Cupid The Newest Chapter In Storied History Of Atlanta Hall Farm

In a cozy, bedded down stall that resides within the inner courtyard of Atlanta Hall Farm's indoor track, you'll find Grade I winner and Grade I sire Cupid (Tapit), the first stallion to stand at the historic farm that encompasses 400 acres in Monkton, Md.

With the ease at which Cupid strolls beside Garrett Murray, stallion manager and co-owner of the farm, as he mills around during a grazing session, or nickers to 13-year-old Genevieve, Murray's daughter, as she strides over with a carrot in hand, it's hard to believe the stallion only made the move to Maryland last fall.

It was a plan set in motion by Sugar Mills Stables' Tony Mills, based in Lexington, Ky., who purchased Cupid from Coolmore last September. The deal was finalized just days before Carson's Run (Cupid) collected his first career Grade I victory as a 2-year-old in the GI Summer Stakes at Woodbine on Sept. 16, 2023. It was within that week that Murray got a call from a couple of Lexington contacts.

“We were training horses, the phone rang, and they said, 'Hey Gary, somebody threw your name in the hat. Would you be interested in having a conversation with the guy who just bought Cupid? I said, 'Sure.' The guy didn't know me, I didn't know him, but I went to Lexington. I met Tony, his wife, the team, and we just hit it off,” said Murray. “I told him about the farm and what we thought we could do with him. It happened very quickly, it's a bit of a blur, we had lots to do and we did it. We shook on it, so we have a great friendship [more so than anything], and I've enjoyed Tony because he just leaves me to do my thing.”

Carson's Run | Sarah Andrew

Standing Cupid at Atlanta Hall has brought things full circle for Murray, a native of Wexford, Ireland, who first came to Central Kentucky to work for legendary horseman Robert Courtney Sr. at his Crestfield Farm in 1998. After returning home to continue his studies in equine science at the University of Limerick, he made his way back to the Bluegrass to work at Juddmonte.

“I was more into the training than the broodmares so I was put in the training barn and we had [Grade I winner] Aptitude, Flute had won the [GI Kentucky] Oaks, so right there I was around these amazing horses that were on Derby trails, Grade I winners. Juddmonte had just started the association with Bobby Frankel so it was that brilliant generation of magnificent fillies like [Grade I winner] Tates Creek. I was lucky to be there for that,” he said.

From there he moved on to Castleton Lyons where his first introduction to working with stallions came in the form of caring for Malibu Moon (A.P. Indy).

“I was a kid on the farm who was told, 'You're going to need to look after this stallion.' Little did I know how much of a handful [he was]. He was a big, hardy horse but he was very fair. A beautiful horse, great stallion,” said Murray. “It was great to be there for that, to launch a stallion, because here I am 20 years later trying to do the same thing.”

Murray continued to garner plenty of experience while in Kentucky, eventually making the transition to Coolmore's Ashford Stud as he joined the team to learn more about yearlings and the sales, before moving into the office to sell stallion nominations.

It was around that time he met Elizabeth Voss, daughter of renowned steeplechase trainer Tom Voss, who had worked her way up from intern to director of sales at Three Chimneys Farm. The pair married in 2010 after moving back to Voss's family's farm, Atlanta Hall, in Maryland and began assisting Voss's father in training steeplechase horses.

Cupid with Garrett Murray | Sara Gordon

But tragedy struck in 2014 when Tom Voss died suddenly of an apparent heart attack at 63, leaving the farm and the business to the young couple, who were raising two young children–their daughter Genevieve and son Thomas–at the time.

“Listen, we just went to work. We continued what her dad was doing, which was training steeplechase horses, and that's what we did. I think in the first two years after he passed, we had five Grade I wins with three different horses in New York, so we hit the ground running. We had a great rider, a good team, we inherited some of Tom's staff,” said Murray. “We were young, we were hungry. But life goes on and things change, the sport is cyclic. We are lucky enough to have always had a relationship with the Merck family's The Fields Stable who continues to support our racing and breeding operation.”

Following in the footsteps of her father, who was post-humously inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in 2017, Voss sent out Makari (Makbul) to win the 2014 GI A. P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase Stakes; Bob Le Beau (Big Bad Bob) to win the 2015 New York Turf Writers Cup Handicap, GI Lonesome Glory Hurdle Handicap, and 2016 A. P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase; Portrade (Trade Fair) to win the 2016 New York Turf Writers Cup Handicap, and also had a graded stakes winner on the flat: Renown (Champs Elysees) in the 2016 GIII Sycamore Stakes.

“Then Covid came, it hurt business really, and things got quieter. But the silver lining was with the kids, we had more time with them, so that's not a bad thing,” Murray said. “The stallion thing always made sense to me; it was just a matter of timing.”

Cue the phone call about Cupid.

