One would be hard pressed to name a stallion farm that has generated more early momentum in the new year than Airdrie Stud. Following a weekend that saw Badge of Silver represented by graded stakes winner Silver Medallion and Proud Citizen put a colt on the Derby trail in the form of rising star Mark Valeski, the Airdrie stallions found a way to raise the bar even higher with a truly stellar past weekend:
Proud Citizen- One of the New Year’s hottest sires, Proud Citizen kept his momentum going with two hugely impressive stakes winners this weekend. First it was Believe You Can, a New York graded stakes winner last year as a juvenile, she demonstrated her readiness to ascend to the top of the list of Kentucky Oaks candidates with an impressive score in the historical Silverbulletday Stakes at Fair Grounds. Not long thereafter, South American champion Vamo a Galupiar signaled that she will be a force stateside as well with an efforless 4 1/4 length win in the tough Megahertz S. at Santa Anita- just her second U.S start. With his two best bred crops being two and three-year olds this year, it is becoming plain to see that Proud Citizen is sitting on some big years ahead.
Istan- The GIII Lecomte Stakes always signals the beginning of the Triple Crown season, and Istan’s Mr. Bowling made a major argument as to his inclusion on anyone’s early short list. From the first crop of Istan, the only son of Gone West to run two 0 Ragozin numbers, Mr Bowling was making just his first start of the year when he gamely prevailed over more recently seasoned rivals in Saturday’s race. Like Believe You Can, Mr. Bowling is an Airdrie bred and owned sophomore with a big future for trainer Larry Jones.
Include- One of 2011’s hottest sires, Include shows no signs of slowing down this new year, as he has already been represented by two NEW stakes winners in 2012. On Sunday, it was the Airdrie bred, Jay Em Ess owned filly Include Me Out’s turn to steal the spotlight, and she did it in style with an easy 4 1/4 length score in the Grade II La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita. Delivering in her first trip around two turns, Include Me Out has taken her place as one of the nation’s elite older fillies or mares
