Swipe (Birdstone), runner-up to unbeaten 2015 North American 2-year-old champion Nyquist (Uncle Mo) in four consecutive races, including the GI Del Mar Futurity, the GI Frontrunner S. and the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, has arrived at Sweden's Ravdansen Stud, where he will commence stud duties in 2017. Ravdansen has previously stood 12-time champion Swedish sire Diaglyphard, as well as Eishin Dunkirk, a Japanese-raced son of Mr. Prospector who is on his way to his fifth Swedish Sires' Championship in 2016.
“We are very pleased to have acquired Swipe to stand at stud in Sweden,” said Ravdansen's Ivan Sjoberg. “We have always aspired to stand champion sires here at Ravdansen, and with Swipe joining Barocci, our son of Deep Impact whose first foals arrived this year, we hope we have the next generation of champion sires for Sweden. We've never had a sire in Sweden who had anywhere near the ability Swipe showed as a 2-year-old in 2015, when he ran second to Nyquist in three consecutive Grade I races and was rated the second-best 2-year-old in North America on the Experimental Free Handicap, for which he was assigned 124 lbs.” Nyquist, of course, was highweight on the Experimental, assigned 126 lbs. “Our good friends Marie and Naoya Yoshida at Winchester Farm in Kentucky helped us as always,” Sjoberg added. “We're grateful to them and are very fortunate to acquire Swipe for stud duty, and we are so excited about his future.”
TDN's Bill Oppenheim, whose wife Lou bred Swipe, was full of praise for Sjoberg and Ravdansen. “I've known Ivan Sjoberg since I worked as an advisor to the Swedish Jockey Club in 1998-2000,” said Oppenheim. “As breeders you're always concerned about what happens to the horses you've bred, and we think Swipe and Ravdansen are a great fit. Often in this business success depends on getting the right horse to the right place at the right time, and Lou and I believe there could hardly have been a better place for Swipe to go to stud. We had nothing to do with it, but we are delighted, and will certainly be sending him a mare to support him.”
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