Three of WinStar’s First-Yearling Sires: Outwork, Speightster, & Tourist

[Wandering Eyes]

WinStar Farm has been a major player in the stallion ranks for many years now. Included among the leading sires the Kentucky farm stands or has stood are Distorted Humor, More Than Ready, Pioneerof the Nile, and Tiznow. The WinStar stallion division has four first-season yearling sires currently in the barn, all graded stakes winners whose first weanlings were well-received in the commercial market in 2018. Three of the young sires stand for $15,000 or less: Outwork (Uncle Mo), Speightster (Speightstown), and Tourist (Tiznow).

Outwork started making headlines early as Uncle Mo’s very first winner as a sire. Uncle Mo, of course, would go on to be the leading freshman sire in 2015 with grade I-winning juveniles Nyquist and Gomo, as well as a plethora of other early successes. Outwork would become Uncle Mo’s third grade I winner from that first crop when he took the Wood Memorial a few weeks before Nyquist added the GI Kentucky Derby.

“We believe [Outwork] has a great potential as a stallion,” said Sean Tugel, WinStar’s director of bloodstock services, citing Outwork’s debut win as a 2-year-old at Keeneland in April going 4 1/2 furlongs. The bay then came back at three to capture the 1 1/8-mile Wood Memorial.

“We’re really looking forward to seeing him pass on that early speed that he had,” continued Tugel, “and watching his offspring probably mature and being able to go that route of ground and carry that speed.

“He’s a big, beautiful horse; he stands about 17 hands. Very well-balanced, very much like his sire and being that he was that big, and that fast early, gives us a lot of excitement for the future with his offspring.”

Tugel said the early indications are Outwork is throwing a definite type of horse.

“They stand over plenty of ground, they all have lots of leg just like he does. They’re nice, free-moving horses, very intelligent horses.”

It also doesn’t hurt that Outwork’s dam, Nonna Mia (Empire Maker), is better than a half-sister to Cairo Prince (Pioneerof the Nile, by Empire Maker), one of the current leading second-crop sires. How often we’ve seen individual families account for more than one successful sire.

Speaking of families, they don’t come much deeper than Speightster‘s. His unraced dam is a full-sister to Canadian Horse of the Year and U.S. champion Dance Smartly (Danzig) and a half-sister to late leading sire Smart Strike (Mr. Prospector). Speightster’s third dam is blue hen No Class (Nodouble), whose sire sons included Sky Classic (Nijinsky II) and Regal Classic (Vice Regent).

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“Speightster was a homebred,” said Tugel, “and from the beginning, he was always one of the best horses in his crop that we had here. That’s why we chose to keep him. We’re very excited about that depth of pedigree that he brings.”

The chestnut nabbed ‘TDN Rising Star‘ status when he broke his maiden at first asking at Keeneland, then went on to be unbeaten in three starts as a 3-year-old, including in Belmont’s GIII Dwyer S. Soon after, he was sidelined with an ankle chip that needed to be removed.

“Unfortunately, he was a horse that we didn’t get to see his full potential,” said Tugel. “The training accident at Payson Park in between his 3- and 4-year-old career set him back. He made one start after that, but unfortunately he wasn’t the same horse after that. But he was a horse that had extreme potential, and he has one of the best pedigrees in the stud book.

“In his brief career we got to see that he had dominating ability, and it’s a real shame we didn’t get to see [more of] it but I think we’ll get to see it in his sons and daughters.”

Tugel mentioned a tremendous amount of support for Speightster in the breeding shed from both breeders who seek to race and those who seek to sell.

“He’s a horse that has the numbers to compete with the higher stud fee horses,” said Tugel. “Obviously he’s producing the physicals as well. And he had that support from the syndication that is very important to get a horse off on the right foot.”

Last but not least is Tourist, a horse who had a stellar career winning or placing in seven grade I events, but who saved his most spectacular performance for the last time he set foot on a racetrack. In the 2016 GI Breeders’ Cup Mile, Tourist ran a hole in the wind, getting the mile in 1:31.71. It not only set the stakes record for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, but it was also the fastest GI mile performance in history.

“He was all race horse,” said Tugel. “This horse made lots of starts; he was extremely competitive in all of his races. He ran against the best over three years and set track records himself.

“He’s a horse that also ran in the Breeders’ Cup Mile three years in a row, which is quite impressive as well, starting as a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old and breaking through as a 5-year-old, so for him to retain that form over three long seasons of racing is quite an accomplishment and I think that’s something a lot of breeders need to take notice of.”

Interestingly, much has been made this year of GI Preakness winner War of Will (War Front) having a supposed “turf” pedigree, but failing to win in several tries on the lawn and instead excelling when switched to dirt. Tourist was the opposite. With a “dirt” pedigree, he was given four attempts to break his maiden on the main track but never did get that initial win until he was switched to the grass, where his career soon broke through to the top level.

“The beautiful thing about him is it’s a dirt pedigree but he also did some of his best running on the turf,” said Tugel, “so that versatility especially in the American market now where it’s almost 50/50 turf and dirt racing, we wouldn’t expect him to only throw turf. We think he’ll also be able to throw high-level dirt horses, so having that versatility is going to really open him up for every region of racing here in America.”

Like his own sire, Tiznow, Tourist’s foals tend to resemble him.

“He’s throwing horses that kind of represent him; they all have a little bit of flash,” said Tugel. “They’re nice, strong horses, they have plenty of bone, they have nice muscle to them.”

And like Speightster, Tourist was a homebred for WinStar by one of farm’s own stallions. “Tiznow and Speighstown are two horses that certainly we have a long legacy that we’ve got to thank them for over the years here,” said Tugel. “And we’re hoping both of these sons by them can hopefully carry on that legacy and help take the next generations of WinStar stallions to where their sires are.”

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