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One of the hottest young stallions in the country right now is Quality Road, who stands at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky for a 2018 advertised stud fee of $70,000, after siring a pair of 2017 Eclipse Award Champions in Abel Tasman and Caledonia Road.
Caledonia Road, who won last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies-G1 before being named the champion of that division, is one of three Grade 1 winners sired by Quality Road out of mares by Dixie Union, from just nine foals bred on that cross who are at least 3-years-old now — the other two are Klimt, a Grade 1-winning juvenile and one of the most popular first-year stallions standing in Kentucky this year, and Salty, who triumphed at the top level on this year’s Kentucky Derby undercard.
The winning filly Analyzeyurspending is a first-crop daughter of last year’s leading freshman sire, Overanalyze, who is by Dixie Union — and we think this makes her a perfect fit for one of Maryland’s most exciting first year sires of 2018, Blofeld, who is from the first-crop of Quality Road (the nicking programs agree, as the mating is good for a “20/20” rating on G1 Goldmine, and “A++” ratings from both TrueNicks and eNicks).
As a racehorse, Blofeld broke his maiden first-time out going 5 furlongs at Saratoga as a well-bet 2-year-old with a big reputation, before stepping straight into Graded stakes company. He overcame a troubled trip to get up gamely in the Grade 2 Futurity at Belmont in his second start, going 6 furlongs, and then stretched out to a mile and romped by five lengths in the Grade 2 Nashua at Aqueduct, closing out his juvenile campaign three-for-three.
Blofeld started twice at 3, including a 3rd-place finish in the William Walker Stakes, and at 4 he returned to his best form to triumph in last year’s Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap going a mile, over the likes of Stanford and Anchor Down. He retired last summer to Murmur Farm with four wins from 14 starts, and $745,420 in earnings, and is covering his first mares this spring.
From well-cultivated Ned Evans families on both the top and bottom sides of his pedigree (he shares a fourth dam with the 2017 Horse of the Year, Gun Runner, and others appearing in his female family include Horse of the Year Saint Liam), Blofeld was a $135,000 weanling, then a $275,000 yearling and a $225,000 2-year-old in-training purchase. He is a big, beautiful horse with plenty of length and leg, and ought to help stretch Analyzeyurspending’s foal out a bit.
With the the Maryland breeding program on the upswing, it will be exciting to have a Maryland-bred, Maryland-sired foal from the first crop of a top racehorse like Blofeld and out of the hard-knocking, well-bred Analyzeyurspending next spring.
Blofeld wins the G2 Futurity
Blofeld wins the G2 Nashua
Blofeld wins the G2 Gulfstream Park Handicap