Highcliff Farm-based Millennium Wind added to Millennium Rewards Program

(2/14/08) Millennium Stallions' Highcliff Farm-based MILLENNIUM WIND, a Grade 1-winning third-crop sire whose progeny earnings recently topped $1.1-million, has been added to an innovative rewards program for Millennium Stallions that rewards breeders for achievements of its stallions' offspring in both sales rings and at racetracks.

The Millennium Rewards Program, launched on January 1, 2008 but retroactive to January of 2005 to allow Millennium Stallion-sired juveniles of 2008 to earn points, is modeled on affinity programs popular in consumer marketing. It awards points to breeders who breed to Millennium stallions on a regular basis, using the following criteria:Opening a Frequent Breeder Account automatically earns 10,000 points.

a) Additional points are earned for every dollar spent on stud fees.

b) Additional points are earned for every dollar a Millennium Stallion-sired offspring brings in its first trip through a sales ring.

c) Additional points are earned for every purse dollar a Millennium Stallion-sired offspring earns while racing.

d) 10,000 points (minimum) are earned for every black-type stakes win registered by the offspring of a Millennium Stallion.

e) 25,000 points are earned for every Grade/Group 3 win (group races in Part I of the International Cataloguing Standards) registered by the offspring of a Millennium Stallion.

f) 50,000 points are earned for every Grade/Group 2 win registered by the offspring of a Millennium Stallion.

g) 75,000 points are earned for every Grade/Group 1 win registered by the offspring of a Millennium Stallion.

Points are converted to dollar credits at a ratio of 10-to-1, and those credits are applicable towards stud fees for stallions on the Millennium Stallions roster in Kentucky and now in New York. A Millennium Stallion-sired yearling that brings a $100,000 sales price, for example, qualifies its breeder for a $10,000 credit on a Millennium Rewards account that is applicable towards stud fees of any stallions on the Millennium Stallion roster.

Millennium Wind, a Grade 1/Grade 2 winner in Kentucky and California whose graded-winning half-brothers include Horse of the Year and multi-millionaire-siring Charismatic, has sired 40 winners from his first two crops, and nearly half of his winners (nine from each crop) broke their maidens as 2-year-olds. His juvenile winners that won or placed in black-type stakes in 2007 included six-length stakes winner Berry's Pride. The son of Cryptoclearance - Bali Babe, by Drone, has stood at Carl Lizza Jr.'s and Joseph Bartone's Highcliff Farm in Delanson, NY for a $5,000 live foal fee since 2006.

"Millennium Farms should be congratulated for developing this concept, which supports breeders - whether they breed to sell or to race," commented Highcliff Farm stallion manager Suzie O'Cain. "This is a huge benefit which helps to offset some of the expenses incurred by broodmare owners."

(12/27/07) Stonerside Stable will send their undefeated colt STONESIDER to Highcliff Farm in Delanson, New York, beginning with the 2008 season. Highcliff, run by resident veterinarian and general manager C. Lynwood O'Cain and his wife Suzie for owners Carl Lizza and Joe Bartone, will stand the four-year-old son of Giant's Causeway for an introductory fee of $3,000 live foal. He will be first son of Giant's Causeway to stand in the Empire State.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, the chestnut Stonesider debuted on the main track at Belmont Park on June 30 of his two-year-old year, and won impressively over a field that included future Grade 1 winner Flashy Bull. An injury sidelined Stonesider, and he did not run again.

"I thought Stonesider would be one of the top two-year-olds in my barn that year," said Pletcher. "He's a very good-looking horse, and ought to throw nice foals."

"We're very pleased to be sending Stonesider to Highcliff," said John Adger, racing and bloodstock manager for Stonerside Stable. "The O'Cains are a great team, and have done an excellent job with Highcliff's other stallions over the years."