Making the trip from Maryland to Kentucky himself, Murray picked Cupid up from Ashford, where he'd stood since 2018. Looking back on Cupid's first season standing in the Mid-Atlantic region, for a fee of $8,000 with a stands and nurses guarantee this year, Murray remarked that the 11-year-old stallion covered nearly 55 mares.

“We bred most of our mares and partners' mares to Cupid obviously, and Tony bred his share. Cupid bred 53 or 54 mares which is not a terrible number in a regional market,” he said.     “He brought a good flow of mares to the place, which was good experience for me. The crew learned a lot. We did more right than we did wrong so it was a successful breeding season. I think he ended up with 85 percent of his mares in foal, so he did his job. Now we've got to build on that in the coming years. It will be nice to have representation of Cupid in Maryland.”

Sterling Silver | Sarah Andrew

Currently ranked among the top five on the 2024 Leading Fourth-Crop Sires in North America list, Cupid has received a huge boost from the success of Carson's Run and Sterling Silver (Cupid) at Saratoga this summer.

Already a multiple stakes winner and graded stakes-placed, the Bill Mott-trained Sterling Silver returned to her winning ways in the Aug. 7 Johnston Mile Handicap–for New York-bred fillies and mares 3-years-old and up–as she pulled away to win by 9 3/4 lengths. Four days later, Grade I winner Carson's Run delivered a remarkable last-to-first performance to win the Aug. 11 GI Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes by 3/4 of length for trainer Christophe Clement.

It was quite the thrill for Murray who, along with his family and friends, were in town to witness both stellar performances by Cupid progeny.

“That was great because everybody got to experience a Cupid winning in Saratoga. Good time, good race [for Sterling Silver]. And then of course Carson's Run was meant to be running Saturday, we were hanging around for Carson, and it got pushed back to Sunday. I was under pressure to go home, but we had to make it happen, which we did. It was great, just an unbelievable experience for the kids especially,” said Murray.

“That in a nutshell is really what's best about Cupid. A five-year-old mare, Sterling Silver, going a mile on the dirt on Wednesday and [then Carson's Run], a 3-year-old, going a mile and three-sixteenths on the grass [on Sunday].”

Cupid with Garrett Murray and Genevieve Murray | Sara Gordon

Carson's Run returns Saturday, Aug. 31 as the headliner amongst a full field of 12 in the $3.1 million GIII Nashville Derby Invitational at Kentucky Downs.

For Murray and Mills, Carson's Run served as a lot of the initial inspiration when making the decision to stand Cupid and ultimately, exemplifies what they're hoping to achieve with the Maryland-sired crops to come.

“To get through the season and a couple weeks later go to Saratoga, that's where you want to win, you know? Just for it to happen in those few days was really magic. And then we're looking forward to what's left for Carson and others, and there's 2-year-olds running, which are fun,” said Murray. “If you look in our kitchen there's a whiteboard with 'Cupid Runners' on it, [Genevieve] likes to [keep track]. I don't care if it's Prairie Meadows or wherever, as long as there's runners out there.”

But Cupid isn't the only one who's received a boost. His arrival has been an exciting new venture for the entire family, marking a continued devotion to extending the legacy established generations back by the Voss family.

“It's been a really good heartbeat for the farm. We knew we'd have to go down a different direction, which we did. People have been doing it in Maryland for years and we're no different than them. We have great respect for everybody here, from Northview to Country Life [Farm],” said Murray. “We're a young family, we've got to keep it going for this next generation. It means a lot to us.”

And though they were not at Ashford during the same time, there's something quite fitting about the connection between Cupid and Murray.

Cupid with Garrett Murray and Genevieve Murray | Sara Gordon

“I love it, I feel like I'm a child again. I feel like I'm 20 when I walk next to him, it gives you that rush. We all need a kick in life. I stopped smoking years ago, and I don't play golf, I don't have the time, but I love walking next to a stallion again,” said Murray. “It's very hard to criticize Cupid. Physically, he's magnificent. He's big, but not too big, he's perfectly correct. No conformation defects and that's great in a regional market where you need to have everything right.

“I was back on the phone, going through charts in the winter, going racing again and I was getting out there selling. I enjoy bringing people back here. It's a very beautiful farm to show off. But like anything, it's the right partners, the right stallion, and I think he is the right stallion for the marketplace.”

Amongst the hustle and bustle that normally ensues around the farm, from the steeplechase horses in training to the herd of breeding stock, or a spring season filled with point-to-point festivities and a fall season filled with racing and foxhunting, there's a soothing quiet to be found in the newly built stallion haven within the training track.

But in that quietness that can be experienced on a mid-August afternoon at Atlanta Hall Farm, the sense of pride, dedication and hope for the future speaks volumes.

“We're young, we have youth, we have the energy. We have a fifth-generation horse person right here [with Genevieve],” said Murray. “The farm is steeped in history and good horsemanship. I'd like to think we're continuing to keep things moving forward. It's not rocket science, we're keeping it simple, but it's been a lot of fun, you know?”