Grade II winner Salute the Sarge will stand in 2009 at John T. L. Jones III’s Walmac Farm near Lexington. The farm purchased a half-interest in the 3-year-old son of Forest Wildcat.
As a 2-year-old, Salute the Sarge won or placed in four graded stakes and set a Hollywood Park track-record of :58.29 for five furlongs in his debut. He was weighted at 118 pounds on the 2007 Experimental Free Handicap for males.
After his track-record effort, Salute the Sarge won the Hollywood Juvenile Championship (gr. III) and Best Pal (gr. II) Stakes and then ran second in the Del Mar Futurity (gr. I) and Norfolk Stakes (gr. I) racing for Southern Equine Stable.
“His sire Forest Wildcat has a real hardboot following here in Kentucky,” Jones said. “Known for consistency and precocity, Forest Wildcat came up through the ranks, starting at $10,000 and ultimately standing for $60,000. Salute the Sarge is by far the most brilliant 2-year-old Forest Wildcat ever sired.”
Bred in Kentucky by Gulf Coast Farms, Salute the Sarge is a half-brother to stakes winners Chelokee, a graded winner, and Mymich, and is out of the grade II stakes-placed Silver Ghost mare Dixie Ghost.
Salute the Sarge won the San Miguel Stakes in his 3-year-old debut. He ran fifth in the Sept. 27 Kentucky Cup Sprint Stakes for the partnership of Southern Equine and Robert Trussell of Walmac. Eric J. Guillot, a part owner of Southern Equine, trains him.
