Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Lane’s End’s newest sire trio sports familiar bloodlines
The stallions are new, but the bloodlines aren’t. Fittingly in its 40th anniversary season, Lane’s End Farm has welcomed three newcomers from sirelines prominent in the farm’s history.
Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Eclipse Award champion Accelerate is a grandson of late leading sire Smart Strike, who at one time held the single-season earnings record for a North American sire. Champion West Coast resides across the barn aisle from his pensioned grandsire, the legendary A.P. Indy. And moving in across the aisle from Quality Road, one of the hottest sires in America, is his son City of Light, who concluded his career with brilliant triumphs in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and Pegasus World Cup. Accelerate finished third in the Pegasus, also his career finale.
“People were asking me the week before, ‘Who do you root for?’ and that was tough to answer,” said Lane’s End’s Bill Farish.
Accelerate is by Smart Strike’s son Lookin At Lucky, a champion at ages 2 and 3 who stands at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud. Lookin At Lucky is one of several successful sons at stud for Smart Strike, who died in 2015, along with fellow Preakness Stakes winner and champion Curlin at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm and turf champion English Channel at Calumet Farm.
Accelerate has a long history with Lane’s End personnel, as David Ingordo, bloodstock agent for the farm, selected him as a yearling, purchasing him for $380,000 at Keeneland September on behalf of Hronis Racing.
“Accelerate is the kind of horse I like to find – ones that are good and get better, better, better,” Ingordo said. “He can stand up physically to any yearling I’ve bought or seen at a sale . . . . He was a late foal, but he never acted like one.”
Ingordo said that Accelerate was always facing tough competition – be it Arrogate in a maiden race or Triple Crown winner Justify in Horse of the Year voting.
“But for the horse’s whole life, he never took a bad step,” Ingordo said. “We use the word ‘throwback’ with him. He’s what the industry is looking for – a sound, tough horse. For us, it is nice to have a good branch of that Smart Strike line that [Will Farish] propagated here. He turned into even more than I thought he would become.”
Accelerate won eight graded stakes, including Grade 1 triumphs last year in the Santa Anita Handicap, Gold Cup at Santa Anita, Pacific Classic, Awesome Again, and Breeders’ Cup Classic, to earn the Eclipse Award as champion older male honors. The only horse to defeat him in 2018 was City of Light, by a neck in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap.
“He’s an interesting horse for us, because obviously Smart Strike meant a lot to us here and had a lot to do with building our farm,” Bill Farish said of Accelerate. “Having a grandson of his is a big plus for us. I think some people might look at Lookin At Lucky as not being the obvious sire of sires, but we’re pretty excited about that sire line.”
West Coast, who raced for Gary and Mary West, won the 2017 Travers Stakes, defeating all three winners of that year’s Triple Crown events. He added a second Grade 1 triumph in the Pennsylvania Derby, then finished third behind eventual Horse of the Year Gun Runner in the Breeders’ Cup Classic en route to being voted the year’s outstanding 3-year-old male. Last year, he finished second in the Pegasus World Cup, Dubai World Cup, and then to Accelerate in the Awesome Again.
West Coast is the latest direct male relative of A.P. Indy, Lane’s End’s foundation sire, to stand at the farm. A.P. Indy was bred by Lane’s End founder William S. Farish and partner William Kilroy and ticked off all the boxes through the course of his career. He was a $2.9 million yearling who went on to win the 1992 Belmont Stakes, Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Horse of the Year honors, and he returned home to a career as a leading sire, sire of sires, and broodmare sire. His sons at stud include 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft and 2015 outstanding older male Honor Code at Lane’s End, Flatter at Claiborne Farm, Malibu Moon at Spendthrift Farm, Congrats at WinStar Farm, and Bernardini at Darley. Flatter is the sire of West Coast, who was produced by the champion filly Caressing, by Honour and Glory.
“A lot of these stallions favor the broodmare sires, and Honour and Glory was great at throwing a very attractive horse – maybe a little more looks than substance,” Ingordo said. “But I’m very keen on Flatter. I think he is a very underappreciated horse and don’t see any reason he won’t be a sire of sires.”
City of Light has been part of a strong run for Quality Road over the last two years, helping his sire’s stud fee skyrocket from $35,000 in 2017 to $70,000 in 2018 to $150,000 this season. Quality Road was represented by a pair of champions in Abel Tasman and Caledonia Road in 2017. Abel Tasman went on to be a multiple Grade 1 winner in 2018. Other Grade 1 winners last year by Quality Road were City of Light, Bellafina, Salty, and Spring Quality. With City of Light’s Pegasus score jumpstarting his sire’s bankroll, and Bellafina winning her first two starts this season, Quality Road appears poised to continue climbing the charts.