Multiple Grade 2 winner King Cugat, one of the country's leading turf runners the past two seasons, has been retired and will enter stud in 2002 at William S. Farish's Lane's End near Versailles, Kentucky. The four-year-old son of Kingmambo, who will join his sire and two other sons of the classic-winning son of Mr. Prospector on the Lane's End stallion roster, will stand his initial season for $10,000. The other sons of Kingmambo who stand at Lane's End are champion and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Lemon Drop Kid and Grade 2 winner Parade Ground.

Bred in Kentucky by Dinwiddie Farm, King Cugat is out of the Majestic Light mare Tricky Game, a full sister to stakes winner Stacked Pack and a half sister to Grade 1 winner and top sire Seeking the Gold. Purchased by Centennial Farms for $110,000 at the 1998 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, King Cugat suffered strained ligaments in his left foreleg this fall.

Campaigned by Centennial and trained by Bill Mott, King Cugat won seven of 16 career starts with seven seconds and one third for $1,293,782 in earnings. He won six stakes events and placed in eight others during his three seasons on the racetrack.

King Cugat won four of six starts as a three-year-old, including the Jamaica Handicap (G2) at Belmont Park, Arlington Classic Stakes (G2) at Arlington Park, and Crown Royal American Turf Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs. He also won the 2001 Bowling Green Handicap (G2) at Belmont and the '99 Prized Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

King Cugat was considered a leading contender this fall for the Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) but suffered his career-ending injury when second to Timboroa (GB) in the Turf Classic Invitational Stakes (G1) on September 29 at Belmont.-- Tom Law