Successful Appeal, off to quick start at stud.
Successful Appeal , who proved successful as a racehorse, is also living up to his name as a stallion. He not only heads the freshman sire list by progeny earnings, but the overall 2-year-old list, and is the only stallion with three juvenile stakes winners. His success has proved so appealing and substantial that he might make the move from Hartley/De Renzo, Walmac South near Ocala, Fla., to John T.L. Jones Jr.'s Walmac International near Lexington for the 2005 breeding season. "There's a chance he might be moved up there because of all he's accomplished," said Hartley, who with Dean De Renzo was one of the original shareholders in Successful Appeal when the son of Valid Appeal entered stud. "Of course, that was one of the intentions of creating Walmac South--standing stallions here and promoting them to Walmac (in Kentucky)." All three of Successful Appeal's stakes winners have captured added-money races against open company. Lunarpal, a homebred for William Heiligbrodt of Texas, is unbeaten in four starts and boasts wins in Churchill Downs' spring series for 2-year-old males: the Bashford Manor (gr. III), Kentucky Breeders' Cup (gr. III), and Three Chimneys Juvenile Stakes. His earnings of $284,177 are more than the entire progeny earnings for the No. 2 freshman stallion. Successful Appeal, whose runners have earned $481,347, also is represented by stakes winners Punch Appeal and Double D Appeal and by stakes-placed Still Guilty, who ran second in the July 11 Canterbury Park Juvenile Stakes. Punch Appeal won the $100,000 J J'sdream Stakes at Calder Race Course, and Double D Appeal took the $83,850 Nursery Stakes at Hollywood Park. Successful Appeal not only carried a fine race record to stud --five graded wins and a 119 Beyer Speed Figure in a grade II sprint triumph--but the appeal of the Valid Appeal sire line. Valid Appeal sired 87 stakes winners while standing at Harry Mangurian Jr.'s Mockingbird Stud near Ocala, and many of his sons have gone on to excel at stud in the Sunshine State and elsewhere. "The Valid Appeals do so well down here," said Hartley, who added that Successful Appeal's book includes mares from Kentucky. Hartley figured Successful Appeal covered about 120 mares this year and not all were for the $6,000 advertised fee. "Some at the end were for $15,000," he said. Successful Appeal not only received support his four years at stud from Hartley/De Renzo and Walmac International, but also from fellow original shareholders Heiligbrodt and the team of Becky Thomas and Lewis and Brenda Lakin. The four parties bought an interest in Successful Appeal in the fall of his 3-year-old season in 1999 from Starview Stable, a partnership headed by Joe and Pam Petruska. Successful Appeal continued to be trained by John Kimmel for the remainder of his career and was retired with earnings of $654,681 in 2000. The Petruskas have retained breeding rights in Successful Appeal. Successful Appeal, who was bred by Mangurian, is represented by 45 2-year-olds.
