Trotter Kings County has been retired and will stand his first season in 2025. The eight-year-old stallion will stand at Bluff Country Equine in Minnesota.

Kings County 2,1:52.3, 1:51.4f ($555,496) represents his sire as the richest and fastest son of Muscle Hill to stand in the state. Racing for Lindy Farms early in his career, he was a Grand Circuit stakes winner at two, winning divisions of the International Stallion Stakes and the Champlain Stakes. Although an injury prevented his sophomore season from happening, he proved his resilience as an older trotter. Racing for much of his later career for Anthony MacDonald and Thestable.ca, the trotter held track records in Ohio at both Scioto Downs and Dayton Raceway, and currently is the co-track record holder at The Meadows as the fastest older stallion trotter.

The former $210,000 yearling sets the bar high in the growing Minnesota program. Perhaps as impressive as his record and earnings is the Kings County pedigree page. By Muscle Hill, the sire of winners of more than $114 million, he’s from the Conway Hall mare Brooklyn. The mare’s Muscle Hill full brother to Kings County was the highest priced yearling at Harrisburg in 2023, fetching $600,000.

“He was a killer for us forever," said MacDonald. "Kings County was all class and never seemed to get tired. His full brother sold for $600,000 last fall, so he’s a winner from a family of winners. He set multiple track records and I couldn’t be more excited about what he will mean for the Minnesota breeding program.”

Owner Jeff Fought with Cornerstone Stock Farm added, “Minnesota has been great to our farm over the past two seasons with our pacing stallion Gulf Shores. He’s bred record books in the state each year so far, so the search has been on for a trotting stallion of the same caliber. Kings County checks the boxes: a fast two-year-old, a fast aged horse, a stakes winner, a huge pedigree and by a sire of sires.”

A $40,000 USD King of Minnesota Bonus Program will be available to those that breed to Kings County. For mares bred to the stallion in 2025 (2026 foals), a $20,000 USD bonus will be paid to the breeder if a Kings County offspring wins a Minnesota Harness Racing (MHRI) freshman divisional championship in 2028 (two separate awards available for colts and fillies in the trotting division).

A fertility test was recently conducted and Kings County was approved for a full book. He will stand at Minnesota’s premier breeding facility, Bluff Country Equine, for a fee of $2,000 USD, or $1,750 USD for multiple mares. Foals will be Minnesota and California eligible, as well as eligible for Breeders Crown nomination. Contact  Cornerstone Stock Farm's Jeff Fought at 260-463-1649 for more information.

(Cornerstone Stock Farm)