeneland January sale to support their first-season sires and through four days of the five-day auction, the Kentucky nursery has signed for five mares targeted to visit two-time graded stakes winner Anchor Down (Tapit) when he begins his stud career next month.
Topping Book 1 of Keeneland’s January mixed sale was Siren Serenade, in foal to Tapit, marking the third straight major U.S. breeding stock sale a mare in foal to Gainesway’s three-time record-breaking leading sire has been the sale-topper.
Don Alberto Stable’s Unique Bella put the finishing touches on a stellar weekend for leading sire Tapit Jan. 8 at Santa Anita Park when she delivered an outstanding exhibition in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes. In only her third start, the 3-year-old gray filly earned 10 points toward a berth in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.
Tapit, who has spent three consecutive record-setting years atop the nation’s leading sire list, is laying the groundwork for a fourth. On Jan. 7 at Gulfstream Park a pair of newly minted homebred 3-year-old fillies won back-to-back races, giving Gainesway’s gray promising boosts to his chances.
New Gainesway stallion Anchor Down, a brilliant miler by Tapit who enters stud in 2017, will have a limited number of lifetime breeding rights offered through the Share the Upside program.
Christmas Day racing in Japan presented Gainesway’s repatriated stallion Empire Maker with a new stakes winner as 3-year-old colt Namura Arashi took the Ako Tokubetsu for 3-year-olds and older over 10 furlongs of Hanshin’s dirt course.
Three-year-old filly Triple Chelsea won the Dec. 17 Lightning City Stakes and became the newest stakes winner for Gainesway stallion Hat Trick.