St Averil, Gators N Bears to Stand at Maryland Stallion Station

Graded stakes winners St Averil and Gators N Bears will enter stud in 2006 at Maryland Stallion Station (Don Litz, president) near Glyndon, Md. Both will continue racing this year.

St Averil, a $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale yearling, is in the process of being bought from owner Stan Fulton by Maryland Stallion Station and Pete Bradley's Bradley Thoroughbreds. St Averil has been transferred from Southern California trainer Rafael Becerra to Maryland conditioner H. Graham Motion. Plans call for the 4-year-old son of Saint Ballado to race on the East Coast.

Bred by Gunsmith Stables, St Averil won the Santa Catalina Stakes (gr. II) and placed in three stakes, including the Hollywood Futurity (gr. I) and San Felipe Stakes (gr. II). He has won four of a dozen starts and earned $328,742. His dam, grade II winner Avie's Fancy (by Lord Avie), is a multiple stakes producer.

Gators N Bears, a successful sprinter on the mid-Atlantic and Northeast circuits, will continue to race for trainer Leo S. Nechamkin II and partners. The 5-year-old son of Stormy Atlantic out of the Notebook mare I'll Be Along is being aimed for the Nov. 19 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (gr. I) at Laurel. He ran third in the 2003 running and fourth last year.

Bred by the late Robert Camac, Gators N Bears has won or placed in 19 stakes. His six stakes wins include scores in the Maryland Breeders' Cup Handicap (gr. III) and Jersey Shore Breeders' Cup Stakes (gr. III). To date, Gators N Bears has won 10 of 31 starts and earned $804,393. A couple of the partners in Gators N Bears will retain breeding rights.

St Averil and Gators N Bears will stand as the property of Maryland Stallion Station. Fees will be announced later.