DOING STUD DUTY IN THE BLUEGRASS

By Bill Mooney

Soto is a horse who has had a sizeable number of girlfriends this year. Seventy, in fact. This is the sort of thing that results when a stallion doing stud duty has a victory in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby on his resume.

The win by Soto occurred in the 2003 running of the race. In the process, he set a Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort record of 1:46.29 for 1 1/8 miles. It was one of five victories Soto achieved in six career starts, and it inspired a Daily Racing Form writer to opine that he was "the fastest 3-year-old in America."

Following the West Virginia Derby, Soto only made one more start. While finishing second in a photo (his only career loss) in the Grade 2 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs, he suffered severe damage in his left foreleg.

"The horse that beat him that day, Ten Most Wanted, had won the (Grade 1) Travers Stakes at Saratoga," said Jeff Morris, owner of Highclere Farm near Lexington, Kentucky. "Soto came close to perfection when racing. And his promise as a sire, I think, is terrific."

Highclere is a 300-acre spread in the heart of Central Kentucky's Bluegrass region. Granted, it's not one of the higher profile breeding operations - its name is not as recognizable as Claiborne Farm or Lane's End Farm, or Three Chimneys Farm, where Kentucky Derby winners have stood. But Highclere is a beautiful place, blessed with rolling hills and rich pastures, and it is now Soto's home.

"We're a bread and butter farm," Morris said. "I'm a hands-on guy. I work closely with Soto, and with the mares that we breed to him, which included 17 of our own this year. Soto's a marvelous stallion to be around. He has an excellent mind and an excellent libido, but he's also very gentle. And, believe me, he loves his job."

Soto's first foals were sent to public auction as weanlings last year. One of them, a colt, sold for $75,000 at Keeneland in November. Members of Soto's first yearling crop will be auctioned at Keeneland this coming September. His stud fee (payable if a live foal results) is $7,500.

He is not the only West Virginia Derby winner now doing stud work in Central Kentucky. Wiseman's Ferry, who won the race in 2002, and Sir Shackleton, who won it in 2004, are both at the scenic, 1,200-acre Castleton Lyons Farm.

Wiseman's Ferry initially did stud duty in New York. "But when his weanlings started selling for good prices at the Keeneland November sale, the decision was made to bring him down here," said Tobias Incollingo, farm manager for Castleton Lyons.

The live foal stud fee for Wiseman's Ferry is $8,500. For many if not most breeders he represents a solid investment, for his sons and daughters have regularly sold for more than three times the fee.

Having them develop into winners doesn't hurt, either. Members of the first crop by Wiseman's Ferry are 2-year-olds this season. One of his colts, Fast Drum, has won at Belmont Park in New York and is already stakes-places. And a gelded son of Wiseman's Ferry named Mi Rolls won his first career start at Colonial Downs in Virginia.

Sir Shackleton, who earned $1.05 million during his racing days, is a first-year stallion who stood for a live foal fee of $7,500 this season. Breeding in Central Kentucky occurs during a period that extends from mid-January through early July, and Sir Shackleton and Wiseman's Ferry were each booked to 100 mares.

Inarguably, Central Kentucky has long remained the most prominent breeding locale for thoroughbreds in the United States. "To be in demand as a stallion here, a horse almost has to be a graded stakes winner," Incollingo said. "Speed in a stallion's past performances is important, but it's very beneficial if he has proven distance ability, too."

Wiseman's Ferry was fast. He actually began his racing career in Ireland, where at age two he won a six-furlong event at the Cork course in Ireland. He began racing in the U.S. at age three. In addition to his front-running triumph in the West Virginia Derby, Wiseman's Ferry won the Grade 3 Lone Star Derby, a stakes that was also run at the 1 1/8-mile distance.

But Sir Shackleton was even faster, and probably a touch more versatile. Prior to his West Virginia Derby win, he scored in the Grade 3 Derby Trial Stakes, a one-mile event at Churchill Downs.

At age four Sir Shackleton set a track record of 1:21.64 for seven furlongs when he won the Grade 2 Richter Scale Championship at Tampa Bay Downs. And at age five he set another seven-furlong track record of 1:22.78 in a stakes event at Gulfstream Park.

Pedigrees, of course, are extremely important. The family tree for Wiseman's Ferry includes the 1978 Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, and the 1964 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, Northern Dancer. The latter is internationally recognized as the one of the greatest thoroughbred stallions of the 20th century.

Sir Shackleton's pedigree includes the Triple Crown winners War Admiral and Count Fleet. And Soto's pedigree includes Northern Dancer and the 1973 Triple Crown winner, Secretariat.

Wiseman's Ferry had to battle for his West Virginia Derby win, outgaming a horse named The Judge Sez Who by a neck. Sir Shackleton had a bit of an easier time, cruising across the wire three lengths in front.

Soto had to battle valiantly at Mountaineer. He went to the fore with three-eighths of a mile remaining, lost his lead when a horse named Dynever poked his head in front a furlong from the wire, then regained it to win by a neck.

"His other wins - including his one at age two in the (Grade 2) Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill - were easier than that," noted Morris. "Again and again, Soto came from way behind and flew by horses. In the West Virginia Derby, he proved he could withstand a formidable challenge."

No West Virginia Derby winner has ever sired another winner of the race. "That situation could easily change," Incollingo said. "We're talking about young stallions with potentially huge futures. I like the chances of it eventually happening."