The Factor , a multiple grade I-winning sprinter by top sire War Front , has been retired from racing and will enter stud at William S. Farish's Lane's End Farm near Versailles, Ky., for the 2013 breeding season. He will stand for a fee of $15,000.
Raced by George Bolton and David Shimmon's Fog City Stable, The Factor won six of 13 starts, with five of those wins coming in graded stakes. He was trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert.
"The Factor showed brilliant speed and exceptional scope and quality in his three seasons on the racetrack and Lane's End is very pleased to stand this stunning horse whose pedigree will be of great interest to breeders," said Will Farish.
The Factor is out of the winning Miswaki mare Greyciousness. Greyciousness, out of the multiple stakes winner Skatingonthinice, is a half sister to Chief Seattle, who ran second in the 1999 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I).
War Front, a son of Danzig, stands at Claiborne Farm near Paris, Ky. His 2012 fee was $60,000.
In his second start at 2, The Factor set the six-furlong track mark of 1:06.98 at Santa Anita Park while breaking his maiden in a runaway. Named for the Fox News program "The O'Reilly Factor," he drew national attention from the show's host, Bill O'Reilly.
The Factor started his 3-year-old campaign in 2011 with a three-quarter length score in the San Vicente Stakes (gr. II) at Santa Anita. The Factor then rattled off an impressive 6 3/4-length romp in the Rebel Stakes (gr. II) at Oaklawn Park going 1 1/16 miles. A seventh-place finish in the Arkansas Derby (gr. I) ended his run at the classics, but the speedster returned in the summer to top older horses in the seven-furlong Pat O'Brien Stakes (gr. I) at Del Mar.
Following an off day in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (gr. I) at Churchill Downs, The Factor rolled to his second grade I score as a 3-year-old with a 3 1/2-length victory in the seven-furlong Malibu Stakes (gr. I) on opening day at Santa Anita.
After a sixth-place finish at Meydan in Dubai in the Golden Shaheen (UAE-I), he returned to form, running second in both the Triple Bend Handicap and Bing Crosby Stakes (both gr. I), his final start July 29.
He earned $922,180 in his career.
The Factor was bred in Kentucky by H & W Thoroughbreds. Consigned to the 2008 Keeneland November sale, he sold for $50,000 to Iroquois Bloodstock III as weanling. Kim Valerio, agent, purchased him at the following summer's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale for $40,000 from Indian Creek, agent. Bolton stepped up and bought The Factor for $250,000 at the Barretts May sale of 2-year-olds in training in 2010 from Jerry Bailey Sales Agency, agent.