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Afleet Alex’s success gives boost to sire’s profile

5 min read

NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. (AP) – A thoroughbred’s racing record will take him only so far as a stallion. At some point, his offspring had better begin winning prominent races. That’s a major reason why Northern Afleet should be grateful for Afleet Alex. If it wasn’t for the Preakness Stakes winner, 12-year-old Northern Afleet probably wouldn’t be where he is today – enjoying the good life on a prominent Kentucky horse farm.

As of this Wednesday, Northern Afleet – who arrived at Taylor Made Farm last fall after six years at stud in Florida – ranked seventh on the list of leading North American sires.

Northern Afleet was no slouch on the track. In 21 starts, he won five times – including a pair of Grade II races and a Grade III race – and earned $626,671.

“He was a fast horse with a good pedigree,” said Ben Taylor, the vice president for stallion operations at Taylor Made Farm.

But that wasn’t enough to convince the folks at Taylor Made, which had purchased an ownership interest in the horse at the start of his stallion career, that he deserved to be in the “big leagues” – which, in the world of thoroughbred breeding, means standing on a central Kentucky farm.

“There’s competition in Kentucky,” Taylor said. “If you bring a stallion to Kentucky, you’d better be ready, because there are a lot of nice horses here.”

So after Northern Afleet retired from racing following his 5-year-old season, he began his stallion career in 1999 at Double Diamond Farm in Ocala, Fla. Even at a modest fee of $5,000, his early breeding books were small. He averaged about 40 live foals per crop during his first three years and in the 70s during the next two years.

A couple of sons from his first crop, Unforgettable Max (a full brother to Afleet Alex) and G P Fleet, enjoyed some success. Somewhat as a result, more breeders began bringing their broodmares to Northern Afleet in 2004 – 124 in all, said Eduardo Terrazas, Taylor Made’s stallion manager.

Northern Afleet joined a stallion lineup that includes Real Quiet, the 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, and Unbridled’s Song, who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in 1995 and the Florida Derby and Wood Memorial the next year as a 3-year-old.

With Northern Afleet’s move came an increase in his stud fee, to $12,500. That coincided with the increased demand for his services, as Afleet Alex continued winning this year as a 3-year-old. About 150 mares have been or will be bred to Northern Afleet this year, Taylor said – the most any of the farm’s stallions have bred in a year.

“We had a lot of confidence in bringing him to Kentucky, but you still second-guess yourself,” he said. “We wanted to get him to 120 mares. If we turn down too many mares early, are there going to be enough mares later? We took some mares early (in the breeding season) that we would not have taken later.

“When we got him to 100-plus mares, we wanted to slow down, but the quality of the mares had picked up by several levels, because of the success (his offspring had) on the track.”

A closer look at Northern Afleet’s pedigree gives a glimpse into some of the reasons for Afleet Alex’s success.

Northern Afleet was sired by Afleet, a horse that earned $995,235 and won the Grade I one-mile Jerome Handicap at Belmont Park in 1987. Afleet was sold to Japanese breeders in 1994, before his offspring made him a top North American sire of the mid-to-late 1990s.

Afleet’s sire was Mr. Prospector, arguably the thoroughbred breed’s most influential stallion of recent years. Since 1985, 10 Preakness winners have had Mr. Prospector somewhere in their lineage.

The sire of Maggy Hawk, Afleet Alex’s dam, is Hawkster, a horse that set a world record in winning a 11/2-mile grass race, the 1989 Oak Tree Invitational Handicap. Maggy Hawk’s dam, Qualique, also was a Grade I winner.

Maggy Hawk, now in foal to Awesome Again, lives at Ashford Stud near Versailles.

Taylor said Northern Afleet’s fee will rise again next year and the number of mares he’ll be bred to will drop, probably to 120.

“Our philosophy is to raise it to where we think it’s a fair deal for people, to give them a chance,” Taylor said. “If we do that, then we can be a lot more selective on the mares. It’s a building block.”

The competition to attract top mares for breeding can be fierce and prominent farms, including Taylor Made, routinely make significant efforts to promote their stallions. Afleet Alex’s success, in a sense, is free advertising for Taylor Made and Northern Afleet.

“Sometimes we can sound like car dealers, trying to sell you a lemon. But my job is made easier, because I believe in him,” Terrazas said of Northern Afleet. “He has that ability to give you a little bit of everything. You can reach different markets and different breeders with that in mind.”

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