BY BROCK SHERIDAN

Feb. 1, 2013—Stallwalkin’ Dude, whose six-year career on the track ended with earnings of $1,741,397, won his first race in his second career start at Gulfstream Park for trainer Michael Yates. The then 3-year-old gelding rallied from mid-pack in the 12-horse maiden special weight to win by two-and-a-half lengths with Manoel Cruz aboard. He covered six-and-a-half furlongs in a modest 1:18.47 and paid $19 and earn $25,200 for owner Shadybrook Farm and breeder Maria Montez Haire. (Click here to watch)

He would make his next six starts for trainer Amy Tarrant and her Hardacre Farm, for whom he would win once, a $50,000 starter allowance in the slop at Gulfstream Park in February of 2014. Tarrant sent him to trainer Peter Walder, for whom he would win two $16,000 claiming races before being claimed by trainer and owner David Jacobson for that price out of a third-place finish in September of 2014.

Stallwalkin’ Dude won two of his first three races for Jacobson, then made his first appearance in a stakes, finishing fourth in the $110,000 Rapid Transit Claiming Crown going seven furlongs in December of 2014.

In 2015, he would begin to blossom for Jacobson, winning a $50,000 claiming race at Aqueduct in April—the first of four straight victories that culminated with him scoring in the $98,000 Diablo at Belmont Park on May 10, 2015. In his next start, Stallwalkin’ Dude made his first appearance against graded stakes company, finishing second to Rock Fall in the True North (G2) at Belmont Park.

 

Stallwalkin’ Dude would produce his best campaign that year, winning four of 11 races, including the $100,000 Tale of the Cat at Saratoga and finishing third in both the Grade 1 Vosburgh and Grade 3 Belmont Sprint Championship while banking $567,750 for Jacobson. After the Vosburgh, Jacobson sold an interest in Stallwalin’ Dude to Sol Kumin’s Head of Plains Partners then sent him to Keeneland for the TwinSpires Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1). However, he was shuffled back heading into the far turn and finished eighth. Undeterred, Stallwalkin’ Dude had two more starts in 2015, finishing fourth in the Frank J. DeFrancis at Laurel two weeks after the Breeders’ Cup and winning the $106,000 Claiming Crown Rapid Transit at Gulfstream Park on Dec. 5.

 

He was instrumental in Haire receiving the 2015 Needles Award, presented by the Florida Breeders’ and Owners’ Association to the state’s small breeder of the year.

In 2016, Stallwalkin’ Dude won the Bold Ruler Handicap (G3), the $100,000 Gravesend (Listed) at Aqueduct and the first of two more in $100,000 Tale of the Cat—a race he won for the third straight time in 2017. Also in 2017, he won the $100,000 Diablo for the second time and Grade 3 Fall Highweight at Aqueduct. 

 

In 2018, he had three seconds and two thirds in six starts, all in stakes. Jacobson and Kumin sent him to trainer Blaine Wright in New Mexico for his last three races, but retired the millionaire gelding after he finished third behind fellow Florida-bred Anyportinastorm in the $100,000 Zia Park Sprint on Nov. 21.

Stallwalkin’ Dude was by City Place out of Chelle Spendabuck, by Dare and Go and won 20 of 65 career races with 12 seconds and 11 thirds. His won 31% of his starts and finished in the top three in an amazing 66% of his races.

Return to the February 1 issue of Wire to Wire