Speedy California Grade 1 winner COLLUSION ILLUSION has been retired and will enter stud in 2023 at the new Ballycroy Bloodstock in Loretto, Ontario. The son of one of the leading sires in North America, Twirling Candy (by Candy Ride (Arg)), Collusion Illusion will stand for a fee of $6,000 Canadian.
A $300,000 purchase at the 2019 Ocala Spring Two-Year-Old in Training Sale, Collusion Illusion raced for Dan Agnew, Jerry Schneider, Rodney Orr and, recently, MyRacehorse. He won his career debut at Del Mar in July 2019 at 5 furlongs and promptly came back to win the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at that track.
As a 3-year-old, Collusion Ilusion, trained by Mark Glatt, won his first three races of the campaign. He won an allowance race at Santa Anita and then took the Lazaro Barrera Stakes (G3) at that track by 3 1/2 lengths.
Collusion Illusion defeated older rivals when just a 3-year-old in August 2021 in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar, beating among others graded stakes winners such as Lexitonian. The horse was then third to C Z Rocket in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship before trying the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland but he broke 12th and last and lost all chance.
The horse finished his 2020 campaign with a third-place finish to top runners Charlatan and Express Train in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita. Collusion Illusion was retired this spring.
The first foal of Natalie Grace, by First Dude, Collusion Ilusion’s second dam Midway Squall produced Grade 2 stakes winner Bahamian Squall, a leading third-crop sire in the southeast U.S. last year, as well as Grade 3 winner Apriority and stakes winner Squall City.
For more information on Collusion Illusion, contact Michaela Kemp (905) 588-5518, E-mail: michealakemp@ballycroybloodstock.com.
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