By Sue Finley
With four new stallions standing at the farm in 2025, perhaps no farm had a better recruiting year than Gainesway. Their general manager, Brian Graves, appeared on this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast to discuss those new recruits-Muth, Seize the Grey, Tapit Trice, and Charge It. But the quartet isn't all that's going on at Gainesway, where their first-crop stallion McKinzie is one of three stallions vying for 2024's leading freshman sire, along with Vekoma at Spendthrift and Coolmore's Tiz the Law.
“We're busy here,” said Graves. “You know, that's that's the way you want to be if you're in the stallion business. We're happy to have the action.”
As a dual Grade I-winning of Arrogate, Seize the Grey, said Graves, “has had a lot of shows at the farm and is off to a really great start. He's gotten a ton of mares right out of the bat. And so we're really excited about the potential of what he offers breeders just with his size and strength. His good looks are just a throwback to Arrogate who was cut out to be a good horse and I think that that blood doesn't want to die.”
The farm stalwart, Tapit, who is 23, “is doing great,” said Graves. “Last year, Tapit bred 80 mares. This year will probably breed 60, 70 mares again. He's doing quite well. He's active on the general sire list, and he's still producing Grade I winners, like Arthur's Ride this year. In addition to that, he had several graded stakes winners, Grade II winners, Grade III winners. He's still a force. He can't quite breed the numbers to keep him as a number one stallion anymore on the general sire list, but he's very consistent and he can still get you a Grade I winner. And people understand the power of Tapit.”
Hoping to fill those footsteps one day is McKinzie, said Graves. “He's a breath of fresh air to Gainesway and to be in a position now where he's the leading freshman sire today just makes everyone around here very proud.”
New stallion Muth “has just been a brilliant horse from the word go,” said Graves. “And I saw him as a marquee kind of stallion acquisition opportunity for Gainesway.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association,https://pabred.com/https://www.kentuckybred.org/https://www.nyrabets.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, XBTV.com, and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, we took a look at the WinStar stallion Two Phil's in the fastest horse of the week segment. Zoe Cadman and Randy Moss also talked about the breakdowns that have plagued Woodbine and the new 14-day rule instituted there, and celebrated the incredible year put together by Kenny McPeek.
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