"Stonesider is very much in the mold of Giant's Causeway, with all the flash and good looks of his sire," Adger continued. "And even though he didn't get the opportunity to live up to his potential at the track, we feel he will be a very solid sire, and we're happy to be a part of the outstanding program in New York."

"Had Stonesider been able to reach his predicted Grade 1 stakes potential, we would not have been given this opportunity to stand him at Highcliff Farm in New York," said Suzie O'Cain, director of stallion promotion and development at Highcliff. "Being by Giant's Causeway, who is viewed as the next sire-of-sires, out of a graded stakes winning dam, Stonesider should be a great addition to the New York breeding program."

From the first American crop by European Horse of the Year Giant's Causeway, Stonesider is out of the Grade 2 stakes winner Added Gold, by Gilded Time. Added Gold is a full sister to the dam of 2007 Grade 1 winner Irish Smoke, as well as a half-sister to graded stakes winner Added Asset. Stonesider's second dam is the multiple stakes winner and graded-placed Added Elegance.

Highcliff is currently home to stallions Key Contender, Maybry's Boy, Millennium Wind, Stanislavsky, Talk is Money, and Western Expression. The 800-acre farm is located some twenty miles west of Albany in upstate New York, and offers year-round boarding, foaling, and sales prep in addition to standing stallions.

CONTACT INFO FOR HIGHCLIFF FARM:
Suzie O'Cain (518) 875-6168 (e-mail: highcliff@worldnet.att.net)

CONTACT INFO ON STONERSIDE STABLE:
John Adger, racing and bloodstock manager (859) 621-5474 (e-mail: jadger@stonerside.com or vvancamp@stonerside.com ) or visit the Stonerside website at www.stonerside.com.

Founded in 1994, Stonerside Stable is the breeding and racing stable of Janice and Bob McNair (owners of the Houston Texans NFL team). The 1,947-acre farm near Paris, Kentucky has bred and raised 34 stakes winners, including Congaree, Country Star, Van Nistelrooy, The Cliff's Edge, Bob and John, and Raven's Pass. In partnership, the farm also co-bred Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus and E Dubai. Stonerside has campaigned eight millionaires, 59 stakes winners and won 123 stakes. Stonerside operates a training facility in Aiken, South Carolina and campaigns runners in the United States, Canada, England, and Argentina. The stable annually sponsors the Stonerside Beaumont Stakes (G2) at Keeneland.

Graded SW Maybry's Boy to enter stud in 2008 at Highcliff Farm at $2,500 fee with a MAJOR INCENTIVE OF $10,000 awarded at the conclusion of the 2008 breeding season*

(12/4) RCH Stables' graded-winning Broad Brush stallion, MAYBRY'S BOY, will enter stud for 2008 at Carl Lizza Jr.'s and Joseph Bartone's Highcliff Farm in Delanson, New York, standing for $2,500, live foal - payment of which entitles participation in a drawing for $10,000 following the conclusion of the 2008 breeding season. Each purchased season represents a drawing right for a $10,000 bonus award. Maybry's Boy, a super-durable gray/roan 16.2-hand sprinter, won on Aqueduct's inner track in 2006 but was retired too late to stand the 2007 season. The striking-looking stallion was clearly among the fastest of four-time Grade 1 winner Broad Brush's 93 stakes winners - a group that includes 2007 top-five second-crop sire (in both lifetime and 2007 progeny earnings) Include, sire of 2007 Grade 1 turf and synthetic surface winner Panty Raid ($1,020,275).

