STROLL, WHO STANDS AT IOWA STATE, LEADS PACK

Stroll continued to roll right along as Iowa’s leading sire of 2020. He continues to lead the way for Iowa State University, which has forged a path as a leading teaching program and prominent regional commercial program.

Stroll, now 21, was born and raised at historic Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. The son of Pulpit raced in the gold colors of that operation, winning four graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic in 2004 at Churchill Downs. He returned to his birthplace for more than a decade as a stallion before he was purchased by a syndicate and arrived at Iowa State’s Department of Animal Science, near Ames, in time for the 2017 season.

Stroll’s Kentucky-sired progeny immediately made him Iowa’s leading sire, regardless of conception location, in 2017, 2018, and 2019. His first Iowa-conceived foals hit the track in 2020, and he continued to dominate the standings. From 69 starters, Stroll had 39 winners on the season for progeny earnings of $1,504,698. That outdistanced Native Ruler, at Abraham’s Equine Clinic, who had 13 winners from 27 starters for $491,934.

Leading Stroll’s 20 career stakes winners is Wet Your Whistle, a Grade 1 winner in 2019 who had another solid season in 2020. The gelding won the Grade 3 Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational before finishing second, beaten just a half-length by Glass Slippers after a slow start, in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland.

While Stroll’s first Iowa-sired juveniles raced in 2020, he was actually edged on the state’s juvenile sire list by another Iowa State resident, the late Formidable. The graded stakes-placed son of Sky Mesa – who, in turn, is a son of Pulpit – had three winners from seven juvenile starters, led by the aptly named Cant wait to graduate, who was bred and foaled at Iowa State. The gelding, sold via the student consignment for $9,000 to Paul Brant in fall 2019, won his debut by 3 1/2 lengths last summer. He then finished third in the Iowa Stallion Futurity at Prairie Meadows

Formidable died in April 2020 after several months battling a rare disorder, equine multinodular pulmonary fibrosis.

Iowa State will welcome two newcomers to the program in 2021 – multiple graded stakes winner Timeline and stakes winner Blueblood. Timeline, by Hard Spun and from the female family of the great broodmare Courtly Dee, won the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont by 3 1/4 lengths, then took the Grade 3 Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth by the same margin. Blueblood, by City Zip, won the Victoria Stakes at Woodbine as a juvenile.

Alongside its stallion roster, which also is available for public breeding, ISU maintains a band of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse broodmares for use in education as a skill-teaching facility. Quarter Horse stallions also reside at the farm. The 13 Thoroughbred mares in the teaching herd are led by stakes winners Launch Light Lady, She’s Better Loud, and Swede. Launch Light Lady and She’s Better Loud are Iowa-breds.

The foals produced by ISU are either sold privately or in breed-specific public auctions. The ISU program has finished in the top three consignors by gross at the Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association’s fall mixed sale each year since 2016, leading all consignors in 2017, 2019, and 2020.

JOE LABOZZETTA/NYRA Wet Your Whistle, by Stroll, wins the Belmont Turf Sprint. He concluded his 5-yearold season by closing from far back to be second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.