Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs continues to crank out top-level stakes winners and knocked down its seventh Eclipse Award for breeder in the last eight years. In all, it’s the eighth Eclipse for Stronach as he earned his first statue in 2000 under his name. As an owner, Stronach has earned four Eclipse Awards.
As far as money earned as a breeder, Adena Springs led the North American list for the ninth year in a row in 2011. As an individual concern, Adena Springs bred 493 starters who won 455 races from 3,348 starts with earnings of more than $14.6 million. That total more than doubles the earnings from the second-placed breeder, Ken and Sarah Ramsey, who were also Eclipse Award finalists in the breeder category.
Adena Springs received 151 first-place votes, with the Ramseys getting 62 votes.
The list of Adena Springs stakes winners in 2011 was impressive and included nine graded stakes winners, headed by two-time grade I winner Game On Dude. Game On Dude, who also finished a gritty second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I), won the Santa Anita Handicap and Goodwood Stakes. A top runner on turf on the West Coast in 2011, Bourbon Bay won Santa Anita’s San Marcos Stakes (gr. IIT) and Del Mar’s Cougar II Handicap (gr. IIIT). Adena’s other graded winners were Bay to Bay, Celtic New Year, City Wolf, Don Cavallo, Matthewsburg, Smart Sting, and Stunning Stag.
Stronach, who built Magna International into one of the world’s leading auto parts manufacturers, has been involved in breeding and racing Thoroughbreds for more than 40 years and is perhaps best known in the industry as the owner of a strong portfolio of racetracks including Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park, and both Pimlico and Laurel Park of the Maryland Jockey Club.
As an owner and breeder, Stronach has also won 18 Sovereign Awards, nine each as outstanding breeder and outstanding owner in Canada.
Freida and Frank Stronach after winning the Eclipse Award of Outstsanding Breeder for 2011.
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