Perfect Sting, the undefeated Dan Patch Award winner at two and Breeders Crown champion at both two and three, will enter stud in 2022.
Perfect Sting will stand at Deo Volente Farms in Flemington, New Jersey. His initial fee has been set at $10,000.
Syndication is underway for the promising young stallion, who is owned by George Segal’s Brittany Farms and partner Marty Granoff’s Val D’Or Farms. Perfect Sting’s stud career will be managed by Brittany Stallion Management, which, many might recall, managed the careers of two of the greatest sires of the modern era, Valley Victory and Artsplace.
Perfect Sting becomes the fifth stallion on Deo Volente’s growing roster. The farm, headed by Mike Gulotta, is widely recognized as one of the industry’s showplace facilities. Its natural beauty and state-of-the art amenities make it a premier destination for those breeding in the Garden State.
Horses sired by New Jersey stallions will have increased money-making opportunities in 2022 and beyond. In addition to a 20 per cent increase in New Jersey Sire Stakes purses, an additional $2 million-plus — from Meadowlands gaming revenue — will revive the New Jersey Classics, with those going for purses up to $300,000.
In making today’s announcement, Brittany manager Art Zubrod said Perfect Sting’s move to a stud career follows a plan mapped out some time ago.
“Perfect Sting was literally bred to be a stallion,” said Zubrod. “He’s by the sport’s fastest pacer ever, Always B Miki (1:46), and from the fastest three-year-old pacing filly ever, Shebestingin. Her mark is 1:47.
“Even very early on, just looking at his physique and overall presence, we knew this was a special horse... a striking dark bay with what we hoped had a bright future, and that certainly played out beautifully.”
Perfect Sting retires to stud with career earnings of $1,861,447 and was never off the board his entire career. In 26 starts, he posted 17 wins, eight seconds and one third.
He personified the “perfect” in his name during his two-year-old season.
He paced to his 1:49.2 mark — a North American season’s record — winning a Kentucky Sire Stakes. He went on to win the KYSS final and back-to-back Grand Circuit stakes at the Red Mile before becoming the sport’s first-ever undefeated two-year-old to win the Breeders Crown.
He was a near-unanimous selection in being voted the Dan Patch Award for Two-Year-Old Male Pacer of the Year.
This year at three, he lowered his career race record to 1:48.1 and finished second in the $1 million North America Cup, $700,000 Meadowlands Pace, Little Brown Jug, Tattersalls Pace, Cane Pace and Hempt Memorial.
His tour de force performance came in the elimination and final of this year’s Breeders Crown. He not only won those races in emphatic fashion and beat the best in his division, but became the first male pacer to win both the two and three-year-old Crowns since 1998.
Those interested in breeding to Perfect Sting — or joining what’s expected to be a syndicate of North America’s leading breeders — are asked to contact Art Zubrod at 859-873-3878 or email [email protected].
(With files from Brittany Stallion Management)