Protonico

Second Crop sire Protonico (Giant's Causeway-Alpha Spirit, by A.P. Indy), standing at Castleton Lyons, will stand for $10,000 LFSN in 2022, up from $5,000 this season. From his initial crop, the dark bay is responsible for GI Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, who is also among the leading candidates for Champion 3-year-old colt honors this season. Campaigned by Zedan Racing Stables, the Florida bred won this year's GI Awesome Again S., GIII Robert B. Lewis S. and Shared Belief S. Additionally, he finished runner up in GI Breeders' Cup Classic,...

For 110 seconds on an unseasonably hot Saturday afternoon in Southern California, all was right in the world of Zedan Racing Stables' Medina Spirit (Protonico). Having given last Saturday's GI Pennsylvania Derby a miss, the blue-collar colt was rerouted to Saturday's GI Awesome Again S. and a first try against some accomplished older horses. With a berth in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic on the line, the Florida-bred once again displayed the tenacity and raw ability that carried him past the post first in the GI Kentucky Derby, leading every...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 6th-BEL, $90k, Msw, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 3:38 p.m. ET Seven horses make their career debut in this potential-laden nine-horse field, headed by PROTONIC POWER (Protonico), part of an uncoupled entry for the Todd Pletcher barn. Owned by Sumaya US Stable, who campaigned his sire, the colt is out of Grade III winner Sheza Smoke Show (Wilko), making him a half to 2020 OBS April topper and subsequent Grade I winner Princess Noor (Not This Time). The bay stayed home at Belmont for the summer and...

Bob Baffert told the media Sunday morning at Churchill Downs that his stable has been informed by the Kentucky Racing Commission that GI Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit (Protonico) tested positive for the medication betamethasone in post-race tests conducted after the Derby. In a 13-minute press conference (video) at his barn on the Churchill Downs backstretch Baffert, denied any wrongdoing. "All I can tell you is that betamethasone is an allowed therapeutic medication, but we did not give it to this horse," Baffert said. "In fact, Medina Spirit has never...

For all the round-the-clock pedigree scrutiny and conformation analysis that goes into finding a stallion that will produce a winner on the first Saturday in May, it took a horse standing for $5,000 and lacking that coveted Grade I win on their race record to get the job done. Of the 26 fifth-year stallions standing in Kentucky today, Protonico was one of five to breed less than 20 mares last year. And yet, here he is now sitting atop the Leading Second-Crop Sires list after his son Medina Spirit charged...

This is the second half of the latest instalment in our ongoing survey of covering options for the new breeding season. The first part can be read here. UPSTART (Flatter--Party Silks, by Touch Gold) was cleverly named and I think him a very plausible type, likely to rise pretty quickly through the ranks. Certainly there were more than enough "nouveaux riches" among his first juveniles--only Not This Time exceeded his 19 winners (from 54 starters)--for him to be pegged at $10,000 by Airdrie. His principal earner was Reinvestment Risk, who...