BY AVALYN HUNTER
Bridlewood Farm’s Valiant Minister led all Florida third-crop sires in 2023 with earnings of $1,447,327 from 24 winners. In 2024, he built on that success with 33 individual winners, finishing fifth on Florida’s general sire list with progeny earnings of $2,446,182 and outperforming many stallions with far more runners out than he.
Pride of place among his 2024 runners goes to Bentornato, a son of the Put It Back mare Her Special Way. The winner of the $100,000 Dr. Fager and $200,000 Affirmed legs of the 2023 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes series, the colt proved he could compete at the international level in his first start of 2024, finishing third behind winner Forever Young in the Group 3 Boutique Group Saudi Derby going a one-turn mile at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh. Returning to sprinting following a six-month break, he showed better form than ever while running second in the $500,000 Robert Hilton Memorial (Listed) at Charles Town and winning the Grade 2 Gallant Bob at Parx Racing. That earned him a crack at the nation’s top prize for sprinters in the $2 million Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) where he finished second by just a half length to champion sprinter Straight No Chaser while outfinishing grade 1 winners Mullikin, Gun Pilot, Nakatomi and Raging Torrent. The effort made Bentornato the 184th Florida-bred millionaire with earnings of $1,131,830.
Also the sire of 2024 stakes-winner Loco Abarrio (Ballyhoo Moon, by Malibu Moon) and stakes-placed Candycrumbs (Crumb, by Graeme Hall), a stakes winner in 2024. Valiant Minister showed plenty of speed himself in his only race, a six-furlong maiden special weight at Santa Anita. He led throughout to score in 1:08.84, earning triple-digit speed figures from Equibase and Bloodstock Research Information Systems while comfortably dusting future Grade 3-winner Lord Simba. Prior to that, he blistered a :9.80 furlong during the under-tack show for the 2015 Ocala Breeders’ Sales June Sale, a feat that helped make him the $680,000 sale topper.
Candy Ride (Arg), the sire of Valiant Minister was also a very fast horse. A champion miler in Argentina, where he set a new world record of 1:31.01 for 1,600 meters (about 1 mile) on turf, Candy Ride won the 2003 Pacific Classic Stakes (G1) in a track-record 1:59.11 for 10 furlongs at Del Mar before becoming a perennial leading sire in Kentucky. On the dam’s side, Valiant Minister is out of Spooky Minister (by two-time American champion sire Deputy Minister), whose dam Lunar Spook (by the good Mr. Prospector horse Silver Ghost) won the 1993 Ashland Stakes (G1).
At 16.3 hands with plenty of scope, Valiant Minister offers an impressive physique to breeders seeking to put a bit more leg and stretch into their mares’ foals. Bridlewood Farms general manager George Isaac has noted that his foals are generally good-sized and correct with a natural desire to run.
“Valiant Minister is a big, strapping, correct horse,” Isaacs said. “He covers a lot of ground with a big, beautiful, flowing walk and he predominantly throws good-size horses who are correct through their limbs.
“So for people who are trying to breed a nice racehorse, he fits the bill.”
That has not gone unnoticed by Valiant Minister’s owners, Charles and Susan Chu. “They believe in their horse,” Isaacs said, “and they will continue to support him in 2025.”
Valiant Minister will stand the 2025 season for $5,000 stands and nurses.
Return to the February 19 issue of Wire to Wire
