NEWS
Vertigineux named Broodmare of the Year
Posted: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 2:05 PM
Zenyatta, champion progeny of Broodmare of the Year Vertigineux
Benoit & Associates photo
by Jeff Lowe
The Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders honored Vertigineux, the dam of undefeated champion Zenyatta and multiple Grade 1 winner Balance, as Broodmare of the Year on Wednesday at Keeneland Race Course.
Eric Kronfeld’s Maverick Productions is the breeder and owner of Vertigineux, a 14-year-old Kris S. mare out of For the Flag, by *Forli.
Vertigineux’s first three foals are stakes winners.
Balance, by Thunder Gulch, won a combined three Grade 1 races in 2006-’07 for owners John and Jerry Amerman, who purchased her as a yearling for $260,000.
Zenyatta has won each of her nine career starts for trainer John Shirreffs, including seven graded stakes wins in her championship season last year that ended with a triumph in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic (G1) (click here for video of the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic). Jerry and Ann Moss purchased the Street Cry (Ire) mare for $60,000 as a yearling.
Vertigineux won two races for Kronfeld, who bought her back as a yearling for $120,000. Her first foal, an Aljabr filly named Where’s Bailey, won the 2005 Remington Park Oaks.
Vertigineux also is the dam of an unplaced Pulpit filly named Treasure Trail and a Giant’s Causeway colt named Souper Spectacular, who was a $1,150,000 purchase by Live Oak Plantation at the 2008 Keeneland September yearling sale.
Don Robinson’s Winter Quarter Farm boards Vertigineux and has consigned all her foals. She produced a Bernardini filly at the Lexington farm on January 27.
“This is as rewarding and as gratifying as it gets, to have a Broodmare of the Year,” said Robinson, who accepted a huge plaque on Kronfeld’s behalf.
Robinson has boarded mares and foals for Kronfeld for about 25 years. Vertigineux’s dam, For the Flag, was a part of the farm for many years until she died in February at age 31.
“To have raised [Vertigineux], the only thing close to it goes back to my grandmother had Maidoduntreath, who was the grandam of Kelso,” Robinson said. “I wish my father could have experienced this.”
The Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders also honored Ted Bassett and John and Brad Hennegan with awards.
Bassett, the former Keeneland Association and Breeders’ Cup Ltd. president, received the William T. Young Humanitarian Award.
The Hennegan brothers, the producers of the Kentucky Derby (G1) documentary The First Saturday in May, garnered the Charles W. Engelhard Award for media coverage of the Thoroughbred industry.
Bob and Janice McNair’s Stonerside Stable was the P.A.B. Widener Trophy recipient as Kentucky breeder of the year for the second year in a row.
The Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders and Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund also named its 2008 Kentucky-bred champions:
Two-year-old male—Midshipman, bred by Stonerside;
Two-year-old filly—Stardom Bound, bred by Fletcher and Carolyn Gray and John Youngblood;
Three-year-old male—Big Brown, bred by Monticule;
Three-year-old filly—Proud Spell, bred by Brereton Jones;
Horse of the Year and older male—Curlin, bred by Fares Farm;
Older female—Zenyatta, bred by Maverick Productions;
Turf male—Dancing Forever, bred by Phipps Stable;
Turf female—Forever Together, bred by White Fox Farm;
Sprinter—Midnight Lute, bred by Tom Evans, Macon Wilmil Equines, and Marjac Farm;
Steeplechase male—Sovereign Duty, bred by William S. Farish;
Foreign-based horse—Henrythenavigator, bred by Western Bloodstock;
Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund leading sire—Distorted Humor, WinStar Farm;
Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund leading earner—Timbucto, owned by Milbert Collins;
Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund leading trainer—Rusty Arnold;
Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund leading breeder—Overbrook Farm; and
Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund leading owner—Richard, Bertram, and Elaine Klein.
Jeff Lowe is a THOROUGHBRED TIMES staff writer
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: Joyce, Sout Bend, IN on December 08, 2011 at 04:05 AM
Glad to see Distorted Humor get some recognition. He has proved to be a good, solid stallion. I've always liked him!
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