FEATURE
STALLION
What an Awesome year
by Jordan Strickler
As Ghostzapper crossed the wire of the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1)
Saturday, he made AWESOME AGAIN (Deputy Minister) the first
Classic-winning sire to have a foal copy the feat.
Awesome Again captured the Classic six years ago over of a
talented field that included 1997 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner and
champion three-year-old colt Silver Charm, European champion
Swain (Ire), 1999 champion older horse Victory Gallop and 1998
Horse of the Year Skip Away.
That victory was just one on a list of fabulous achievements
that included the Whitney H. (G1), Stephen Foster H. (G2),
Saratoga Breeders’ Cup (G2), Jim Dandy S. (G2) and Hawthorne Gold
Cup H. (G3). He retired with a record of 12-9-0-2 and earnings of
$4,374,589.
This was not the first time that Awesome Again’s name was
mentioned at the Lone Star showdown, however. Earlier in the day,
Wilko shocked the crowd as he and jockey Frankie Dettori reached
the wire ahead of a field of well-touted two-year-olds in the
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). The unknown chestnut made the trip
from Ireland just for the purpose of trying the dirt in the
biggest two-year-old race in the country and went on to win by
three parts of a length, the same margin in which his sire won
the Classic.
Wilko left the race with $880,497 in the bank and a record of
11-3-2-4, including a runner-up finish in the Vintage S. (Eng-G2).
“He’s a good, solid, hard-knocking horse,” trainer
Jeremy Noseda said the day prior to the race. “He’s by
Awesome Again so we came here to take a chance that he’ll take to
the dirt. He’ll run a solid race and if he suddenly takes to the
dirt, maybe he can move up and get a piece of it (the purse)”
Indeed he did get a piece; in fact his share amounted to $780,000,
or 52 percent. Wilko will stay in the United States with trainer
Craig Dollase and could run next in December’s Hollywood Futurity
(G1).
In the main battle, Ghostzapper was the one to make his papa
proud, leading the 1 1/4-mile contest in wire-to-wire fashion
under Javier Castellano, a race that was finished in a record 1:59.
This win not only made Awesome Again the first Classic-winning
sire to produce another Classic winner, but also made him the
first stallion to sire two Breeders’ Cup winners on the same day.
Ghostzapper now owns a record of 10-8-0-1 and earnings just
short of $3 million. He captured the Woodward S. (G1), Tom Fool H.
(G2) and Philip H. Iselin Breeders’ Cup H. (G3) earlier this
season and won last year’s Vosburgh S. (G1).
The 10-year-old stallion also produced Toccet, who completed a
remarkable two-year-old campaign, finding the winners’ circle in
the Champagne S. (G1), Hollywood Futurity (G1), Remsen S. (G2)
and Laurel Futurity (G2) before being sidelined with an injury to
the right hind cannon bone.
Other notable progeny include Awesome Time, victor in the 2003
Leonard Richards S. (G3); Snorter, who won the Berkeley Breeders’
Cup H. (G3); Natalma S. (Can-G3) heroine Pink Champagne; and
stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Personal Legend.
Awesome Again is by Canadian champion and leading sire Deputy
Minister and out of 2000 Broodmare of the Year Primal Force, who
also produced 2000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and champion two-year-old
Macho Uno (Holy Bull). Owned and bred by Stronach Stables,
Awesome Again was foaled on March 29, 1994, in Ontario, Canada.
The bay stud has produced five crops, three of racing age.
From 214 foals in his first three crops, 70 have already recorded
victories, a 33 percent winning clip, while earning slightly more
than $10.5 million. Almost 100 of his yearlings have been sold at
public auction, bringing a total of $10,714,000 and an average of
$110,454.
These successes have prompted Adena Springs, located near
Versailles, Kentucky, to raise his fee from $75,000 to $125,000
in 2005.