BY AVALYN HUNTER
Editor’s Note: This is the first article in a series of Stallion Reviews by Avalyn Hunter that will highlight Florida stallions. These reviews will be featured in upcoming Monday issues of Wire to Wire.
The Florida stallion roster for 2024 is a nice mix of proven stallions and exciting new prospects.
Among the latter is Simplification, who is entering stud at Pleasant Acres Stallions at an introductory fee of $6,500. The 2022 Florida-bred Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male returns home to the Sunshine State with excellent credentials, combining race record, conformation and pedigree in an attractive package.
Simplification’s Florida roots run deep. Bred by France Weiner and Irwin Weiner Jr., he raced for Tami Bobo, who operates an Ocala-area pinhooking operation, and was trained by well-known south Florida trainer Antonio Sano. Yet he has an important Kentucky parallel in 2022 Eclipse champion 3-year-old male Epicenter, who is standing the 2024 season for $40,000 at Ashford Stud. Simplification offers similar qualities at a value price.
Like Epicenter, Simplification is a son of Not This Time, a graded-stakes-winning son of Giant’s Causeway who is off to a sensational start in his stud career with one national champion, 2023 championship contender Up With the Birds, and three other Grade 1 winners to his credit from his first three crops. On the dam’s side, he and Epicenter share the same broodmare sire, the brilliant racer and sire Candy Ride (Arg).
A half-brother to stakes-winning juvenile Chi Chi (by Audible), Simplification was produced from stakes-placed Simply Confection. Her dam, Ballado’s Halo (by Saint Ballado), is also the granddam of Inflexibility (by Scat Daddy), who captured a leg of the Canadian Triple Tiara in the 2017 Wonder Where Stakes. Ballado’s Halo is a stakes-placed full sister to two-time American champion Ashado and 2007 Hollywood Turf Cup Stakes (G1)-winner Sunriver.
Simplification did not take long to show his superior qualities on the track, winning a six-furlong Gulfstream Park maiden special weight by 16¾ lengths in his second start as a juvenile. A powerful winner of the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (Grade 2) and the listed Mucho Macho Man, both at Gulfstream, he was admirably consistent throughout his championship season, placing in four other graded stakes and running a strong fourth in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby presented by Woodward Reserve won by 80-1 longshot Rich Strike.
Among the horses that finished behind him in 2022 were Grade 1 Belmont-winner Mo Donegal—twice; 2024 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1)-winner White Abarrio; Grade 1-winners Classic Causeway, Cyberknife, Rattle n Roll, and Taiba; and multiple graded stakes-winners Emmanuel, Skippylongstocking, Smile Happy, and Tiz the Bomb.
“It’s always good to welcome a hometown hero,” says Pleasant Acres’ director of stallion operations, Christine Jones. “Simplification got off to a great start as a racehorse here in Florida and had a very impressive campaign. On top of that, he’s an extraordinarily good-looking horse. He’s probably better looking than his sire—very well balanced with a great shoulder, a big hip, and a big, strong walk. I feel he’s going to be a huge asset to Florida breeders.”
Simplification will be offered with discounts for multiple mares and for stakes-winning/producing mares.
