|
|
|
As an undefeated, multiple graded stakes-winning 2YO by one of the leading stallions in the country in Quality Road, and from a top class female family developed by longtime home breeder Ned Evans, Blofeld is a young Mid-Atlantic based stallion that we believe has a chance to be a star. He should be an excellent match for the hard-knocking race mare Justgimmeakiss for her second season at stud in 2021.
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 earning a 94 Beyer), and then stretched out to a mile and romped by five lengths in the Grade 2 Nashua at Aqueduct (with a 93 Beyer), 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 the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap going a mile over the likes of Stanford and Anchor Down, with a career top 103 Beyer. He retired with four wins from 14 starts, and $745,420 in earnings.
A $135,000 weanling and then $275,000 yearling from the first crop of his sire (who sired a pair of 2017 Eclipse Award winners plus five individual Grade 1 winners in 2018, and will stand for a live foal fee of $150,000 again in 2021), Blofeld is from carefully-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 also has Horse of the Year Saint Liam in his female family). His first 2YOs will run in 2021.
Justgimmeakiss, meanwhile, finished in the top three in 29 of her 70 starts from 2YO through 8YO, including 8 wins on both turf and dirt on her way to earning $191,351. She will produce her first foal in 2021 before being bred back to Blofeld.
The cross of Quality Road with A.P. Indy-line mares has been a strong one, accounting for Grade 1 winners Bellafina and Dunbar Road, plus four more black-type winners. And Justgimmeakiss’s sire, Congrats, is himself the broodmare sire of a graded-placed runner by Quality Road, as well.
Physically, Justgimmeakiss is a pretty, well-made, good-bodied mare who should fit the long and leggy Blofeld very well. And while Blofeld himself achieved all his success on dirt, his pedigree and the mare’s accomplishments suggest that their foal should have plenty of versatility when it makes the races.
Blofeld wins the G2 Futurity
Blofeld wins the G2 Nashua
Blofeld wins the G2 Gulfstream Park Handicap