Turf Sprint Sibling Rivalry

ARCADIA, CA – Who doesn't love a good sibling rivalry?

Half-brothers Stormy Liberal (Stormy Atlantic) and Leinster (Majestic Warrior) will square off after breaking side-by-side in the starting gate in Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita.

Both were produced by the 18-year-old Royal Academy mare Vassar.

Last year's champion turf male Stormy Liberal, now seven, shoots for his third straight win in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint while his 4-year-old little brother looks for a first win at the top level.

Stormy Liberal was co-bred by Jeff Bowen's Gryphon Investments and Dapple Bloodstock. Leinster was bred solely by the former.

“When they drew right next to each other I thought it was really cool,” Bowen said. “I'm just hoping one guy makes history or the other guy gets his first Grade I win on the big stage. I'm very optimistic about this weekend and I'm just really excited.”

Bowen certainly has very good reason to feel that way.

Stormy Liberal, an eight-time winner over the Santa Anita lawn, has run well in defeat without finding the winning thread this term. He enters off a third-place finish in the local GII Eddie D S.

Stormy Liberal RNA'd for $165,000 as a FTSAUG yearling before bringing $100,000 as an OBSJUN 2-year-old. He is campaigned in partnership by Rockingham Ranch and David A. Bernsen LLC, and is trained by Peter Miller.

“We took him up to Saratoga and he didn't quite bring what we thought he would, but we did a deal to get him sold,” Bowen said. “It's really something else when you see one that you breed go on and win the Breeders' Cup. For him to come back the next year and win it again and be named the turf champion, I couldn't be happier. He's a superstar. I couldn't be more proud of him.”

Leinster, meanwhile, capped a three-race winning streak while making his stakes debut in Saratoga's GIII Troy S. He earned a gaudy 108 Beyer Speed Figure for that effort. Leinster, an $85,000 FTKJUL yearling, was second in Keeneland's GII Woodford S. last time. Trained by Rusty Arnold, he is owned by the partnership of Amy E. Dunne, Brenda Miley, Westrock Stables LLC and Jean Wilkinson.

“He wasn't by the most fashionable sire, but we sold him as a July yearling,” Bowen said. “Ciaran Dunne and his wife loved the horse. They offered him as a 2-year-old at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale [RNA'd for $75,000] and he worked great, but he had a little issue with his leg and they wound up keeping him. I think they're pretty ecstatic with what they've got.”

Vassar, a daughter of the two-time stakes winner Dixie Fine (L'Emigrant), won one of seven career starts for Nicolas Clement in France. She RNA'd for $105,000 as a KEESEP yearling and also for $57,000 four years later at the KEEJAN Sale.

“We bred Vassar, so we're going back quite a ways,” Bowen said. “We had a partner at the time and sent her to France. She raced with Nicolas Clement and won one race over there and we brought her back. We liked how she looked, and right off the bat, we had terrific success with her offspring.”

Her first foal, the stakes-placed Garifine (Belong to Me), brought a sale-topping $1.8 million from the late Buzz Chace as an OBSMAR 2-year-old.

“We had a record sales topper in her first foal,” Bowen said. “Anytime you get a first foal that does that well, you get pretty excited about your mare.”

Her second foal Coast Guard (Stormy Atlantic), a $300,000 KEESEP yearling, was third in the GI Santa Anita Derby and second in the GII Robert B. Lewis S.

Vassar has also produced Shimmering Moment (Afleet Alex), a stakes winner in Ireland and a multiple graded-placed runner on these shores. She brought $280,000 as a KEESEP yearling.

Vassar is also responsible for winners Scholastic (Johar) ($210,000 '08 KEEAPR; $75,000 '13 KEENOV) and Caminetto (Stormy Atlantic) ($200,000 '10 KEEJAN; $500,000 '10 KEESEP).

Her Distorted Humor yearling colt RNA'd for $240,000 at the recently concluded FTKOCT Sale. She was bred to Uncle Mo for the 2020 season.

Only five broodmares-Hasili (Ire), Leslie's Lady, Primal Force, Sweet Life and Win Approval–have produced multiple Breeders' Cup winners.

“I'm going to hold on to him and race him,” Bowen said of the Distorted Humor yearling. “I think he's got a stallion's pedigree. If he's got anywhere near the talent that everybody else in his family has, I think he'll be quite the racehorse.”

Bowen continued, “The thing about these horses out of this family, they seem to be a little bit of late developers. All you have to do is take a look at that mare and what she's done. Everything that's come out of her has been nothing but runners.”

Bowen keeps anywhere between 20-24 horses, including a Lexington, Kentucky-based broodmare band of six or seven, with intentions of growing it to 10. He breeds to race as well as sell. Bowen lives in Greenville, Delaware, and owns a PODS moving and storing franchise. He is also a private investor.

“Horse racing is my absolute love,” Bowen said. “It's funny, I was watching the draw with my wife the other night and I'm looking at this two ways. If Stormy Liberal wins, he'll be the only three-time Breeders' Cup winner since Goldikova (Ire) and I think that's Hall of Fame worthy. And if Leinster wins, the mare has thrown back-to-back-to-back Breeders' Cup winners, and I think she's in the Broodmare of the Year kind of category. I really do.”