Gio Ponti to Race in 2010

Gio Ponti , the leading candidate for champion turf male, will stay in training in 2010. Campaigned by Castleton Lyons, he is being pointed to the Dubai World Cup (UAE-I) in early spring.

“We have decided to race Gio Ponti again next year, having completed a stellar campaign with him in 2009, winning four grade I races in a row and beating some of the best colts in the world in the tremendously historic (Breeders’ Cup) Classic (gr. I) last Saturday at Santa Anita,” said Castleton Lyons’ president Shane Ryan in a release. “The leading American colt Gio Ponti will eventually become a very worthy addition to the stallion ranks at Castleton Lyons, but in the meantime for all of his fans out there we are thrilled to declare our intentions for 2010 with the Dubai World Cup as an exciting early season objective.”

Bred in Kentucky by Ryan’s Kilboy Estate, 4-year-old Gio Ponti (Tale of the Cat --Chipeta Springs, by Alydar) won in succession the Frank E. Kilroe Mile Handicap (gr. IT), the Woodford Reserve Manhattan Handicap (gr. IT), the Man o’ War Stakes (gr. IT), and the Arlington Million Stakes (gr. IT) before finishing a game second to unbeaten Zenyatta in the Classic.

For his career, Gio Ponti has won nine races, run second in four others (all graded stakes), and earned $3,153,800. His sole win on the main track came in the Sir Beaufort Stakes at Santa Anita last December.