CANADIAN TURF S. (gr. III ), Gulfstream Park , February 23, 2013 , $150,000 Guaranteed , value of race $150,000 , 4 yo's & up , 1 mile , 1:33.01 Turf FM .

When veteran owner/breeder Stuart Janney III purchased Canadian Turf Stakes (gr. IIIT) winner Data Link’s second dam Sunset Service for $240,000 at the 1994 Keeneland July yearling sale, he had no idea just how profitable a decision it would turn out to be.

“She’s actually the first horse I ever bought after I took over from my parents’ racing stable,” said Janney. “She was at the top of my short list…there was a lot going on in her family. She was a pretty well-conformed filly with a fair amount of pedigree.”

While the daughter of Deputy Minister possessed some talent, she lacked a good disposition for racing.

“Then she broke the sesamoid in one of her front legs,” said Janney. “We had them fused, so she was paddock sound; she just had a club foot. We bred her to Known Fact twice and got Vespers and Database. They were both pretty nice race horses (both won stakes), so I decided to keep them and see which one produced better looking foals. It obviously worked out very well that I kept them both because they’re each dams of grade I winners.”

While Vespers produced 2012 Donn Handicap (gr. I) winner Hymn Book, Database is represented by the aforementioned Data Link, who has won three graded stakes in addition to the Canadian Turf, including the 2012 Maker’s 46 Mile Stakes (gr. IT), for earnings of $763,835.

Janney and trainer Shug McGaughey experienced an especially triumphant day Feb. 23, as another homebred, Orb, won the Besilu Stables Fountain of Youth (gr. II) one race after 5-year-old Data Link had prevailed in the Canadian Turf at Gulfstream Park.

Janney said Data Link, who was foaled at the Hancock family’s Claiborne Farm near Paris, Ky., was attractive from the start and was one of the reasons the farm staff got excited about War Front’s sire potential.

“Data Link was a strong, athletic, compact kind of individual,” said Janney of the horse, who is from War Front’s first crop. “We always thought he could be a good horse.”

In addition to Data Link, Database is the dam of the winning, stakes-placed Arch gelding Wiki. The mare, whose most recent offspring is an Afleet Alex colt, was barren to the cover of War Front this year. She is booked to Arch for 2014.

War Front is the sire of 17 stakes winners, including other 2013 added-money victor Snow Fall. War Front stands for $80,000 at Claiborne.—E.M.