Silver Wagon to Hurricane Hall

Grade I winner Silver Wagon will enter stud for 2008 at Hurricane Hall near Lexington, it was announced Dec. 18.

By Wagon Limit out of the Darn That Alarm mare So Ritzy, 6-year-old Silver Wagon was bred in Florida by Leverett and Linda Miller. He began his career for the late Mahmoud Fustok’s Buckram Oak Farm after being purchased for $120,000 at the Ocala Breeders Sales Co.'s select sale in 2003, and went on to win the Hopeful Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga that year. 

Campaigned throughout his early career by Ralph Ziadie, Silver Wagon was later trained by Richard Dutrow Jr. His seven victories include back-to-back wins in the 2007 editions of the General George Breeders’ Cup Stakes (gr. II) at Laurel Park and the Carter Handicap (gr. I) at Aqueduct. He also ran a game second to Ghostzapper in the 2005 Metropolitan Handicap (gr. I), and placed in the Forego Stakes (gr. I) that year.

Silver Wagon made his last eight starts under the colors of Four Roses Thoroughbreds and retired this year with career earnings of $1,162,193. He will stand the 2008 season for a stud fee of $5,000 at Hurricane Hall’s 400-acre complex, which was purchased in 2005 by a four-man partnership that includes Ben Walden Jr., David Hanley, Brad Kelley, and Patrick Madden.

“Silver Wagon will be hard to look past, considering his stud fee,” Walden said. “The market has been sort of like a roller coaster the past four or five years. You hear about the high-priced yearlings and mares, but a lot of smaller breeders haven’t had an easy time of it. One of the few cost groups we can control is the stud fee.”