Lane's End's Quality Road (Elusive Quality), who ranks among the nation's leading general sires in 2018, will see his stud fee hiked from $70,000 to $150,000 in 2019, topping the storied farm's stallion roster for the coming year. On the heels of a wildly successful 2018, topped by Grade I winners Abel Tasman, Bellafina, City of Light, Salty and Spring Quality, Quality Road enters his eighth year at stud in 2019.
Bellafina and Abel Tasman have won a pair of Grade Is each this term, with the former considered a leading contender for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies after notching three straight graded stakes scores, including the GI Del Mar Debutante Sept. 1 and the GI Chandelier S. Sept. 29. A three-time Grade I winner last term, including the Kentucky Oaks, Abel Tasman was one of Quality Road's first Eclipse winners in 2017, along with
GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine Caledonia Road.
“His performance at the top level is really phenomenal,” said Lane's End's Bill Farish. “His number of Grade I winners through five crops is approaching what some of the truly great stallions achieved to start–Danzig, Storm Cat, Galileo. He's in the same conversation…He gets early horses, he gets Classic horses. He's just an exceptional sire.”
The Lane's End roster is complimented by the presence of Candy Ride (Arg) (Ride the Rails), whose fee will remain at $80,000 in 2019. Union Rags (Dixie Union) will be available for $60,000, while the popular Honor Code (A.P. Indy) will stand for $40,000 in his fourth year at stud.
Lane's End will welcome three newcomers to the roster in 2019. Four-time Grade I winner Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky) and 2017 champion sophomore male West Coast (Flatter) are considered leading contenders for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, while Quality Road's City of Light has captured the GI Malibu S. and GI Triple Bend S. Stud fees for the trio will be announced at a later date.
“We're very excited about our three new horses, and we're very excited to get a son of Quality Road in City of Light,” said Farish. “All three are exciting prospects. With Accelerate being a four-time Grade I winner this year and one of the favorites for the Classic, and West Coast also being one of the favorites, it will be a nail-biting Classic for us.”
2019 also marks the return of The Factor (War Front), who returns from a season at Japan's JBBA Shizunai Stallion Station, to stand for a fee of $15,000.
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