Bred by Jonabell Farm and the late John Franks and purchased by Randy Hill (RCH Stables) for $220,000 at Keeneland's 2000 September yearling sale, Maybry's Boy won Gulfstream Park's graded six-furlong Spectacular Bid Stakes over future Grade 2 winner Showmeitall for Hall of Fame trainer Claude "Shug" McGaughey. Less than seven weeks prior to that graded victory, the then-two-year-old Maybry's Boy had broken his maiden by six lengths at Aqueduct in 1:22-3/5 for seven furlongs. Although a winner for six consecutive seasons who posted a triple-digit Beyer figure, Maybry's Boy ($322,700) had a horrendous break in Gulfstream's Grade 1 Fountain of Youth about six weeks after his Spectacular Bid victory and was never quite the same following a subsequent layoff of almost a year. He is the first of four winners produced from graded runner-up and six-time winner Aly's Conquest ($242,720), who is by Alydar and is a half-sister to stakes winner Iroquois Park and to the dam of stakes winner Sariano. His second dam (maternal granddam) is multiple graded winner and Grade 1-placed Am Capable ($410,733).

* Call for Details (518) 875-6168

Highcliff stallions Western Expression and Millennium Wind have New York & California standouts

Photo: Adam Coglianese

STUNT MAN

(11/16/07) Within less than 20 hours during November 10-11, Highcliff Farm stallions MILLENNIUM WIND and WESTERN EXPRESSION were represented by standouts at Hollywood Park and Aqueduct, as the former's 2-year-old WIND'S LEGACY won a maiden special, and the latter's STUNT MAN ($307,819, photo left) and ARTISTIC EXPRESS ($246,818) won and placed in stakes. Western Expression's two New York Stallion Stakes performers on Sunday (Nov. 11) were both already multiple stakes winners going into their respective events. Millennium Wind's swift stretch-running juvenile romped so decisively (winning by two lengths) on Saturday against sons of some of the most expensive sires in North America that he seems destined to become a stakes winner in the near future.

Wind's Legacy broke from the outside post among nine starters in a seven-furlong maiden special on Hollywood Park's all-weather track and angled inside to duel three-wide before gaining command near mid-stretch and drawing away - almost clocking under 1:23 despite not being pressured at the finish. The eight rivals strung out behind him included sons of elite sires whose stud fees ranged up to $100,000, with the average fee for those eight stallions being more than $41,000 (Millennium Wind stood for $5,000, live foal, during the 2007 breeding season). Despite his speed and precocity, Wind's Legacy looks like he will be even better at longer distances.

In Aqueduct's New York Stallion Thunder Rumble Stakes on Sunday, open stakes-winning 3-year-old Stunt Man dropped back to seven furlongs following multiple-margin stakes tallies at 1-1/8 miles at Saratoga and a mile at Belmont during August-September, coming off the pace to overtake an older $750K-plus-earning favorite. A world of opportunities await 3-year-old Stunt Man, who has won at four different distances from six-to-nine furlongs and placed a closing third among eight in Saratoga stakes competition in his only turf effort thus far. Two races later on Aqueduct's same Sunday New York Stallion Stakes card, Western Expression's dirt-and-turf stakes-winning daughter, Artistic Express, closed from next-to-last among eight to place third in the New York Stallion Perfect Arc Stakes that she had won as a 3-year-old in 2006. Artistic Express has scored an equal number of wins on both dirt and turf and was a precocious stakes-winning juvenile at Belmont in 2005. Stunt Man and Artistic Express are among 14 earners of more than $100K each from Western Expression's first three crops.

Opportunities knock if one knows where to look for them, and at Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga New York-bred preferred yearling sale a couple of months ago, the first sales yearling sired by Highcliff Farm-based stallion STANISLAVSKY achieved a unique distinction by bringing a six-figure final bid. That yearling colt, Hip No. 358, was the ONLY New York-conceived six-figure youngster from any stallion's first crop in the entire preferred sale! There were 17 other six-figure yearlings among 113 total head sold at the 2007 preferred sale, and the average stud fee for their sires was almost $26,000.

The 2008 stud fee for STANISLAVSKY, whose first foals will be 2-year-olds in 2008, is scheduled to be $3,500.

