Sire Of Sires, WinStar Farm’s Champion Speightstown Euthanized

[Wandering Eyes]

WinStar Farm's Speightstown (Gone West), Eclipse Award-winning Champion Sprinter of 2004 and one of North America's most prolific and most versatile sires, had to be euthanized on Friday, Dec. 8, due to foot issues from old age, the farm said in a press release early Friday. Speightstown, a Taylor Made/WinStar stallion, was 25 years old.

“Speightstown was a foundational sire for WinStar and helped stamp our legacy as a sire-making farm,” said Elliott Walden, president, CEO, and racing manager of WinStar Farm. “I want to thank Larry McGinnis and his team for all the love and care they gave “Speighty” as he was lovingly called. They helped him through three colic surgeries, and he had none in the last 13 years. His progeny ran on dirt, turf, six furlongs to 1 1/4 miles, and they always showed their grit. Like with any family member, he will be truly missed. We are fortunate to have his son Nashville in the shedrow, and we look forward to seeing Speightsown's legacy continue through him, and as a broodmare sire.”

WinStar's longtime Stallion Manager Larry McGinnis said, “We've been through a lot together in the last 19 years. We'll miss our friend.”

A 1998 son of Gone West, Speightstown possessed a commanding presence that was evident right from the start. An outstanding physical specimen–handsome, compact, and muscular–Speightstown was a $2 million yearling sold out of the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment at the 1999 Keeneland July Sale of Selected Yearlings. Speightstown went on to be crowned a champion on the racetrack. All told, he won 10 of 16 lifetime starts, placed in four others, and amassed earnings of $1,258,256 for owners Eugene and Laura Melnyk and trainer Todd Pletcher.

Speightstown's signature win came in the $1 million GI Breeders' Cup Sprint at Lone Star Park in 2004, where he won against a competitive field at age six, getting six furlongs in 1:08.11 under John Velazquez. The victory earned Speightstown Champion Sprinter honors at season's end. In addition to the Breeders' Cup Sprint in his championship season, Speightstown won the GII Alfred G. Vanderbilt H.—registering a 117 Beyer Speed Figure and equaling the track record for six furlongs in 1:08.04—the GII True North Breeders' Cup H., the GII Churchill Downs H., and finished third in the GI Vosburgh S.

What made his championship season even more remarkable was what Speightstown overcame in his racing career leading up to that point. Injuries limited him to just one start at two in 2000. He returned and won four of seven starts at age three. Off nearly two years, he resumed his racing career in 2003, winning an allowance race in his first start since finishing second in the GII Amsterdam S. in 2001. He followed that win with a runner-up effort in the Jaipur H. in his only other outing that year.

Speightstown | Lee Thomas

Speightstown's accomplished racing career was a prelude to establishing an enduring legacy as an influential stallion at WinStar. A sire of sires, Speightstown was a regular fixture among the ranks of leading stallions. In 2013, Speightstown was the leading sire in North America by number of stakes wins with 36, higher than Kitten's Joy, War Front, Harlan's Holiday, and Giant's Causeway.

From 16 crops of racing age, Speightstown has sired 26 Grade I winners on every surface, from six furlongs to 1 1/4 miles all over the world. He is represented by 228 black-type horses, 138 black-type winners, 65 Graded stakes winners, and he has more than $154 million in progeny earnings. Speightstown is one of only three active sires to win a Breeders' Cup race and sire multiple Breeders' Cup winners—colt and filly, dirt, and turf. His Breeders' Cup winners are Tamarkuz, winner of the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and Sharing, winner of the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Among Speightstown's lifetime leading earners are Grade I winners Charlatan, winner of the GI Arkansas Derby and GI Malibu S. and an earner of $4,047,200; Mozu Superflare (3,704,317); Olympiad, a five-time GSW in 2022 who bankrolled $3,027,560; Switzerland ($2,359,052); and Reynaldothewizard ($2,210,790), etc. Speightstown is also represented by Canadian champions Lady Speightspeare, Essence Hit Man, who was named Champion Sprinter in 2011 and 2012, Bold Script, and Italian champion Farmah.

Speightstown | Louise Reinagel

While Speightstown was a champion sprinter and sired numerous top sprinters, he also sired horses that excelled over a route of ground such as GI Travers S. winner Golden Ticket, and GI Jockey Club Gold Cup S. winners Haynesfield and Olympiad. Top turf runners include the likes of Force the Pass, winner of the 2015 GI Belmont Derby Invitational S., 2013 GI Hollywood Derby winner Seek Again, and Lord Shanakill, winner of the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat in France in 2009.

In 2023, Speightstown is the sire of 106 winners, eight black-type winners, and 21 black-type horses. He is represented by Prince of Monaco, winner of the GI Del Mar Futurity, Switzerland, a GSW this year at age nine, and stakes winners Gold Sweep, Chiseler, Ultimate, Dean's List, and Otago.

Poised to carry on his legacy, Speightstown's sons are distinguishing themselves at stud, and are led by Munnings, currently the seventh-ranked General Sire of 2023. Nashville, the speedy stakes winner and new track-record setter at Keeneland (six furlongs in 1:07.89), will carry on his sire's line at WinStar Farm with first foals arriving in 2024. As a broodmare sire, Speightstown is the sire of 451 dams of 1,383 named foals of racing age with 1,011 runners (73%), 698 winners (50%), and 68 stakes winners topped by 2021 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Aloha West ($1,507,290).

Bred in Kentucky by Aaron and Marie Jones, Speightstown is produced from the Storm Cat mare Silken Cat, Champion 2-Year-Old Filly in Canada.

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