BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Two more Florida-breds have been added to the list of contenders for the $2 million Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint (Grade 1) as Blazing Meadows Farm and Thomas K. Equels’ Little Thunder and James Thares’ Mad House are now among the possible starters. Little Thunder and Mad House join Florida-bred Roll On Big Joe among the 18 3-year-olds and older listed by the Breeders’ Cup as contenders for the six-furlong test.
Little Thunder and Mad House recently finished noses apart in second and third respectively behind winner Nakatomi in the Grade 2 Stoll Ogden Phoenix at Keeneland Race Course on October 2.
Consisting of 14 Grade 1 races with purses and awards totaling more than $34 million, the 43rd Breeders’ Cup World Championships will be held at Keeneland on October 30-31.
Last year Leon King Stable Corp. and TCC Stables’ Bentornato became the sixth Florida-bred winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, joining Big Drama (2010), Cherokee Run (1994), Smile (1986), Precisionist (1985) and Eillo (1984). There have been 30 Florida-bred winners of 31 Breeders’ Cup races overall. There have been 403 Florida-bred starters in Breeders’ Cup races.
Little Thunder was bred in Florida by Thomas Equels and has won three of five career starts with two seconds while banking $208,175.
The 4-year-old Tim Hamm trainee made his first three career starts at Tampa Bay Downs, breaking his maiden in December then finishing second in a first condition, $16,000 optional claiming. Next, he got close to the Tampa Bay Downs track record for six furlongs, breaking out with a seven-and-three-quarters lengths score in 1:08.95 on Valentine’s Day, again in a first condition, $16,000 optional claiming. Florida-bred It’s Me Mom has the Tampa Bay Downs track record for six furlongs in 1:08.67 set in 2012.
Hamm then gave Little Thunder seven months off before shipping him to Saratoga Race Course to win a second level, $80,000 optional claiming on September 7, setting him up for the Phoenix in his next start.
Little Thunder is by Noble Bird out of Circular Rainbow, by Circular Quay and was retained by Equels when he did not meet his reserve in the 2023 OBS October Sale when consigned by Musketeers Equine.
Bred in Florida by Dr. Jean White of Reddick, Ciaran and Amy Dunne’s Wavertree Farm in Ocala and Steven Venosa’s SGV Thoroughbreds of Reddick, Mad House was off the board in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint but bounced back to win his first two starts this year.
He was just .18 off the Tampa Bay Downs track record for six furlongs when winning a $100,000 optional claiming in 1:08.55 on March 6 then took the Grade 3 Count Fleet Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 11. Fifth in the Grade 3 Aristides at Churchill Downs on May 30 and fourth in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby at Del Mar in July, he was given a two-month break before returning in the Phoenix.
Thares bought Mad House as a 2-year-old in training for $47,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring Sale of 2024 where he was consigned by Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree Stables.
Should Mad House make the starting gate for this year’s Sprint, he would join 60 other Florida-breds who have made at least two starts in Breeders’ Cup races.
Trained by David Van Winkle, the 4-year-old Mad House is by Vekoma out of Stifled Heiress, by Munnings and has earned $662,572 from six wins, a second and two thirds in 15 starts.
Return to the October 8 issue of Wire to Wire
