2YO Champ War Pass Retired

War Pass, last year’s unbeaten champion 2-year-old male and multiple grade I winner who was injured in April of this year, has been retired to stud to William S. Farish’s Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Ky.

The colt is scheduled to arrive in Kentucky Sept. 6 from New York on a van that also includes trainer Nick Zito. No stud fee has been announced for the colt who will stand as the property of a syndicate, however, Farish noted he should have one by the early part of next week.

War Pass, a son of Cherokee Run, out of the Mr. Prospector mare Vue, sustained a fractured sesamoid in his left front and on the advice of veterinarians, it was decided that he should be retired. His last effort came in the April 5 Wood Memorial (gr. I), where he ran a gallant second, beaten just a half-length by Tale of Etaki.

Bred in Kentucky by Cherry Valley Farm, War Pass was a $180,000 Keeneland September sale yearling. He raced for Robert La Penta and was trained by the Hall of Famer Zito.

War Pass won five of his seven starts at ages two and three and earned $1,583,400. He was undefeated in four starts at age two, winning the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (gr. I) at Monmouth Park after taking Belmont Park’s Champagne Stakes (gr. I). He was highweighted on the Experimental Free Handicap and earned the highest juvenile Beyer Speed Figure (113) ever recorded for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

“I had a big interest in his career right off the bat from the time he broke his maiden,” said Farish. “He also ran a great race in the Champagne. We were able to buy an interest in his breeding career after the Breeders’ Cup.

“He’s a beautiful looking horse, conformation-wise,” he said. “And he has an interesting pedigree. There is lots of speed there, but I believe he also has the proper amount of staying power. He’ll really fit right in with the farm as far as we’re concerned.”

After the colt’s sparkling, gate-to-wire 4 3/4-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Zito said, “War Pass is without a doubt the fastest 2-year-old I’ve ever had. He has tremendous speed and is extremely talented. I’ve been on the track since I was a teenager and in my opinion, War Pass has everything: speed, class, and quality.”

This year, War Pass won his debut, a mile effort at Gulfstream Park, by 7 1/2 lengths. He then suffered his first defeat with a last-place effort in the Tampa Bay Derby (gr. III) prior to bouncing back in the Wood.

Cherokee Run was the Eclipse Award-winning Sprinter of 1994. The son of Runaway Groom is the sire of 36 stakes winners. Vue, the stakes-placed dam of War Pass, is the dam of Oath (by Known Fact), winner of Saratoga’s Spinaway Stakes (gr. I) in 1995, and the grade II-placed Vision of Beauty (Danzig)