Verrazano (More Than Ready–Enchanted Rock, by Giant's Causeway), whose daughter Seek and Destroy provided him with his first graded stakes winner in this year's GIII Soaring Softly S., has been acquired by a Brazilian-based syndicate and will continue his stud career at Haras Old Friends in the region of Bage, Rio Grande do Sul. The syndicate includes the same group of breeders responsible for bringing New Year's Day (Street Cry {Ire}) to the country, only to sell him to Japan after three months. The deal was brokered by Priscilla Beloch of Prospect Agency.
Trained by Todd Pletcher for Let's Go Stables and Coolmore, Verrazano earned 'TDN Rising Star' status at first asking, graduating by nearly eight lengths and went on to win four graded races at three, including the GI William Hill Haskell Invitational S. by 9 3/4 lengths in addition to the GI Wood Memorial S. Kept in training at four and campaigned in Europe under the care of Aidan O'Brien, he was third in the G1 Lockinge S. and second–one spot ahead of future GI Breeders' Cup Mile runner-up Anodin (Ire) (Anabaa)–in the G1 Queen Anne S. at Royal Ascot before suffering a career-ending injury in the G1 Coral-Eclipse S.
Retired to Ashford Stud in Kentucky, Verrazano has sired four black-type winners in total and currently sits in fourth position on the list of second-crop sires, according to 'TDN Sire Lists.' He stood for a $15,000 fee in 2019.
Verrazano is the complete package: a great physical by a sire who is proven in the Southern Hemisphere not only as one of the best ever, but as a sire of sires, with a huge female family and probably the best race record of a stallion exported from the USA to ever stand in Brazil,” Beloch said. “On top of all of that, his progeny can really run on the turf, the surface were most of the graded stakes races in Brazil are run. He is being very well received and will cover the best mares in the country, so the future looks good for Verrazano there.”
Bred in Kentucky by Emory Hamilton, Verrazano is a maternal grandson of GISW Chic Shirine (Mr. Prospector) and his female family includes other top-level winners such as Serra Lake (Seattle Slew), Somali Lemonade (Lemon Drop Kid) and champion Queena (Mr. Prospector), herself the dam of GISW Brahms (Danzig). Verrazano's paternal grandsire, Southern Halo, was a South American sire legend, having accounted for no fewer than 155 black-type winners and 119 group winners in Argentina and Brazil.
More Than Ready is closing in on 200 black-type winners worldwide.
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