Wertheimer and Frere’s homebred Grade I winner and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Happy Saver (Super Saver–Happy Week, by Distorted Humor) will retire to Airdrie Stud in Midway, Kentucky following this year’s GI Breeders’ Cup Classic, Airdrie Stud announced Friday. He will stand for an initial fee of $12,500 LFSN.
Undefeated in his first five starts, Happy Saver’s signature victory came in the historic GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, where he won the race as a 3-year-old in his fourth career start. Most recently, Happy Saver has finished second in each of the last four Grade I races he has contested. Those efforts include runner-up finishes to Flightline (Tapit) in the GI Metropolitan H. and Life Is Good (Into Mischief) in the GI Whitney S., races in which he finished in front of GISWs Olympiad (Speightstown), Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), Speaker’s Corner (Street Sense) and Aloha West (Hard Spun), among others.
Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher throughout his career, Happy Saver will take a lifetime record of five wins and six graded stakes placings from his 12 lifetime races and earnings of nearly $1.2 million into an expected start in the $6,000,000 GI Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland Nov. 5.
A regally bred son of the multiple Eclipse Award-winning sire Super Saver, Happy Saver’s female family stands as one of the breed’s most important. Out of the sprinting black-type Distorted Humor mare Happy Week, Happy Saver’s third dam is Broodmare of the Year Weekend Surprise, dam of the champion racehorse and leading sire A.P. Indy, as well as Classic winner Summer Squall.
“Happy Saver has been a priority for our farm since the day we watched him break his maiden in his debut at Belmont,” said Airdrie’s Bret Jones. “He won by five lengths that day and ran the same 1:21 and two-fifths as the seven-furlong Grade I Woody Stephens run on the same card at the same distance. It was a `wow’ performance and he has validated that early impression by becoming one of the best racehorses in America. He’s a direct descendent of Weekend Surprise and when you combine his female family with that of Super Saver’s, it’s as rich a genetic bank as any horse that will ever retire to stud. He exemplifies the Wertheimer family’s best-in-class breeding program and we are so grateful that they have allowed us to partner with them on a stallion that has the speed, class and charisma to be a really special sire.”
“Winning the Jockey Club as an undefeated 3-year-old takes a very special horse, and that’s exactly what we’ve always believed Happy Saver to be,” added Pletcher. “He’s a tremendous talent and runs with as much heart as any horse we lead over. He has all the characteristics I think any breeder would look for in a young stallion.”
