By Steve Sherack
Grade I winner Poseidon's Warrior (Speightstown–Poised to Pounce, by Smarten), sire of GISW and millionaire Firenze Fire, is relocating to Equistar in Pennsylvania for the 2020 breeding season. He will command a stud fee of $5,000.
Bred on the same cross as leading sire Smart Strike, the 11-year-old stood the 2019 breeding season at Darby Dan Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. He began his career at stud at Pleasant Acres Farm in Ocala, Florida.
Four-time graded winner and GI Champagne S. hero Firenze Fire hails from the first crop of Florida's leading freshman sire of 2017, who was the only first-year stallion to sire a Grade I-winning juvenile in North America that year. Poseidon's Warrior is also the sire of last year's betfair.com Long Branch S. winner Navy Commander and the multiple stakes-placed Splicethemainbrace.
Based in the Keystone State throughout his racing career with trainer Butch Reid, Jr., Poseidon's Warrior realized a career high carrying the colors of Tom McGrath's Swilcan Stable in the 2012 GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. at Saratoga. The $90,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale graduate posted a record of 21-7-2-4 and earnings of $701,147.
“We reached a deal that enabled us to bring him back home,” McGrath, a native of Bristol, Pennsylvania, told TDN. “Having bred and raced Pa-breds myself, there's been a void left behind in Pennsylvania following the unfortunate passing of stallions Jump Start and El Padrino. It's been a tremendous ride with 'Poseidon,' and to see him go on to be a stallion and sire horses as talented as Firenze Fire has been really exciting. He'll have a tremendous opportunity to prove what he could do and we couldn't be more delighted to have him back home.”
A stallion show and open house will be held at Equistar between 12-4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18.
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