NEWS
Jackson loses Got Koko, Saarland
Posted: Thursday, April 02, 2009 4:18 PM
GOT KOKO
Benoit & Associates photo
by Jeff Lowe
Got Koko and Saarland, two of Jess Jackson’s first major purchases for his breeding operation, both died over a six-day period in March.
Kevin McGee, a corporate attorney for Jackson, confirmed the deaths on April 1.
Grade 1 winner Got Koko died from foaling complications on March 5, a day after delivering a Bernardini colt at Jackson’s Stonestreet Farm in Kentucky. She was ten.
Jackson bought Got Koko as a broodmare prospect for $1.5-million in the 2004 Keeneland November breeding stock sale.
Trained by Bruce Headley for his wife, Aase, and Paul Leung, Got Koko swept the La Canada series during the 2002 and ’03 winter-spring meet at Santa Anita Park by winning the 2002 La Brea Stakes (G1), El Encino Stakes (G2), and La Canada Stakes (G2) in succession.
Her other graded stakes victory, in the 2003 Lady’s Secret Breeders’ Cup Handicap (G2) at Santa Anita, ended the 11-race win streak of 2002 Horse of the Year and eventual three-time champion Azeri. Got Koko followed with a third-place finish to Adoration in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1).
Bred in Texas by Eileen Hartis, the Signal Tap mare out of Baby North, by Northern Baby, won seven of 15 starts and earned $960,946. She is the dam of an unraced three-year-old filly by A.P. Indy, named Koko Pop, a two-year-old colt by A.P. Indy, and a yearling colt by Ghostzapper.
Saarland, who was pensioned as a stallion last year because of fertility issues, died on March 11 from an injury he sustained in his paddock at Jackson’s farm in Northern California. He also was ten.
“Saarland was one of Jess’s favorite horses,” McGee said. “Because [Saarland] was up at what we call the Redwoods [farm], Jess would drive by him every day. On a very personal level, Jess felt a connection with the horse.”
McGee said Saarland had recently been moved to the farm after undergoing successful surgery to get his remaining testicle to descend.
“We were waiting about 90 days to see whether he had regained fertility,” McGee said.
The Unbridled stallion out of multiple Grade 1 winner Versailles Treaty, by Danzig, was pensioned after three seasons at stud in Central Kentucky in which his percentage of live foals from mares bred declined from 78% in his first season in 2005 to 56% in ’06 and 49% in ’07. He did not cover any mares in 2008.
Saarland, a second-crop sire, has registered 13 winners from 45 starters who earned $491,340 through April 1. His daughter, Saarlight, won the Wide Country Stakes at Laurel Park on March 7 for owner Cam Allard. Another daughter, Collegiate, finished third in the 2008 Spinaway Stakes (G1).
The late Cynthia Phipps bred and raced Saarland, who won the 2001 Remsen Stakes (G2) and finished second in the ’03 Metropolitan Handicap (G1) for Racing Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.
Jeff Lowe is staff writer of THOROUGHBRED TIMES
