Top Miler Bee Jersey Retired

[Wandering Eyes]

Charles Fipke’s homebred Grade I winner Bee Jersey (Jersey Town–Bees, by Rahy) has been retired from racing after injuring a tendon, it was announced today. Considered by many to be North America’s top miler in 2018, the 4-year-old won the GI Runhappy Metropolitan H., a Breeders’ Cup “Win & You’re In” race, at Belmont Park in his final start June 9, defeating three-time Grade I winner Mind Your Biscuits (Posse). He stopped the clock in 1:33.13 for the mile and earned a 109 Beyer in that event.

A first-crop son of Fipke’s homebred Grade I-winning miler Jersey Town (by Speightstown), Bee Jersey began his career for trainer Doug Watson in Dubai, where as a maiden he ran second in the G3 U.A.E. 2,000 Guineas to Thunder Snow, who subsequently won the 2018 G1 Dubai World Cup. Later transferred to the barn of Steve Asmussen in the U.S., Bee Jersey won five of six starts Stateside, including a 5 1/2-length success in the GIII Steve Sexton Mile S. at Lone Star.

Produced from the stakes-placed Rahy mare Bees, Bee Jersey’s third dam Lassie’s Lady was a half-sister to Broodmare of the Year Weekend Surprise, the dam of leading sire A.P. Indy and other notables.

“He’s just a gorgeous, absolutely brilliantly fast horse with a great temperament,” Asmussen said of Bee Jersey, who was being targeted for the GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

Bee Jersey retires with earnings of $976,293. Fipke has yet to make a final determination of where the horse will stand in 2019 and said he will evaluate all offers in the coming months. Jersey Town began his career at Darby Dan Farm in Lexington but was moved to Road’s End Farm in British Columbia for 2018. Currently the leading sire in British Columbia, Jersey Town will be relocated to the U.S. for 2019, Fipke said. “He covered 37 mares in British Columbia, which is good for the region, but I’ll see what offers I get from the States. The horse now has a Grade I winner from his first crop and may be an appealing stallion for a regional program.”

Other Fipke stallions at stud are Grade I sires Perfect Soul and Tale of Ekati, at Darby Dan Farm in Lexington, Kentucky; and Canadian classic winner Not Bourbon, Grade I winner Java’s War, and Grade I-placed Perfect Timber at Colebrook Farms in Ontario, Canada.

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