The weekend of Jan. 17 kicked off with EL PADRINO, The most popular first-year stallion standing in the Mid-Atlantic region in 2014, showing off his impressive physique at the Northview PA stallion show on Saturday. The next day, the stunning chestnut officially became a sire when his daughter out of the Great Notion mare Great Storm was born at Sycamore Hall Farm in Chesapeake City. Bred by Sycamore Hall, she is the first foal out a half-sister to graded stakes winner Shrike and multiple stakes winner and course record-setter Second in Command. 

Sycamore Hall and Northview Stallion Station’s farm manager David Wade described the new arrival as “a bay filly with a large diamond shaped star and white on three pasterns. . . [she] is large and stout, especially for a first foal from a mare, nice head, very good bone. We’re quite happy with her.”

Also on Sunday, EL PADRINO’s superb family made news once again as his full sister Sweet Corine drew off to win a Gulfstream Park maiden special weight at a mile and a sixteenth by four and a half lengths. The dazzling score marked her as a “TDN Rising Star,” a designation earned previously by her half-brother Verrazano and three-quarter sister La Madrina. 

Out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Enchanted Rock, EL PADRINO is his dam’s first foal, became a graded stakes winner and won or placed in six of eight starts for earnings of $326,770. Second foal was millionaire and multiple Gr. 1 winner Verrazano. Third foal La Madrina won three of five starts and earned $136,934 last year at 3. Sweet Corine is the fourth foal. EL PADRINO’s second dam, Chic Shirine, and third dam, Too Chic, are Gr. 1-winning graded stakes producers. What a family!

The hottest roster in the Mid-Atlantic region will be on display two different weekends when Northview PA hosts an Open House on Saturday, Jan. 17 in Peach Bottom, and Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, Md., opens its doors for an encore on Sunday, Jan. 25. Light fare and refreshments will be available at both events from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The region’s 2014 leading active sire, JUMP START, and active 2-year-old sire, BULLSBAY, stand at Northview PA. JUMP START enters 2015 off his best year ever, with the earners of nearly $6 million worldwide and 10 stakes winners, three graded, two G1 winners!

BULLSBAY was not only the leading freshman sire in the region, but with his first modest-sized crop of 23 foals, he ranked first among all Mid-Atlantic active sires! Half of his winners were stakes horses, including stakes-winning $161,620-earner MISS BULLISTIC.

And there is so much more at Northview PA. Standing his second season is the most popular first-year sire of 2014, EL PADRINO. . . SMARTY JONES, who needs no introduction, after another sensational season as the sire of 13 stakes horses, including G1 winner SMART D N A and multiple GSW CARY STREET. . . FAIRBANKS, ranked in the top 10 nationally among leading third-crop sires. . . and MEDALLIST, one of the region’s best sources of winners!

An added bonus will be the chance to see NORTHVIEW’s most recent addition, BANDBOX. The graded stakes-winning son of leading sire TAPIT will travel from the Maryland division just for the show.

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The first runners by BULLSBAY put on quite a show in 2014. Two stakes performers. . . debut maiden special weight winners at Saratoga and Laurel. . . combined earnings of $357,325 (an average of nearly $40,000 per runner). With his modest-sized first crop of 23 foals, BULLSBAY was the Mid-Atlantic region’s leading active 2-year-old sire of 2014!

BULLSBAY’s first crop wrapped up its initial season with stellar performances in December.

• His daughter and leading earner MISS BULLISTIC finished second in the $125,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship on Dec. 26 after capturing the Selima S. and Donna Freyer S. earlier in the fall. A leading candidate for Maryland-bred 2-year-old filly championship honors, she earned $161,620.

• Bullheaded Boy, a winner first time out at Saratoga, was four-times stakes-placed from August through December in five stakes starts. In his most recent outing, Bullheaded Boy finished second in Aqueduct’s Damon Runyon S. on Dec. 14.

• Last Confession made his debut on Dec. 20 at Laurel Park a winning one after a gritty stretch battle to the wire in the 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight.

The offspring of BULLSBAY have displayed the same determination and grit as their sire, a Gr. 1 winner of nearly $1 million. From a family of precocious runners, BULLSBAY is the latest son of emerging sire of sires TIZNOW to make his mark on the leading sires lists. And it’s only the beginning!

From the moment his first runner stepped onto the track, LION HEARTED has been a sensational 2-year-old sire. He was the top freshman sire of 2004 and is a two-time Maryland 2-year-old sire leader, most recently in 2014!

LION HEARTED’s 21st stakes winner, SPOTTED HEART, sprung away from her rivals to take the $125,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship S. at Laurel Park on Friday, Dec. 26. Bred by Charles and Cynthia McGinnes, the filly owned by Copper Penny Stables and trained by Mark Shuman is one of seven juvenile winners of 2014 for her sire, who leads the 2014 Maryland juvenile sires lists by earnings and number of winners.

One-third of LION HEARTED’s 42 lifetime stakes performers won or placed in stakes at 2, among them ROARING LION, who not only captured the Maryland Juvenile Championship at 2, but was a stakes star through age 7; ASPENGLOW, a stakes winner each year she competed from 2 to 4; Maryland Million Lassie winners LIL KIARA and HEAR US ROAR and Maryland Million Nursery winner CREVE COEUR; and his very first winner and stakes winner, CHOCOLATE BROWN, victress of Belmont’s Fashion S. for her second win in as many starts by June of her 2-year-old season. CHOCOLATE BROWN has since become a juvenile stakes-producing broodmare.
LION HEARTED - more than a decade of juvenile success!