Grade III Winner Skip to the Stone Retired; Likely to Stand in Calif.

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Skip to the Stone, winner of the 2001 Bay Shore (gr. III) at Aqueduct and Baldwin Stakes (gr. III) at Santa Anita Park, has been retired after finishing third in the Independence Day Handicap at Emerald Downs earlier this month. The 5-year-old son of Skip Trial had been sent from trainer Bob Baffert's barn to Bud Klokstad at the Seattle-area track to prep for the Aug. 24 Longacres Mile (gr. III), but Baffert said "nagging injuries" led to the horse's retirement.

The first foal from the Jolie's Halo mare Winner's Ticket (whose granddam was the outstanding grade-I winning turf mare The Very One), Skip to the Stone was purchased for $100,000 at the 2000 Barretts March 2-year-olds in training sale by Vincenzo Loverso and Kevin M. Ward from the consignment of Ricky Leppala, agent. He won his two stakes at age three under the care of trainer Mike Mitchell, then was transferred to Baffert in 2002. Following a third-place finish in the Berkeley Handicap (gr. III) at Golden Gate Fields in March of this year, Skip to the Stone was sent north to Klokstad.

"He was a brilliant colt up to a mile," Baffert said of the colt who carried the colors of the Greystone Racing Stable. "He would have been tough to beat in the Longacres Mile, but he's too good a horse to take any chances with. The owners are doing the right thing to retire him and are talking with some California farms to stand him at stud."

Skip to the Stone won four of 18 starts and earned $270,829.

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