Winchell Thoroughbreds' Epicenter (Not This Time–Silent Candy, by Candy Ride {Arg}), a leading candidate for champion 3-year-old honors, will enter stud in 2023 at Ashford Stud. He will stand for $45,000.
Bred at Mike, Brent and Kevin Harrises' Westwind Farms in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Epicenter was hammered down to the Winchell team for $260,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September sale and was ultimately turned over to the operation's Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. A maiden winner at second asking going the one-turn mile at Churchill Downs, the bay romped by 6 1/2 lengths to become a stakes winner for the first time in the Gun Runner S. at the Fair Grounds last December before dropping a narrow decision when making his graded stakes debut in the GIII Lecomte S. An all-the-way winner of the GII Risen Star S. in February, Epicenter showed a new dimension in the GII Louisiana Derby, settling a bit further off the pace before quickening home to score by 2 1/2 lengths.
Epicenter's winter efforts made him the 4.10-1 favorite for the GI Kentucky Derby and he raced better than midfield, surged to the lead at the furlong grounds and was outfinished by Rich Strike (Keen Ice). He was similarly unlucky to not win the GI Preakness S., finishing runner-up to recent Coolmore addition Early Voting (Gun Runner) after a slow start and some upper-stretch traffic, but he atoned for those defeats at Saratoga over the summer with some authority.
Epicenter was a romping winner of the GII Jim Dandy S., besting Grade I winner Zandon (Upstart), and, at even-money, the GI Runhappy Travers S., where dual GISW Cyberknife (Gun Runner) was left some 5 1/4 lengths behind. His Beyer Speed Figure of 112 was the highest of any of his generation on dirt this year. Epicenter, who was pulled up when the second pick to Flightline (Tapit) in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic and is recovering nicely from his injuries, retires with a record of 6-3-0 from 11 starts and earnings of $2,940,639.
“Epicenter was solid all year and the Travers was the breakout performance he needed and deserved, and he did it in an emphatic way,” said trainer Steve Asmussen. “He put everything together on a grand stage.”
“He was a brilliant horse whose best racing days were still in front of him,” said Ron Winchell who raced the colt. “Bred on the reverse of Gun Runner's Candy Ride/Giant's Causeway cross he's a hugely exciting stallion prospect.”
“Epicenter is the best son of Giant's Causeway's best sire son Not This Time and is out of a stakes winner by the sire of Gun Runner,” said Coolmore's Dermot Ryan. “His combination of speed and stamina made him a potent force and he's a very good-looking horse to boot. Breeders are going to love him.”
One of three top-level and one of nine graded winners for his boom stallion, Epicenter is the most accomplished foal from his stakes-winning and Grade III-placed dam, who fetched $625,000 carrying a full-sibling to Epicenter at this year's Keeneland November Sale. Westwind acquired Silent Candy for $130,000 in foal to Scat Daddy at KEENOV in 2014.
WATCH: Epicenter storms clear in the 2022 GI Runhappy Travers S.
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