MIDAS EYES first foals are yearlings in 2008.  MIDAS EYES stud fee is $7,500 live foal, payable when the foal stands and nurses.  Inquiries can be directed to Jamie LaMonica or Matt Bowling at (859) 231-0471.

New York Stallion CHIEF SEATTLE Has Big April

(4/26) Bold Chieftain - by NY-based stallion Chief Seattle - gets 3rd stakes win of '08

April has been favorable and Saturday, April 26 particularly enhancing for New York-based stallion CHIEF SEATTLE, whose sons Free Race and Bold Chieftain both won April stakes -- the latter as the odds-on (.30-to-1) topweight in the $124,000 Bay Meadows Handicap on April 26 for his third consecutive 2008 black-type tally. Chief Seattle also was represented on Saturday by winners on Pimlico turf and Hawthorne dirt, pushing his progeny earnings from his first four crops to over $7.6-million. Three weeks earlier, the stallion's four-year-old Free Race had scored his fourth career stakes victory in Mexico's Group 2 Presidencial at Hipodromo De Las Americas in Mexico City.

Bold Chieftain ($628,025), a five-year-old homebred with at least four owners, had captured Bay Meadows stakes on dirt and turf in February and March respectively, and his two-length Bay Meadows Handicap victory at a mile and a sixteenth on grass improved his record to 10 - 2 - 2 in 18 starts. Among Bold Chieftain's seven career stakes wins, three have been on turf, three on conventional dirt, and one on a synthetic surface. Chief Seattle's nine stakes winners from his first three crops also include Canadian champion Shillelagh Slew ($735,211), Grade 2 winner Seafree, and New York-bred Donkey Engine. The active April for Chief Seattle's offspring secured his position as New York's leading sire in progeny earnings through the first four months of 2008, and he also handily leads all Empire State sires in number of winners through the first third of the year with 32. A multiple Grade 1 runner-up, the son of Seattle Slew - Skatingonthinice, by Icecapade, is owned by Sheikh Mohammed's Darley and stands at Kurt Butenhoff's and James Lamonica's Empire Stud in Hudson, where his 2008 fee is $5,000, live foal.

Half Brother To SUNRIVER Breaks Maiden At First Asking

The three-year-old half brother to G1 winners SUNRIVER and ASHADO (Champion Three-year-old and Older Mare) won his first start at Philadelphia Park for trainer Alan Goldberg and owner Jayeff B Stables.  The following story appears courtesy of The Thoroughbred Daily News:

SUNRIVER stands at Empire Stud at an introductory fee of $15,000 live foal, stands and nurses.  Inquiries can be directed to Jamie LaMonica or Matt Bowling at (859) 231-0471.

G1-G2 Dirt/Turf Winner SUNRIVER Purchased by NY's Empire Stud for 2008 Season

HUDSON, NY, January 9, 2008 – Kurt Butenhoff's and James Lamonica's Empire Stud has announced the acquisition of recent Grade 1 Hollywood Turf Cup winner SUNRIVER -- also winner of Belmont's Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes (dirt) and Bowling Green Handicap (turf) -- and will stand the full brother to Eclipse Champion Ashado at its Hudson (NY) facility. The versatile graded winner was purchased by a syndicate led by Jeffrey Tucker, but the horse's owner-breeders, Aaron and Marie Jones, and the Taylor family's Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky -- where Sunriver was foaled -- have each retained interests in him. Sunriver will enter stud at an introductory 2008 fee of $15,000, live foal (stands and nurses).

Sunriver's credentials are as unique as they are extensive: 1) Grade 1-Grade 2 winner on dirt and turf; 2) Grade 1-Grade 2 winner on both coasts; 3) registered seven triple-digit Beyers -- dirt, turf; 4) won at two, three, four; 5) brother to an Eclipse Champion and to a graded-winning record-setter. It seemed there was nothing he could not do -- nor a track where he could not do it. The son of Saint Ballado - Goulash, by Mari's Book, placed second in his juvenile sprint debut at Belmont despite altering course, won at Aqueduct in his second start as a two-year-old, and captured Belmont's Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes as a three-year-old. Prior to and after his Peter Pan victory, Sunriver placed third in both the Grade 1 Florida Derby and Belmont Stakes. Introduced to turf as a four-year-old, the former stalker reinvented himself as a front-running lawn specialist with six consecutive triple-digit Beyers, winning his Belmont grass debut by 4-1/2 lengths, taking the Grade 2 Bowling Green, and missing by a head while placing second in Belmont's Grade 1 Man o' War. He won his final start, the Grade 1 Hollywood Turf Cup, by 2-3/4 lengths, boosting his earnings to $816,414 in 17 starts.

Sunriver is a full brother to two-time Eclipse Champion filly Ashado ($3,931,440), who won seven Grade 1 events on dirt, and to synthetic track graded winner Saint Stephen, who set or equaled course or track records on both synthetic and turf surfaces. Sunriver's multiple stakes-producing dam, stakes winner Goulash, won on dirt and turf and is a half-sister to multiple graded record-setter Quite a Bride ($558,881). Pedigree aficionados might recognize that Sunriver, Ashado, and Saint Stephen have a double "Rasmussen Factor" in their ancestry, being inbred to mother-daughter stakes-producing broodmares Cosmah (3 x 5) and Almahmoud (4 x 5 x 6).

DEFER, a graded stake winning son of DANZIG, retires to Empire Stud for the 2008 breeding season.  The bay Phipps-bred ran second to ROCKPORT HARBOR in only his second start - the G3 Nashua Stakes.  Trained by Shug McGaughey, DEFER won the G3 Laurel Futurity in just his third start.  He finished his racing career winning or placing in 13 of 18 starts and earning $260,365. 

Bred by Ogden Mills "Dinny" Phipps, the homebred DANZIG horse is out of HIDDEN RESERVE - a half sister to champion INSIDE INFORMATION and a full sister to G1SW EDUCATED RISK.  Certainly DEFER offers an outstanding opportunity for New York breeders to not only breed to a son of sire of sires DANZIG, but to also utilize blood from an important foundation family.

DEFER will stand at Empire Stud for $6,500 live foal, payable December 1 of the year bred.  For more information contact Jamie LaMonica or Matthew Bowling at (859) 231-0471.

Having won the California Dreamin H. in August at Del Mar, BOLD CHIEFTAIN, the four-year-old son of CHIEF SEATTLE bit off a bit more in the Cal Cup on November 3rd taking on top handicap horse LAVA MAN.  The dark bay colt stalked the early pace most of the race settling in fifth through the second turn.  BOLD CHIEFTAIN made a move in the stretch and gained the lead from CHEROOT who was tangling with LAVA MAN who ultimately gave way. 

BOLD CHIEFTAIN prevailed in the mile and an eighth race by a half length over CELTIC DREAMIN who ran second.  BOLD CHIEFTAIN finished the race 1:47.23 for trainer Bill Morey Jr. and owners Robinson Hall and the Langbein Trust.  (chart)

BOLD CHIEFTAIN'S sire CHIEF SEATTLE is a Darley stallion standing at Empire stud again in 2008 for a fee of $5,000 live foal, stands and nurses.  Please direct inquiries to Jamie LaMonica or Matt Bowling at (859) 231-0471. 

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EMPIRE STUD

For Inquiries or Seasons:

Phone: (859) 231-0471  Fax: (859) 231-0479

5384 Route 9H-23   Hudson, NY  12534

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info@empirestud.com