NEWS
Victory Gallop sold to Turkish Jockey Club
Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008 10:32 AM
VICTORY GALLOP
by Jeff Lowe
Victory Gallop, the 1998 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner and ‘99 champion older male, has been sold to the Turkish Jockey Club for stallion duty in 2008.
The 13-year-old Cryptoclearance horse out of Victorious Lil, by Vice Regent, had been scheduled to stand his ninth season at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, for an advertised fee of $10,000.
Victory Gallop has sired 24 stakes winners from six crops of racing age who have earned $20,194,532 through January 31. He ranked third on the 2003 freshman sire list and led the second-crop list of ’04. His yearlings have averaged $41,719 at public auction.
“He’s been very solid, but unfortunately he falls into that somewhat non-commercial group where it’s hard to get over $100,000 for a yearling,” WinStar President Doug Cauthen said. “As the market continues to focus on commercial, he was limited to a degree to people who were breeding either to race or possibly to somebody breeding to get their horse off to a good start."
The Turkish Jockey Club also stands Kentucky Derby (G1) winners Sea Hero and Strike the Gold at the Karacabey Pension Stud in Izmit.
Victory Gallop’s leading runners have been Japanese stakes winners Eishin Dover and Eishin Lombard and graded stakes winners Kettleoneup and Victory U. S. A.
Trained by Elliott Walden for Prestonwood Farm, Victory Gallop won the Belmont by a nose over eventual champion Real Quiet to stymie that dual classic winner’s quest for the Triple Crown. Victory Gallop finished second to Real Quiet in the '98 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes (G1), and also finished second in the Buick Haskell Invitational Handicap (G1) and Travers Stakes (G1).
As a four-year-old, Victory Gallop set a Churchill Downs track record in winning the 1 1/8-mile Stephen Foster Handicap (G2) in 1:47.28 and concluded his career with a victory in the Whitney Handicap (G1).
Bred in Ontario by Tall Oaks Farm, Victory Gallop won nine of 17 career starts and earned $3,505,895.
Cauthen said WinStar would be willing to offer Victory Gallop a home when he retires from stud duty.
Jeff Lowe is staff writer of Thoroughbred Times