A multiple graded NYRA stakes performer, STANISLAVSKY won by eight lengths at Aqueduct going six furlongs and was graded-placed at seven furlongs and a mile, beating at least five graded winners. The son of Eclipse Champion Dehere (another of whose sons, Graeme Hall, is a leading second-crop sire in 2007) is out of a half-sister to a champion miler. A striking individual, STANISLAVSKY sold for $227,000 as a Saratoga select sales yearling in 2001, and his owners turned down a million-dollar offer for him when he was a 3-year-old.

At the New York Breeders' Sales Company's Fall Mixed Sale that will be held Sunday, October 14 at Saratoga Race Course, eight mares in foal to STANISLAVSKY plus a gray/roan registered New York-bred yearling filly from his first crop (Hip No. 207) will be offered. These mares offer current opportunities to purchase the dams of potential six-figure yearlings less than two years hence. Five of the mares are under the age of ten, and one of those is a half-sister to a multiple Grade 2 winner. Also among them are a multiple stakes-placed winner of $347,697 whose winning offspring include a six-figure-earner; an earner of $149,670 whose first starter has won three times; and a 10-year-old Belmont allowance winner. The hip numbers for these eight mares are 90, 120, 206, 231, 243, 272, 320, and 360. Opportunities are knocking again.

NY sire Talk Is Money represented by first-crop G2 Tom Fool winner High Finance

Best Sprinter - Miler on the East Coast

(7/07) If breeders and handicappers had not previously been fully aware of the talent of four-year-old High Finance from the first crop of New York-based stallion TALK IS MONEY, they know about him now -- and about his sire, whose offspring include stakes winners on both coasts as well as the Midwest. In Belmont's Grade 2 Tom Fool Breeders' Cup Handicap at seven furlongs on the Fourth of July, West Point Stable's High Finance scored by 2-3/4 lengths while running blazing fractions of :22, :43.4, 1:08.2 and finishing in 1:21.4 as the 5.60-to-1 third choice among six starters, leaving odds-on New York-bred Grade 1 winner Commentator in his wake. As Nick Zito, the trainer of Commentator, the 1-2 favorite said after the race "If you look at 10,000 races, you'll never see that again. A :21 4/5 second quarter? Have you ever heard of that?" Thirty-eight days earlier in a Belmont allowance/optional claiming contest, High Finance had registered the highest Daily Racing Form Beyer figure for a mile (115) in 2007, posting a higher number than any Grade 1 or Grade 2 winner this year. As became obvious on Independence Day, that 1:33.54 mile performance was no fluke.

Drawing away in the seven-furlong Tom Fool in 1:21.81, High Finance ($295,850) is the second new stakes winner in 25 days to represent Talk Is Money, whose three-year-old daughter Girls Pearls scored her fourth consecutive victory in Prairie Meadows' two-turn mile Panthers Stakes on June 9. Another colt from the same first crop as High Finance, Blazing Sunset, last year won Hollywood Park's mile and an eighth Alydar Stakes by almost two lengths gate-to-wire under co-topweight. Talk Is Money, a stakes-winning son of Deputy Minister - Isle Go West, by Gone West, who also has a first-out juvenile winner at Woodbine from his third crop, is owned by a partnership and stands at Carl Lizza Jr.'s and Joseph Bartone's Highcliff Farm in Delanson.

Coming off this super performance in the Tom Fool, trainer Rick Violette will most likely point High Finance to the Grade I Forego at Saratoga on September 1.

3yo filly by NY stallion Talk Is Money scores stakes win in 4th straight victory

(6/9/07) Thirteen days after his first-crop son High Finance registered one of 2007's highest Beyer figures (adjusted up to 115) while winning a Belmont mile contest by eight lengths in 1:33.54, a three-year-old daughter of New York-based TALK IS MONEY, Girls Pearls, captured Prairie Meadows' Panthers Stakes on Saturday, June 9. It was the fourth consecutive win in 55 days for Girls Pearls, who campaigns for Magdalena Racing under trainer Kenneth McPeek's care and has victories at Keeneland (by two lengths in 1:22.76 for seven furlongs) and twice at Churchill Downs (both by daylight margins going one-turn miles). Girls Pearls was the 1.70-to-1 favorite among nine three-year-old fillies in the $54,000 unrestricted Panthers at a two-turn mile and advanced from seventh-to-first with a five-wide rally to win by daylight over the four-time stakes-winning second choice, to whom she was spotting three pounds.

