With completion Nov. 28 of a stud deal for Effinex , New York's Questroyal Stud North is adding a third grade I-winning millionaire to its stallion roster.
The strapping 5-year-old son of Mineshaft is expected to arrive at the farm near Stillwater, N.Y. on Dec. 2 and will be available for inspection to breeders on Friday and Saturday, according to Questroyal North farm manager Mike Brown.
Effinex will enter stud next year at an introductory fee of $10,000 and join fellow millionaires Courageous Cat ($6,000) and Golden Ticket ($6,000).
"Effinex is the most accomplished sire to start his career in New York, hands down," said Barry Ostrager, the owner of Questroyal Stud North, adding that a stallion of this caliber will go a long way toward filling a perceived void in the state's breeding program.
"As spectacular as the New York program has been, there has been a perceived void, and the owners of high-quality mares have shipped them to Kentucky to be bred, believing—I think wrongly—that there were no New York stallions of equal quality. With the arrival of Effinex, resident mares can now be bred to a stallion that successfully competed with and defeated stallions in Kentucky standing for $40,000 and $50,000 without all the transactional expenses of shipping."
Effinex retires with $3,312,950 in earnings. He started in 17 graded stakes and won or placed in nine of them. His graded stakes victories include the Clark Handicap (gr. I), Oaklawn Handicap (gr. II), consecutive victories in the 2015 and 2016 Suburban Handicap (gr. II), and the Excelsoir Stakes (gr. III).
In the 2015 Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I), Effinex was second to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah .
Ostrager said is now handling the syndication of Effinex and expects to have all 50 shares sold within a couple weeks.
Cohen, who bred Effinex and raced him in the name of his Tri-Bone Stables, said he had been negotiating with some of the country's biggest stud farms and had many offers from outside the country, but in the end he wanted to keep the horse close to home.
"Part of it is sentimental," said Cohen, a native New Yorker and a practicing veterinarian for 30 years. "He is not just a New York-bred, he's third generation. And despite all he's done for me, I owe him more. I want him here where I can keep an eye on him; there's just a lot of emotion."
Regarding his syndication, Cohen said Effinex has already attracted major breeders in both New York and Kentucky.
"His female family—the Best in Show family—is the most productive of the great matriarchal families, in my humble opinion," Cohen said. "A lot of great sires have come out of that family."
Those sires include Australia's leading sire Redoute's Choice, Spinning World, El Gran Senor, and Xaar to name a few. Effinex is out of the E Dubai stakes-winning daughter What a Pear. His fourth dam is Best in Show.
Cohen also believes Effinex is attractive to breeders because he never trained on medication with the exception of Lasix while racing 28 times in three seasons.
"That soundness element is really important to racing," he said. "This is a dynamic, durable, and fast horse."
