Grade I winner Collected (City Zip–Helena Bay {GB}, by Johannesburg) will begin his stallion career at Airdrie Stud for the 2019 breeding season, the farm announced Monday. Bred in Kentucky by Runnymede Farm Inc. and Peter J. Callahan and raced in the silks of Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner’s Speedway Stable LLC, the Bob Baffert trainee was an Eclipse Award finalist for Champion Older Male in 2017, a season highlighted by his victory over champion stablemate Arrogate (Unbridled’s Song) in the GI Pacific Classic and second-place finish to Horse of the Year Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic. A five-time graded stakes winner, Collected’s current earnings stand at $2,975,500.
Bought by Marette Farrell for $170,000 as a 2-year-old at OBS March, the chestnut won four of his first six starts and, after almost a year on the sidelines, returned with four consecutive victories to begin his 4-year-old season, including a 14-length tour de force in the GIII Precionist S. and his Pacific Classic triumph. He most recently ran fourth in the Pennsylvania Derby Champion S. Sept. 22 at Parx.
“It’s a very proud day for Airdrie Stud to be able to announce Collected as our newest stallion,” said Airdrie owner Brereton Jones. “One of the smallest bullseyes to hit in our business is to find a young stallion that both fills the eye of the commercial breeder while also boasting the resume of a genuine leading sire prospect. Collected is that horse. He’s a beautiful, masculine, correct Marette Farrell purchase, he was a debut winner at two going 6 1/2 furlongs and he trained on to beat the best horses in the world at the classic mile-and-a-quarter distance. We couldn’t be more grateful to Peter Fluor and K. C. Weiner and their families for allowing us to stand their great horse or more excited about the exceptional partnership we’ve put together to support Collected at stud.”
“Collected has been an absolute dream horse for our Speedway Stable family,” Fluor and Weiner added in a joint statement. “Our advisers Marette Farrell and John Adger identified him as a perfect Bob Baffert candidate when we bought him as a 2-year-old, and it would be very difficult for a plan to work out better. Because of our tremendous confidence that his next career will be every bit as successful as his first, we have elected to stay involved with Collected and to partner with the wonderful group that Airdrie has put together. We will be supporting the horse with several of the very nice fillies and mares we’ve raced and purchased over the last few years and look forward to doing our part to make him the great success we know he can be.”
For more information, please contact Cormac Breathnach at 859-873-7270
