The Ontario stallion ranks will welcome an exciting new face for the 2022 breeding season.
Jay and Christine Hayden, who breed and sell horses under their Saintsbury Farm banner in Lucan, ON, have purchased SPEIGHTSTER, a top-five, second-crop stallion in North America from the powerful WinStar Farm in Kentucky.
Speightster is a 9-year-old son of leading sire Speightstown who has already made a name for himself as a top sire of sires. Speightster’s dam is Dance Swiftly, a full sister to the great Dance Smartly and a half-sister to leading sire Smart Strike.
“I’ve always dreamed of owning a stallion,” said Jay Hayden. “I have been pecking away at it for about three years. I was looking for a horse for mares who are perhaps not at the level of going to a Kentucky stallion.”
The deal to acquire Speightster from a syndicate that stood the stallion at WinStar was orchestrated by Chad Schumer. On the track, the handsome chestnut won three of his first four races including the Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park.
“One of the reasons I was interested in Speightster is that two of his first five stakes winners won at Woodbine. Dreaming of Drew won the Princess Elizabeth Stakes and she was from his first crop. Aubrietta was a top 2-year-old filly of 2021, she won the Glorious Song Stakes.”
Speightster had 71 winners in 2021, more than the top four second-crop sires of the year Not This Time, Nyquist, Frosted and Runhappy. In addition to Aubrieta, Speightster sired 2021 stakes winners Tantrum, winner of the 1 1/16 mile Best of Ohio Juvenile Stakes and Door Buster, who captured the West Virginia Breeders’ Classic Stakes for 3-year-olds.
He had 10 black-type horses last year including Grade 3 placed Tough to Tame, who was third in the Iroquois Stakes in the fall at Churchill Downs. His progeny earned over $4.3 million in 2021.
Speightster has, according to Hayden, some 450 horses “in the pipeline” from matings at WinStar. His first four seasons the stallion bred 174, 152, 124, and 150 mares respectively.
The Haydens, breeders of top horses such as Canadian classic winner Breaking Lucky and graded stakes winner Unspurned, have 15 mares to foal in 2021 and will soon plan to send a number of them to Speightster in the coming years.
“Speightster will stand at Northern Dawn Farm with Sherry McLean,” said Hayden. “Our farm is a little far out of the way and I believe Hillsburgh is right in the heart of the province for breeders.”
McLean stands Canada’s leading first crop sire of 2020 and leading second-crop sire Reload.
“I think this is a sizzling deal,” said Hayden. “Speightstown is one of my favourite stallions and Speightster is from one of the best female families anywhere.”
Speightster stands for a 2022 fee of $6,500 (Can.). For inquiries, contact Sherry McLean at 416-576-3815, sherrymclean88@gmail.com; or Bernard McCormack at 905-261-8852.
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