BY AVALYN HUNTER
Every stallion colony needs a mix of new blood and reliable stalwarts. Arindel Farm’s Brethren falls in the latter category, offering a mix of racing class, pedigree and proven sire performance at a reasonable price. A top-five Florida sire for the last six years, the stallion is coming off a 2023 season that saw him represented by 55 winners, including multiple graded stakes winner Clapton and two other stakes winners.
Brethren is a son of 2011 champion sire Distorted Humor, whose other sons include American Grade 1 sires Maclean’s Music and Jimmy Creed and leading Brazilian sire Drosselmeyer. A multiple Grade 2-winner in his own right, Distorted Humor is the best American sire son of 1987 champion two-year-old male Forty Niner (by Mr. Prospector), also the sire of Argentine champion sire Roar and Brazilian champion sire Jules.
A half brother to 2010 Kentucky Derby (G1)-winner Super Saver, Brethren is out of the A.P. Indy mare Supercharger, a winning full sister to 2010 Vosburgh Handicap (G1)-winner Girolamo; to 2004 Top Flight Handicap (G2)-winner Daydreaming, dam of 2014 Man o’ War Stakes (G1)-winner Imagining (by Giant’s Causeway); and to 1996 Pilgrim Stakes (G3)-winner Accelerator. Supercharger is also a full sister to She’s a Winner, dam of 2006 Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1)-winner Bluegrass Cat (by Storm Cat), and a half sister to Malka (by Deputy Minister), dam of 2015 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (G1)-winner Got Lucky (by A.P. Indy). This is a prolific branch of the great La Troienne family that also includes the successful sires Private Account, Not for Love, Polish Numbers, and Mutakddim.
Unbeaten in two starts as a juvenile, Brethren stamped himself as a potential Kentucky Derby candidate in winning the Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs by four lengths in his first outing as a three-year-old. He lost most of his three-year-old season to physical issues but later won the listed Evangeline Mile Handicap and retired with five wins from 18 starts.
Although Brethren is inbred three-by-three to Mr. Prospector, he has done well with mares from the Mr. Prospector male line. He has also worked well with inbreeding to A.P. Indy/Seattle Slew and has been particularly successful when these two patterns are combined, as in Clapton and Grade 3-winner Key Biscayne.
“Brethren has been really good to us,” says Arindel’s Brian Cohen. “He’s just a nice horse physically and mentally, and he can get you an early sprinter or a two-turn horse depending on the mare. The best thing about him is how durable and sound his runners are. He can get you a two-year-old winner that’s still running at five or six and hasn’t needed a lot of time off. Like Clapton, he won at two, he’s gotten better every year he raced, and now he’s in Dubai at five with a shot at going in the Dubai World Cup.”
Brethren will stand the 2024 season for $4,000 live foal.
