Grade II winner Don't Get Mad, who finished fourth in the 2005 Kentucky Derby (gr. I), has been purchased by Dr. Robert Zoellner and Clark Brewster to stand in 2012 at Zoellner’s Rockin’ Z Ranch south of Tulsa, Okla., near Beggs. The 9-year-old son of Stephen Got Even will stand for $2,000.
Don’t Get Mad won both his starts at 2, including his debut by six lengths. As a 3-year-old, he captured the Indiana Derby (gr. II), set a stakes record in the Northern Dancer Breeders’ Cup Stakes (gr. III), and won the Derby Trial Stakes by seven lengths. In the Kentucky Derby, he closed to finish behind third-place finisher Afleet Alex , who went on to win the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) and the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) and to be voted champion 3-year-old male.
Don’t Get Mad was retired with five wins from 13 starts and earnings of $793,835.
Don’t Get Mad’s leading runner in 2011 is Populist Politics, who this year has won the Louisiana Showcase Mile Stakes and has placed in three stakes. Populist Politics won last year’s Louisiana Futurity. Don’t Get Mad also is the sire of 2011 graded stakes-placed Take for You.
A half brother to stakes winner Barkley Sound, Don’t Get Mad is out of the graded stakes-placed Jolie's Halo mare Class On Class, who is a half sister to grade II winner Class Kris, the dam of grade I winner Student Council and grade III winner Gradepoint.
Don't Get Mad formerly stood at Spendthrift Farm near Lexington and at Elite Thoroughbreds in Louisiana.