Any Given Saturday, who won the Haskell Invitational (gr. I) by 4½ lengths, has been retired and will stand at Darley for $40,000 in 2008, it was announced Nov. 7.
John Ferguson, Sheikh Mohammed's bloodstock advisor, said, "Sheikh Mohammed considered keeping Any Given Saturday in training but it was decided that it was in the horse’s best interest to retire him to stud. He'll join Discreet Cat and his old adversaries Hard Spun and Street Sense at Darley, and you couldn't wish for a more impressive bunch of new recruits."
A million-dollar yearling and a son of Distorted Humor out of the A.P. Indymare Weekend in Indy, Any Given Saturday also has a four-length triumph in the Dwyer Stakes (gr. II) and a victory in the Brooklyn Handicap (gr. II) on his resume, and was second, beaten just a head, by Street Sense in a track record-breaking Tampa Bay Derby (gr. III) this March. In April, he ran third in Wood Memorial (gr. I).
Bred in Kentucky by Racehorse Management (a division of WinStar Farm), Any Given Saturday retires with six wins from 11 starts, hitting the board in all but two of those. One of the non-placed efforts came in his final race, the $5-million Breeders' Cup Classic-Powered by Dodge (gr. I) Oct. 27, in which he finished sixth at Monmouth Park.
Any Given Saturday, trained by Todd Pletcher, earned $1,083,533 in his career. He was owned by WinStar Farm and Padua Stables before being purchased by Darley in August.