Bred by Kathryn Schaefer, Girls Pearls is from the second crop of Talk Is Money and is the first starter produced from four-time mile-and-up winner Girls Girls Girls, who is by Colonial Affair. Talk Is Money, a stakes-winning son of Deputy Minister, is out of Isle Go West, who is by Gone West and is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner and prominent international sire Hennessy. Owned by a partnership, Talk Is Money stands at Carl Lizza Jr.'s and Joseph Bartone's Highcliff Farm in Delanson for a 2007 fee of $5,000, live foal.

Hot May Days at Highcliff Farm

MILLENNIUM WIND

HIGH FINANCE

May 14, MILLENNIUM WIND was awarded the trophy as New York's Champion Freshman Sire of 2006 by New York Thoroughbred Breeders. for 2007 -- surpassing the Beyers for Curlin's Preakenss (111), Street Sense's Kentucky Derby (110), and Invasor's Donn Handicap (109). A one-turn mile -- considered the quintessential American test for extended speed -- appears to be the ideal test for graded-placed High Finance ($175,850), who placed second to future Eclipse Champion Bernardini the first time he tried the distance in a Gulfstream Park maiden special in March of 2006. At Belmont two months later, the then three-year-old colt captured a one-turn allowance mile against older company by five lengths while registering his first of three eventual triple-digit Beyer figures. Sunday's romp marked High Finance's third effort at eight furlongs out of a backstretch mile chute. He appears to have made his point.

May 15, in California at Barretts May Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training, MILLENNIUM WIND was well represented with six lots sold for an average of $60,916. His top lot was a colt out of the Salt Lake mare Bonita Lake, hammered down at $170,000.00. MILLENNIUM WIND was the fifth leading sire at the sale by average with three or more sold.

May 20, impressive first time starter, MAGICAL MONA, 3-year-old MILLENNIUM WIND filly out of the Gone West mare Francoa, scored a 3-1/4 length victory in a $41,000 maiden special weight at Belmont. Stalking the pace early, MAGICAL MONA made a decisive move turning for home and jockey Edgar Prado guided the filly clear down the lane.

TALK IS MONEY

Earlier on Sunday up at Woodbine, a two-year-old by TALK IS MONEY, Colebrook Farms' first-time-starter TALKEN TALL, won his 4-1/2-furlong maiden special debut drawing away by daylight despite being dead-last at the break. In addition to High Finance, another of TALK IS MONEY's runners from his first crop is BLAZING SUNSET, who last year won Hollywood Park's mile and an eighth Alydar Stakes by almost two lengths gate-to-wire under co-topweight. Owned by a partnership, TALK IS MONEY is a stakes-winning son of Deputy Minister - Isle Go West, by Gone West, standing for a 2007 fee of $5,000, live foal

May 27, Son of NY sire TALK IS MONEY gets Memorial Day weekend's top Beyer (114) (Courtesy nybreds.com)
West Point Stable might have one of North America's best dirt milers as revealed at Belmont on Sunday when High Finance -- from the first crop of current New York-based sire TALK IS MONEY -- won a mile allowance by eight lengths in 1:33.54, earning a 114 Daily Racing Form Beyer figure. This was the highest Beyer recorded over the Memorial Day weekend and is one of the highest

Coming in June...
TALK IS MONEY'S leading filly of 2007, 3-year-old GIRLS PEARLS ($65,130) is entered in the Dogwood Breeders Cup S. - G3. The Ken McPeek trainee has Larry Melancon aboard for the one-mile event at Churchill Downs.