War Front stays at $250,000

War Front will stand for an unchanged fee of $250,000 in 2020 at Claiborne Farm, presumably continuing his reign as the most expensive sire in North America.

The advertised stud fee for War Front, by Danzig, first climbed to $250,000 for the 2017 season and has remained there since. He is one of three Kentucky-based stallions who stood for a fee of $200,000 or more in 2019. Perennial leading sire Tapit stood for $225,000 in 2019 at Gainesway after previously standing for $300,000. His 2020 fee has not yet been announced. Medaglia d’Oro will stand for an unchanged fee of $200,000 in 2020 at Darley.

War Front, the sire of Grade 1/Group 1 winners on both turf and dirt worldwide, and a perennial leader in the commercial auction arena, had not yet sired a Grade 1-winning male runner at a two-turn distance on dirt entering this racing season. He achieved that feat in April, when Omaha Beach won the Arkansas Derby, then his son War of Will captured the Preakness Stakes. War of Will is expected to start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, while Omaha Beach will also be seen at the Breeders’ Cup in a race yet to be determined.

War Front leads a 12-horse roster for the Hancock family’s historic Claiborne, which adds two new stallions for 2020 in dual-surface Grade 1 winner Catholic Boy and Grade 3 winner Demarchelier. A fee for Catholic Boy, who remains in training, is yet to be determined, while Demarchelier, the first son of Dubawi to stand in Kentucky, will stand for $5,000.

Claiborne’s roster also includes Flatter at $40,000, Blame at $35,000, Mastery and Runhappy at $25,000, First Samurai at $15,000, Orb at $10,000, and Algorithms and Ironicus at $5,000 each. A fee for young sire Lea, in the top 20 on the freshman sire earnings list, is yet to be announced.

Friend Or Foe flourishing

Just shy of a decade after his sire won the Empire Classic, one of the top prizes on the New York-bred circuit, Mr. Buff will try to land that $300,000 event Saturday at Belmont. Meanwhile, his sire, Friend Or Foe, is fashioning an unconventional stallion career in a new adopted state.

Friend Or Foe, who raced as a homebred for perennial New York leading owner-breeders Chester and Mary Broman, stands at Smallwood Farm in Crozet, Va. The farm, which is owned and operated by Phyllis Jones and her daughter Robin Mellen, has been in operation for more than 50 years. Friend Or Foe has learned to jump since his retirement from the racetrack, and is available as both a racing and sporthorse sire. He stands at Smallwood alongside the pony stallion Maple Side Wish List, whose son By4Now recently won the World Champion Hunter Rider Pony Challenge at the prestigious Capital Challenge.

“We’ve bred everything from Clydesdales to event horses at Smallwood,” Jones told the Virginia Thoroughbred Association. “[Friend Or Foe’s] offspring have turned out to be wonderful and calm horses.”

The Bromans send two or three mares from New York every year to support Friend Or Foe. From 21 foals of racing age since he entered stud in 2013, according to Equineline statistics, the son of Friends Lake has seven winners from 11 starters. His most successful runners are multiple stakes winner Mr. Buff and stakes-placed Code Red, both bred by the Bromans.

Mr. Buff, who races in the Bromans’ colors, has earned $696,286 entering Saturday’s Empire Classic, a race he was third in last year. The 5-yearold gelding has won four stakes races, three this season.

Friend Or Foe won the 2010 Empire Classic as a 3-year-old in his most successful season of racing, when his victories also included the Mike Lee Stakes at Belmont Park, part of the Big Apple Triple. The son of Friends Lake was a stakes winner at 4 and stakes-placed at 5 in 2012. He also made several forays into graded stakes company, with his most creditable effort a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap in 2011, beaten just a nose for third.

Maryland farm rebuilding

Bourbon Courage and Imagining, who have held their own nationally in a tough freshman sire class, get their chance to shine locally with several firstcrop runners on the Maryland Million program this Saturday at Laurel Park. The stallions are part of a young roster for Anchor and Hope Farm, which is continuing to build its stallion operation even while rebuilding from a destructive fire, which its two freshmen escaped, in August.

A fire broke out in the main barn at Anchor and Hope, located in Port Deposit, Md., the morning of Aug. 12. Bourbon Courage and Imagining were inside, along with yearlings and mares. Forewoman Heather Cellinesi, who was first to discover the fire, managed to open the doors on each stall and get the horses out of the barn without any loss of life. For her efforts, Cellinesi was chosen to receive the 2019 Joe Kelly Maryland Million Unsung Hero Award, presented annually by the board of directors of the Maryland Million, Ltd.

Because the barn that was lost was the main hub of activity at Anchor and Hope, rebuilding has required the primary focus of the staff and a good deal of money, resulting in some changes in business. For example, the farm offered a handful of yearlings for private sale, rather than spending the time pointing and prepping them for fall public auctions. However, even while rebuilding and these changes are underway, the farm has continued to build a young stallion roster. In fact, Anchor and Hope welcomes another new stallion for 2020 in Grade 1 winner Force the Pass. The farm’s current roster consists of Grade 2 winner Bourbon Courage and Grade 1 winner Imagining; graded stakes winner Holy Boss, whose first foals arrived this year; and U.A.E. Group 1 winner Long River, who entered stud this year.

Bourbon Courage, the sire of stakes winner Raging Whiskey, sits 22nd on North America’s freshman earnings list, with five winners from 13 starters. Among stallions standing outside of Kentucky, he ranks fourth on the continent, behind Khozan (Florida), The Big Beast (Florida), and Frac Daddy (Canada). Sitting fifth on that list behind Bourbon Courage is Imagining – who is 26th on the North American earnings list, with four winners from 14 starters.

Both Bourbon Courage and Imagining are represented in the $100,000 Maryland Million Nursery Stakes on Saturday at Laurel. Bourbon Courage is the sire of Stone Courageous, while Imagining sends out Dreaming of Love and Imagine Winning. In the sister race, the $100,000 Lassie for juvenile fillies, Bourbon Courage has a trio of entrants in Make It a Double, Punk Rock Princess, and Worstbestideaever.